Employing a Criminal Events Perspective to Understand Gun Violence and Gang Presence

• In Event: Midwestern Gun Violence: Tales from Four Cities

Abstract

We investigate the utility of the criminal events perspective in understanding gun violence patterns in a metropolitan city. This perspective, developed by Sacco and Kennedy (1996), organizes etiologies of violence around social context, the social transaction, and event aftermath. We focus specifically on street gangs, as they exhibit important socio-spatial patterns (Tita and Radil, 2011), inform actors’ behaviors in disputes (Hughes and Short, 2005), and can facilitate cycles of retaliation in the aftermath of violent events (Block and Block, 1993). Using spatial information about gang involvement, as well as a range of other relevant contextual and relational variables, we consider how gang presence may influence gun violence characteristics across neighborhoods.

Authors

• Kristina T. Garrity, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Beth Huebner, University of Missouri -St. Louis