Abstract
Mounting evidence suggests that gang violence spreads through communities like a social contagion. By mapping the structure of these conflicts we are better positioned to ascertain which gang rivalries, intragroup struggles for leadership, and displays of dominance pose the greatest threat to local communities. Using information drawn from court cases, this study examines 9 years of violence instigated by historic rivals—the Bloods and the Crips. Studying the conflict network linking 158 street gangs operating in Los Angeles County offers unique insight into the nature of violence that can improve regional anti-crime policy. Based on these results, violence reduction strategies stand to be more effective when they (1) use network analysis to identify where to aim efforts to quell internal rivalries; (2) focus on groups that initiate the most violence toward non-gang citizens, as well as other gangs; (3) use group audits to map violence networks and extend gang injunctions to connected factions and competitors; (4) remap the network frequently to ensure it is current; and (5) generate inter-jurisdictional working groups that involve communities linked by gang violence.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Gang subsets were from Altadena, Antelope Valley, Athens, Carson, Compton, Florence, Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Lynwood, Pasadena, Pomona, and Santa Monica.
References
Berg, N. (2012, January 31). The 5 U.S. cities with the worst gang violence. Retrieved October 24, 2013, from The Atlantic Cities website: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/01/5-us-cities-worst-gang-violence/1095/
Borgatti, S. P., Everett, M. G., & Freeman, L. C. (2002). Ucinet 6 for windows: Software for social network analysis. Harvard, MA: Analytic Technologies.
Brantingham, P., Tita, G. E., Short, M. B., & Reid, S. E. (2012). The ecology of gang territorial boundaries the ecology of gang territorial boundaries. Criminology, 50(3), 851–885. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2012.00281.x.
Caldwell, B. (2010). Criminalizing day-to-day life: A socio-legal critique of gang injunctions. American Journal of Criminal Law, 37(3), 241–290.
Chase, I. D. (1980). Social process and hierarchy formation in small groups: A comparative perspective. American Sociological Review, 45(6), 905–924.
Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2009). Connected: The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives. Boston: Little, Brown.
City Attorney of Los Angeles, (2013). Gang Injunctions [Fact sheet]. Retrieved October 24, 2013, from Los Angeles City Attorney website: http://www.atty.lacity.org/index.htm
Decker, S. H., & Curry, D. G. (2002). Gangs, gang homicides, and gang loyalty: Organized crimes or disorganized criminals. Journal of Criminal Justice, 30, 343–352.
Descormiers, K., & Morselli, C. (2011). Alliances, conflicts, and contradictions in Montreal’s street gang landscape. International Criminal Justice Review, 21(3), 297–314.
Felson, M. (2006). Crime and nature. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hanneman, R. A., & Riddle, M. (2005). Introduction to social network methods. Riverside, CA: University of California, Riverside.
Holland, P. W., & Leinhardt, S. (1976). The statistical analysis of local structure in social networks. Sociological Methodology, 7, 1–45.
Houston, H., & Anglin, D. (1995). The epidemic of gang-related homicides in Los Angeles County from 1979 through 1994. Journal of the American Medical Association, 274(13), 1031.
Howell, J. C. (2012). Gangs in America's communities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Kennedy, D. M., Braga, A. A., & Piehl, A. M. (1997). The (un)known universe: Mapping gangs and gang violence in Boston. In D. Weisburd & T. McEwen (Eds.), Crime mapping and crime prevention, crime prevention studies (Vol. 8, pp. 219–237). Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.
Klein, M. W., & Maxson, C. L. (2006). Street gang patterns and policies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Malm, A., Bichler, G., & Nash, R. (2011). Co-offending between criminal enterprise groups. Global Crime, 12(2), 112–128.
McCuish, E. C., Bouchard, M., & Corrado, R. (2015). The search for suitable homicide co-offenders among gang members. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice., 31(3), 319–336.
McGloin, J. M. (2005). Policy and intervention considerations of a network analysis of street gangs. Criminology and Public Policy, 4(3), 607–636.
McGloin, J. M., & Rowan, Z. (2015). Street gangs and co-offending networks. In G. Bichler & A. Malm (Eds.), Disrupting criminal networks: Network analysis in crime prevention (Crime Prevention Studies, Vol. 28, pp. 9–26). Boulder, CO: First Forum Press. division of Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
Papachristos, A. V. (2009). Murder by structure: Dominance relations and the social structure of gang homicide. American Journal of Sociology, 115(1), 74–128.
Papachristos, A. V., Hureau, D. M., & Braga, A. A. (2013). The corner and the crew: The influence of geography and social networks on gang violence. American Sociological Review, 78(3), 1–31.
Papachristos, A. V., Wildeman, C., & Roberto, E. (2015). Tragic, but not random: The social contagion of nonfatal gunshot injuries. Social Science & Medicine, 125, 139–150.
Robinson, P. L., Boscardin, W., George, S. M., Teklehaimanot, S., Heslin, K. C., & Bluthenthal, R. N. (2009). The effect of urban street gang densities on small area homicide incidence in a large metropolitan county, 1994–2002. Journal Of Urban Health, 86(4), 511–523. doi:10.1007/s11524-009-9343-x.
Sierra-Arevalo, M., & Papachristos, A. V. (2015). Applying group audits to problem-oriented policing. In G. Bichler & A. Malm (Eds.), Disrupting criminal networks: Network analysis in crime prevention (Crime Prevention Studies, Vol. 28, pp. 27–46). Boulder, CO: First Forum Press. division of Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
Taniguchi, T. A., Ratcliffe, J. H., & Taylor, R. B. (2011). Gang set space, drug markets, and crime: Violent and property crimes around drug corners in Camden. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 48(3), 327–363.
Tita, G., & Radil, S. (2011). Spatializing the social networks of gangs to explore patterns of violence. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 27(4), 521–545. doi:10.1007/s10940-011-9136-8.
Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social network analysis: Methods and applications. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Wilkinson, D. L., & Fagan, J. (1996). The role of firearms in violence ‘scripts’: The dynamics of gun events among adolescent males. Law and Contemporary Problems, 59, 55–89.
Winton, R. (2005, May 13). L.A. Home Turf for hundreds of neighborhood criminal groups. Los Angeles Times, Local.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Randle, J., Bichler, G. (2017). Uncovering the Social Pecking Order in Gang Violence. In: LeClerc, B., Savona, E. (eds) Crime Prevention in the 21st Century. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27793-6_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27793-6_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27791-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27793-6
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)