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Are the poor the principal causes of violence ? Can repressive policies be effective and significantly reduce homicide rates or should the dominant modes of development in these countries be re-examined ? The aim of this article is, first, to overview the state of the matter, then to analyse and discuss the influence of different economic variables on homicide rates, from an econometric test concerning a number of South American countries, between 1995 and 2000. It finally intends to show that while violence and its rise often have economic roots, it is vain to limit the explanation of the phenomenon to economic determinism.