Marvin wolfgangs subculture of violence theory

In the United States, African Americans and Latinos continue to be over-represented in several violent crime categories (Gabbidon and Taylor Greene 2019; Martinez 2015; Walker et al.

2017). An abundance of early scholarly literature focused on violent crime, with a particular emphasis on homicide among African Americans (for early examples of such research, see Allredge 1942; Barnhart 1932; Brearley 1930, 1932;

Garfinkel 1949; Spirer 1940; Sutherland 1925; von Hentig 1940).

In the late 1950s, though, while studying homicides in Philadelphia, Wolfgang (1958) conducted one of the most thorough examinations of race and homicides. Based on case files from 588 homicide victims and 621 offenders in Philadelphia from 1948 to 1952, Wolfgang’s efforts produced a landmark effort in the study of homicide.

The research showed the racial characteristics, sex differences, victim-offender relationships, weapons involved, temporal patterns, and motives of the ho