Mapping Gang Rivalries: Gaining Insight into the Spatial Patterns of Gang Violence

Mapping Gang Rivalries: Gaining insight into the Spatial Patterns of Gang Violence

George Tita, University of California, Irvine

Spatial analysis has demonstrated that the spatial distribution of
violence cannot be adequately explained by the socio-economic
composition of place leading some to conclude that certain
“neighborhood effects” account for the remaining spatial dependence.
The difficult task of identifying social processes responsible for
spatial clustering remains. Through careful construction of alternative
spatial weights matrices (W), I explore whether the spatial
distribution of gang violence is best explained by dependence among
spatially adjacent areas or by dependence among socially linked areas.
Using gang violence as an illustrative example, results show that the
model explicitly considering the spatial dimensions of gang rivalries
outperforms the model in which actions are influenced solely by what
occurs in neighboring areas. This finding demonstrates the utility of
explicitly measuring the underlying mechanisms often assumed to account
for “neighborhood effects.” 

Bio

E-Talk