Facilitating Violence: A Comparison of Gang-Motivated, Gang-Affiliated, and Nongang Youth Homicides

It is well established that gangs facilitate violent offending by members,but the mechanisms by which that facilitation occurs remain unclear. Gangsmay promote violence indirectly by facilitating members' access to riskysituations such as drug markets or directly through gang functions such asturf defense. We explore alternative modes of facilitation in a comparisonof gang-affiliated homicides (which involve gang members but do not resultfrom gang activity), gang-motivated homicides (which result from gangactivity), and nongang youth homicides in St. Louis. We find importantdifferences as well as similarities in the time trends and eventcharacteristic of the two types of gang homicide; in key respects thegang-affiliated homicides more closely resemble the nongang events. Thegang-motivated events exhibit a somewhat distinctive spatial patterning,as might be expected from their connection to turf conflicts. However, allthree homicide types are highly concentrated in racially isolated,disadvantaged neighborhoods, which remain the fundamental socialfacilitators of both gang and nongang violence.     

Explaining gang homicides in Newark, New Jersey: Collective behavior or social disorganization?

Although numerous studies examined the distinction between gang and non-gang homicides, there is nonetheless a continued need for research in this domain. Specifically, few studies investigated the etiological differences between these homicides at the multivariate level or attempted to examine the relative robustness of the primary explanations of gang homicides—social disorganization and Decker's (1996) collective behavior hypothesis of gang violence. This article therefore addresses this void by focusing on gang-related homicides in Newark, New Jersey over a sixty-six month period. The findings of this study suggested that there were significant differences between gang and non-gang homicides at the incident level. At the multivariate level, the authors found that homicides precipitated by the operationalization of Decker's (1996) escalation hypothesis were more likely to be gang-related. Conversely, the social disorganization measure did not predict gang homicide, while poverty was a significant predictor. When measures of both potential explanations were entered into the same model only the micro-level escalation hypothesis retained its significance.     

HOW DIFFERENT IS VIOLENCE IN THE HOME? AN EXAMINATION OF SOME CORRELATES OF STRANGER AND INTIMATE HOMICIDE*

Research into the nature and sources of intimate violence has not resolved the question of whether intimate violence differs from other forms of criminal violence to the extent that it should be considered separately. Some scholars have posited that the family context of intimate violence makes it unique because the intimacy and emotional attachment that usually characterize family relationships are absent from stranger violence. In contrast, others have suggested that intimate violence is like all other forms of violence and does not require separate consideration. If intimate violence does not differ from stranger violence the two must share common explanatory factors. I apply hierarchical modeling techniques to data from the Supplementary Homicide Reports to estimate multilevel models of stranger homicide and compare them with results from research on intimate homicide. The results suggest that intimate homicides differ from stranger homicides in several important respects and warrant separate treatment.     

Testing a promising homicide reduction strategy: re-assessing the impact of the Indianapolis “pulling levers” intervention

Since the publication of analyses suggesting the significant impact on youth homicide of the Boston “pulling levers” intervention, a series of studies of similar strategies have indicated promise in reducing homicide and gun assaults. One of these studies was an assessment of a pulling levers strategy in Indianapolis, where trend analyses indicated a significant reduction in homicide following the intervention, while six other similar Midwestern cities did not experience a significant decline in homicide. We re-assess the results of the Indianapolis study by disaggregating the offenses into gang- and non-gang homicides. Given that the pulling levers program focused on influencing gangs and networks of chronic offenders, the impact of the intervention should be more apparent for gang homicides than for non-gang homicides. Alternatively, should the impact be similar for non-gang homicides, then it is more likely that the downward trend would be caused by unmeasured external forces. Coefficient-difference tests relying on estimates obtained from autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) time–series models indicate that gang homicides declined significantly more than did non-gang homicides following the Indianapolis intervention. These findings suggest ‘something happened’ to gang homicides that did not happen to non-gang homicides, which adds further support that the pulling levers initiative was the driving force behind the overall reduction in homicide in Indianapolis.

