Amy Nivette wins 2010 ASC Gene Carte student paper competition

We are delighted to announce that Amy Nivette, Ph.D. student at the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge, has won the 2010 ASC Gene Carte Student Paper Competition with her paper titled 'Cross-national predictors of homicide: A meta-analysis'. The prize will be awarded at the Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony of the American Society of Criminology on Wednesday 17 November at 6.30.

Below is the abstract of Amy's paper:

"Cross-national research has increased in the past few decades, resulting in a large body of empirical research. In particular, cross-national studies are often limited in data sources, which restrict variable selection to debatable proxy indicators. This study therefore utilizes meta-analytic techniques to examine major cross-national predictors of homicide in order to determine strengths and weaknesses in theory and design. The findings indicate several critical limitations to cross-national research, including biased sample composition, a lack of theoretical clarity in predictor operationalizations, and an overwhelming reliance on cross-sectional design. The predictors that showed the strongest mean effects were Latin American regional dummy variables, income inequality indicators and the decommodification index. Conversely, static population indicators, democracy indices, and measures of economic development had the weakest effects on homicide."