February 2002

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

More than Murder -- The National Violence Index

Manchester College researchers agree America's streets are safer from homicides and robberies, but suggest violence can also be measured by counting homeless and hungry citizens--two growing populations. For the second consecutive year, researchers Dr. James Brumbaugh-Smith, Dr. Neil Wollman, and Dr. Brad Yoder have released the National Violence Index, which compares data from 19 different variables from 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999--the most recent years of available data--to 1995.

Using 1995 as their baseline and indexing that year at 100 percent, the research team discovered the country's hungry population had jumped nearly 67 percent from 1995 to 1999. The homeless population had increased by almost 30 percent. (Both percentages are consistent, significant trends.) The researchers consider the number of hungry and homeless to be a social negligence measurement. From the period studied, social negligence grew by 21 percent (121.2). The trio describe social negligence in terms of people who request emergency food (hungry) and shelter (homelessness) as well as people with inadequate health care and education.

"Our index divides violence into two categories: personal and societal," Dr. Wollman said. "Personal includes measures traditionally associated with violence, such as homicides, while societal includes measures, such as hungry and homeless, that don't involve physical attacks, but involve individuals being hurt physically or sometimes psychologically. Societal violence is not as visible or dramatic as personal violence, but it can be just as devastating and typically affects more people." The study's authors discovered an even larger increase among government indicators, another societal measurement. Overall, the government indicators have increased 30 percent (130.2) since 1995. Government indicators include capital punishment, deaths by police intervention, civil rights complaints against the government, and incarcerations for nonviolent offenses.

Still, the researchers did find a number of improvements among other societal indicators. For example, they found significant decreases in occupational injuries/illnesses (down 22 percent), child abuse/negligence (down nearly 20 percent), and poverty disparity as measured by race (down 14 percent) since 1995. As for personal violence indicators, homicides and robberies are down 30 percent and 32 percent, respectively, since 1995, according to their analysis.

Overall, the researchers' analysis reveals that personal violence has decreased significantly since 1995, while the societal index has remained relatively stable. "It's remained stable because some measures have increased and others have decreased," Wollman said. "It's good, of course, that personal violence has gone down. Why hasn't societal violence gone down? Because our society and societal institutions tolerate harm to some segments of our population." The index, which the researchers will release annually, is a project of the college's Peace Studies Institute and Program in Conflict Resolution, the nation's oldest such program.

Dr. Brumbaugh-Smith is an assistant professor of mathematics, Dr. Wollman is the senior fellow of the college's Peace Studies Institute and a psychology professor, and Dr. Yoder is a sociology and social work professor. Wollman is lead researcher (Peace Studies Institute, Psychology Department, Manchester College, N. Manchester, IN 46962). The research team includes Manchester College students Dustin Brown, Heidi Gross, and Benjamin Long.

--From Manchester College Public Relations.Visit www.manchester.edu/academic/programs/department/peace_studies/vi/1999/index.htm for complete details about the index.

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