CIRCUMSTANCES IN SUPPLEMENTARY HOMICIDE REPORTS: VARIETY AND VALIDITY*

This paper presents a critical examination of homicide circumstances as reported in supplementary homicide reports (SHR). Different types of homicides can be distinguished by the circumstance codes and victim/offender relationship recorded on the SHR. Delineating murder by type invites analysis of this offense from a victimization perspective–homicides have much in common with nonlethal offenses. Different types of homicide present different policy problems to police. The paper also discusses various sources of error in SHR data, which must be recognized by researchers interested in theoretical or policy questions.     

Understanding gender-specific intimate partner homicide: A theoretical and domestic service-oriented approach

Research on intimate partner homicide has increased in recent years, partially due to growing efforts to disaggregate homicides into meaningful categories but also because of a growing interest in policy responses toward domestic violence. Much of this research tends to focus on two perspectives—exposure reduction and the backlash/retaliation hypotheses—when explaining the link between intimate partner homicide and domestic violence resources. Support has been found for both approaches even though they offer contradictory predictions. This frustrating finding is further complicated by methodological issues, such as the inability to address the rare nature of these events, offer a wide range of domestic violence services and resources and control for structural characteristics of urban areas where violence is found. This issue is addressed by offering a systematic examination of male- and female-victim intimate partner homicide in 2000. The current study investigates both exposure reduction and backlash arguments, in addition to economic deprivation and a number of structural factors relevant to homicide rates. Results suggest that while these perspectives are relevant to intimate partner homicides, there are statistically significant differences across the gender-specific models once the corrected statistical test for coefficient equality is estimated.     

INDUSTRIAL SHIFT,POLARIZED LABOR MARKETS AND URBAN VIOLENCE: MODELING THE DYNAMICS BETWEEN THE ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND DISAGGREGATED HOMICIDE*

Industrial restructuring marks the removal of a manufacturing and production‐based economy in urban areas, which had served as a catalyst in concentrating disadvantage and polarizing labor markets since the 1970s. Although scholars have established a relationship between concentrated disadvantage — poverty, joblessness, racial residential segregation — and urban violence in cross‐sectional studies, this literature has yet to estimate whether economic restructuring contributed to the change in urban homicide over time. Modeling this relationship requires an analytical strategy that incorporates specific indicators of (race and gender) polarized labor markets, separate from indicators of urban disadvantage, on disaggregated homicides while taking into account the growing dependency of urban cities on formal social control (via police presence and rise in incarceration). In this study I provide a theoretical rationale for linking industrial restructuring to urban homicide. Using a multivariate strategy to capture the shift in labor market forces and disaggregated homicides from 1980 to 1990, I also estimate the impact of this relationship. The results provide evidence of the industrial ship and documents both the decline in Manufacturing jobs for black males and black females and a growth in the service sector opportunities for white males only. I also find that industrial restructuring had a unique impact on disaggregated homicide beyond what has previously been established in cross‐sectional studies.     

Race,Place, and Police-Caused Homicide in U.S. Municipalities

We test structural hypotheses regarding police-caused homicides of minorities. Past research has tested minority threat and community violence hypotheses. The former maintains that relatively large minority populations are subjectively perceived as threats and experience a higher incidence of police-caused homicide than whites do, the latter that higher rates of violent crime among minorities create objective threats that explain these disparities. That research has largely ignored some important issues, including: alternative specifications of the minority threat hypothesis; the place hypothesis, which maintains highly segregated minority populations are perceived as especially threatening by police; and police-caused homicide in the Hispanic population. Using data for large U.S. cities, we conducted total-incidence and group-specific analyses to address these issues. A curvilinear minority threat hypothesis was supported by the Hispanic group-specific findings, whereas the place hypothesis found strong support in both total and group-specific analyses. These results provide new insights into patterns of police-caused homicide.     

Homicide clearance in Sweden 1990–2013 with special reference to firearm-perpetrated homicides

Studies on homicide clearance in the Scandinavian context are very rare. In this article, we explore the homicide clearance rate in Sweden with special reference to firearm-perpetrated cases. The study is based on homicide research data collected by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, comprising all 2160 homicides known to the Swedish authorities during the period 1990–2013. The annual clearance rate varied between 74 and 90%, with an overall minor decrease since the 1990s. However, there has been a considerable decrease in the clearance rate for firearm-perpetrated homicides. It can be concluded that this decrease is due to a shift in the characteristics of firearm-perpetrated offences, with homicides committed in public places against criminally active male victims having become more frequent. This finding is generally consistent with theories which argue that homicide clearance rates are predominantly affected by case-specific, non-discretional factors beyond the control of the police. The practical implications of the study are that investigative efforts should be more intense in cases where a male has been shot in a public place, and that homicides related to criminal milieus should be investigated by specialized units.     

