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Explaining the directionality of gang violence with court records

Explaining the directionality of gang violence with court records Studies of gang violence typically use police reports to investigate the structure of gang conflict, but overreliance on a singular data source could impede crime control efforts. Extending networked criminology, this study aims to explore what court records reveal about the directionality of gang conflicts.Design/methodology/approachControlling for the presence of a civil gang injunction (CGI), the authors use multivariate quadratic assignment procedure regression models to disentangle factors thought to account for structural patterns of gang violence mapped from 933 prosecutions involving 307 gangs associated with violent conflict affecting the City of Los Angeles (1998–2013). Specifically, the authors compare competitive advantage to the explanatory power of turf proximity.FindingsOne measure of turf proximity outperforms all other explanatory factors – gangs with turf centrally positioned in a turf adjacency matrix are significantly more likely to launch attacks, be victimized and exhibit the highest levels of imbalance in their violent involvements. Regarding competitive advantage, the number of cliques and level of internal conflict are significant. Finally, being subject to a CGI is associated with initiating violence.Originality/valueCourt cases offer a feasible alternative to police data when investigating patterns of intergroup street gang violence. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Aggression Conflict and Peace Research Emerald Publishing

Explaining the directionality of gang violence with court records

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References (33)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
1759-6599
DOI
10.1108/jacpr-11-2020-0558
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Studies of gang violence typically use police reports to investigate the structure of gang conflict, but overreliance on a singular data source could impede crime control efforts. Extending networked criminology, this study aims to explore what court records reveal about the directionality of gang conflicts.Design/methodology/approachControlling for the presence of a civil gang injunction (CGI), the authors use multivariate quadratic assignment procedure regression models to disentangle factors thought to account for structural patterns of gang violence mapped from 933 prosecutions involving 307 gangs associated with violent conflict affecting the City of Los Angeles (1998–2013). Specifically, the authors compare competitive advantage to the explanatory power of turf proximity.FindingsOne measure of turf proximity outperforms all other explanatory factors – gangs with turf centrally positioned in a turf adjacency matrix are significantly more likely to launch attacks, be victimized and exhibit the highest levels of imbalance in their violent involvements. Regarding competitive advantage, the number of cliques and level of internal conflict are significant. Finally, being subject to a CGI is associated with initiating violence.Originality/valueCourt cases offer a feasible alternative to police data when investigating patterns of intergroup street gang violence.

Journal

Journal of Aggression Conflict and Peace ResearchEmerald Publishing

Published: Aug 24, 2021

Keywords: Social network analysis; QAP regression; Gang violence; Competitive advantage; CGI; Gang turf; Spatial proximity; Civil gang injunction

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