Income Inequality and Social Dysfunction
Top Cited Papers
- 1 August 2009
- journal article
- Published by Annual Reviews in Annual Review of Sociology
- Vol. 35 (1), 493-511
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-115926
Abstract
Population health tends to be better in societies where income is more equally distributed. Recent evidence suggests that many other social problems, including mental illness, violence, imprisonment, lack of trust, teenage births, obesity, drug abuse, and poor educational performance of schoolchildren, are also more common in more unequal societies. Differences in the prevalence of ill health and social problems between more and less equal societies seem to be large and to extend to the vast majority of the population. Rather than referencing all the literature, this paper attempts to show which interpretations of these relationships are consistent with the research evidence. After discussing their more important and illuminating characteristics, we conclude that these relationships are likely to reflect a sensitivity of health and social problems to the scale of social stratification and status competition, underpinned by societal differences in material inequality.Keywords
This publication has 52 references indexed in Scilit:
- Social Class Differentials in Health and Mortality: Patterns and Explanations in Comparative PerspectiveAnnual Review of Sociology, 2009
- Income Inequality and Socioeconomic Gradients in MortalityAmerican Journal of Public Health, 2008
- Child wellbeing and income inequality in rich societies: ecological cross sectional studyBMJ, 2007
- Disease and Disadvantage in the United States and in EnglandJAMA, 2006
- Further examination of the cross-country association between income inequality and population healthSocial Science & Medicine (1982), 2006
- Wider income gaps, wider waistbands? An ecological study of obesity and income inequalityJournal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2005
- Income inequality and alcohol use: a multilevel analysis of drinking and drunkenness in adolescents in 34 countriesEuropean Journal of Public Health, 2005
- Excess Mortality in HarlemThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1990
- Social Deviancy and Suicidal BehaviorThe Journal of Social Psychology, 1987
- The Changing Relation between Mortality and Level of Economic DevelopmentPopulation Studies, 1975