The Strategic Prevention of Gun Violence Among Gang‐Involved Offenders

Problem‐oriented policing has been suggested as a promising way to understand and prevent complex gang violence problems. A number of jurisdictions have been experimenting with new problem‐oriented frameworks to understand and respond to gun violence among gang‐involved offenders. These interventions are based on the “pulling levers” deterrence strategy that focuses criminal justice and social service attention on a small number of chronically offending gang members responsible for the bulk of urban gun violence problems. As part of the US Department of Justice‐sponsored Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative, an interagency task force implemented a pulling levers strategy to prevent gang‐related gun violence in Lowell, Massachusetts. Our impact evaluation suggests that the pulling levers strategy was associated with a statistically significant decrease in the monthly number of gun homicide and gun‐aggravated assault incidents. A comparative analysis of gun homicide and gun‐aggravated assault trends in Lowell relative to other major Massachusetts cities also supports a unique program effect associated with the pulling levers intervention.     

AN ERRORS-IN-VARIABLE MODEL OF THE EFFECT OF POVERTY ON URBAN HOMICIDE RATES

Inconsistent findings on the relationship between poverty and violent crime have led some authors to question the presence of a structural relationship. There is reason, however, to believe that many of the existing estimates are biased because measures of poverty contain errors which are confounded with disturbances in the estimated models. In this paper we specify and estimate a model which accommodates the measurement error and provides an instrumental variable estimate of the effects of poverty on homicide rates in the 49 largest cities in the U.S. Compared to similar OLS estimates, the instrumental variable estimates are much larger and fit a model in which poverty increases the homicide rate. The results are similar when homicides are divided into four types: family homicides, other primary homicides, robbery homicides, and other-felony homicides     

“CRACK,” STREET GANGS,AND VIOLENCE*

This investigation considers the connections among street gangs, “crack” cocaine, and violence associated with crack distribution during the initial years of crack proliferation. Data were extracted from the narcotics investigation files and homicide fires of five Los Angeles Police Department and Sheriff's Department areas where both crack and gangs were prominent. The aims were to compare for 1983–1985, when crack first emerged as a significant problem, hypotheses about (1) gang involvement in crack distribution and (2) concomitants of gang involvement, particularly violence. The analyses confirm a dramatic growth in crack sales, an accompanying increase in gang members involved, but a declining rate of involvement, and inconsistent evidence on the impact of gang involvement on sales events. We infer that crack distribution, while including many individual gang members, was not primarily a street gang phenomenon.     

The unintended consequences of kingpin strategies: kidnap rates and the Arellano-Félix Organization

Kingpin strategies— the targeting of the top-levels of terrorist or drug trafficking organization hierarchies— has become a centerpiece of US and Mexican efforts to combat drug trafficking. This study addresses the unintended consequences of these strategies by assessing the impact of the arrest or deaths of Arellano Felix Organization leaders on kidnap and homicide levels from the late 1990’s to 2011. Based on the study, the arrest of important AFO “lieutenants” increased kidnap rates. Arrests or the deaths of organization “kingpins” did not result in increased homicides or kidnappings, if respected successors were ready to fill leadership vacuums. When leadership succession was in question, the arrest of “kingpins” did result in internecine conflict and thus increased homicide and kidnapping rates. Following internecine conflict, kidnap and homicide rates dropped, but not to pre-conflict levels. This is likely attributable to the use of kidnapping and homicide as a dispute resolution mechanism in the growing Tijuana consumer drug market.     

