ABSTRACT
In late July, the: New York Times had heralded the "Mystery of New York, the Suddenly Safer City," and in mid-August it had given front-page coverage to the sharp drop in homicide rates across the US during the first half of 1995. In European nations with collectivist institutional structures, age differences in behavior are weaker, and homicide rates do not grow as youth cohorts expand. According to the 1994 WHO Health Statistics Annual, the overall male homicide victimization rate in the US was about six times greater than the rate in Canada, eight times greater than in Australia, twelve times greater than in Germany, twenty-one times greater than in Japan, and twenty-eight times greater than in England and Wales. If members of larger youth populations are more prone to homicide than members of smaller youth populations, the age-specific homicide rates of young people will increase as youth cohorts grow.
