The Less Than 1%: Groups and the Extreme Concentration of Urban Violence

• In Event: Understanding and Responding to Gangs, Groups, and Guns

Abstract

This paper is the first cross-site study of street group involvement in serious violence. While papers have reported that groups (gangs, crews, sets, etc.) are disproportionately connected to homicides and shootings, they have done so only for a single city for one time period. No research has tested “group involvement”--defined as the association of the perpetrator or victim with a street group-- across sites and over time. Using a unique dataset compiled from action research in more than a dozen cities, this paper presents evidence that more than fifty percent of total homicides and non-fatal shootings in American cities are connected to these groups, whose members constitute less than one percent of a city’s population. This paper describes the group audit and incident review process used to collect this data, explains the sample selection and analysis, and discusses the policy implications of these findings.

Authors

• Stephen Lurie, National Network for Safe Communities / John Jay College

• Kyle Ott, National Network for Safe Communities / John Jay College

• Alexis Acevedo, National Network for Safe Communities / John Jay College