Young women and gang violence: Gender,street offending,and violent victimization in gangs

Drawing on multiple data sources in St. Louis, this article examines how gendered situational dynamics shape gang violence, including participation in violent offending and experiences of violent victimization. Combining an analysis of in-depth interviews with young women in St. Louis gangs with an examination of homicide reports from the same city, we find that young women, even regular offenders, highlight the significance of gender in shaping and limiting their involvement in serious violence. They use gender both to accomplish their criminal activities and to temper their involvement in gang crime. Consequently their risk for serious physical victimization in gangs is considerably less than young men's. St. Louis homicide data collaborate these qualitative findings. Not only are young women much less likely to be the victims of gang homicide, but the vast majority of female gang homicide victims were not the intended targets of the attack. In contrast, homicide reports suggest that the majority of male gang homicide victims were the intended targets. We suggest that gendered group processes and stratification within gangs are key factors explaining both violent offending and victimization risk in gangs.     

A Move Toward Specificity: Examining Urban Disadvantage and Race-and Relationship-Specific Homicide Rates

The purpose of this research is to estimate the differential impact of structural conditions on race- and relationship-specific homicide rates for U.S. cities in 1990. The structural conditions commonly employed in race-specific homicide research are examined, such as job accessibility, economic deprivation, racial segregation, and racial inequality. Furthermore, four relationship categories of homicide—acquaintance, family, stranger, and intimate—are disaggregated by racial group. The detailed relationship-specific homicide rates are compared to a baseline homicide rate to determine whether structural factors associated with urban disadvantage similarly influence homicide rates across relationship types. The results indicate that differences emerge in the impact of structural conditions on homicides disaggregated by race- and relationship-specific categories. Theoretical explanations consistent with criminology and race-relations literature are discussed, as well as the potential benefits and implications for studies that pursue more meaningful and detailed classifications in homicide offending.     

Homicide-suicide and other violent deaths: an international comparison

Homicides followed by the suicide of the perpetrator constitute a serious form of interpersonal violence. Until now no study has directly compared homicide-suicides to other violent deaths from multiple countries, allowing for a better understanding of the nature of these violent acts. Using country-specific data, this study describes and compares the incidence and patterns of homicide-suicide as well as the relationship between homicide-suicide, homicide, suicide and domestic homicide in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States. The results indicate that cross-nationally, homicide-suicides are more likely than other types of lethal violence to involve a female victim, multiple victims, take place in a residential setting and to be committed by a firearm. Although homicide-suicides display many similarities across the different countries, differences exist regarding age and the use of firearms in the offence. This study indicates that homicides followed by suicides differ from both homicides and suicides in similar ways internationally. Cross-national differences in the availability of firearms may explain the international variation of homicide-suicide rates and patterns.     

GANG HOMICIDE,DELINQUENCY, AND COMMUNITY*

Analysis of community-level data on community areas in Chicago substantiates two conceptual differences: the first. between gang crime and delinquency as community-level phenomena; and the second, between theoretical associations of each of the former to community-area patterns of social disorganization and poverty. One pattern is more common in Chicago's Hispanic communities; the other, in Chicago's black communities. Five measures of the quality of community life used are gang homicide rate, delinquency rate, unemployment rate, percentage living below the poverty level, and mortgage investment per dwelling. Identifying communities as white, black, Hispanic, or mixed and applying discriminant analysis reveal the racial-ethnic communities as distinct social worlds. Regression analyses of gang homicide and delinquency rates show that the two measures display very different patterns of association with other community characteristics. An analysis of the residual change score for gang homicide rate over two time periods indicates the relative stability of community patterns with poverty measures explaining much of the change in patterns. It is concluded that gang homicide rates and delinquency rates are ecologically distinct community problems. The distribution of gang homicide rates conforms to classic theories of social disorganization and poverty, and the distribution of delinquency rates is more generally associated with poverty.     

Homicide in Cape Town, South Africa

All autopsies performed on homicide victims at the Salt River police mortuary, Cape Town, in the first 6 months of 1986 were reviewed. Most of the homicides that had occurred in Cape Town were as a result of stab wounds to the chest. Smaller, but significant, numbers of homicides were as a result of stab wounds to the head and neck, blunt injury to the head, or gunshot wounds. Homicidal burning also has occurred in civil unrest situations. Infanticide was rarely encountered. Alcohol was detected in the homicide victims in 62.9% of cases; 8.4% had a blood alcohol concentration higher than 0.30 g/100 ml. Our figures confirm that Cape Town has one of the highest homicide rates in the world (56.9/100,000 per annum for 1986). Homicides in Cape Town are characterized by assaults with sharp instruments, usually knives, although "pangas," or cane knives, are also commonly used.