Barriocide: Investigating the Temporal and Spatial Influence of Neighborhood Structural Characteristics on Gang and Non-Gang Homicides in East Los Angeles

Abstract

This study explored how changes in neighborhood structural characteristics predicted variation in gang versus non-gang homicides in a policing division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Longitudinal negative binomial models were examined to test the relationship between-neighborhood structural covariates with gang and non-gang homicides over a 35-year period. This study highlights the potential to estimate temporal effects not captured by cross-sectional analyses alone. The results underscore a unique feature that distinguishes gang homicides from other forms of non-gang violence, its tenacious clustering, and spatial dependence over time.

“Gentefication” in the Barrio: Examining the Relationship Between Gentrification and Homicide in East Los Angeles

“…C. M. Smith’s (2014) study remains the only one to empirically assess the relationship of gentrification with gang crime despite recent efforts to better understand the temporal and spatial distribution of gang crimes (e.g., see Costanza & Helms, 2012; Tita & Greenbaum, 2009; Tita & Radil, 2011; Valasik, 2014; Valasik, Barton, Reid, & Tita, 2017).…”

Collective Resources and Violent Crime Reconsidered: New Orleans Before and After Hurricane Katrina

“…Violent crime rates were significantly higher in disadvantaged neighborhoods throughout all three time periods we examine. This finding, while not new (Kubrin 2003;Pyrooz 2012;Valasik, Barton, Reid, and Tita 2017), is also important as a control to our new findings about social cohesion.…”

Competitive dominance, gang size and the directionality of gang violence

“…Hollenbeck has a well-documented chronic gang problem stretching back over 70 years (Gustafson 1940;Valasik 2014). The overwhelming impression is a stable representation of gangs in the area (Valasik et al 2017). As many as 40 gangs were identified in Hollenbeck as of 1951 (Ranker 1957), including different age-based sets of the same gang.…”

“…Tita et al (2004) identified 29 street gangs active in Hollenbeck in the late 1990s and early 2000s. More recent estimates identify 31 gangs (see Brantingham et al 2012;Valasik et al 2017). Thirteen of these gangs present in recent surveys are tied to the Lincoln Heights, Montecito Heights and El Sereno neighborhoods, North of the 10 Freeway.…”

“…Nodes in the network represent each of the 31 gangs in Hollenbeck with node size scaled according to estimated gang territory size p k (Table 1). Edges are directed from the aggressor gang to the targeted gang, as identified in police records, and there is one edge drawn for each directional homicide recorded in the dataset (see Valasik et al 2017). Homicides within the same gang (i.e., self-loops) are excluded from the analyses.…”