Examining the Differences between Police-Defined and Empirically Defined Co-Offending Groups

• In Event: Understanding the Diverse Consequences of Gang Membership

Abstract

Using social network analysis techniques, I identify the differences between police-defined and empirically defined “gangs” and show how the different boundaries of the co-offending groups affect predictions of individuals’ offending patterns. It is well established that peers can affect an individual’s delinquent or criminal behavior. Furthermore, gang membership influences delinquency beyond the effects of associating with delinquent peers (Battin et al. 1998). We therefore expect gang membership and co-offending patterns to be predictive of individual offending. In practice, gang membership is typically based on law enforcement assignment. But do police-defined groupings actually improve predictions of individual offending? Or do empirically defined groupings perform as better predictors? To answer these questions, I analyze a co-offending network of Boston gang members and those related to them based on arrests and Field Interrogation and Observation contacts with the police. Given the impact of criminal justice system involvement on the life course, as well as the added interest from law enforcement that comes with being a gang member, we must understand how current policing practices capture the true nature of offending at the individual level.

Author

• Alexandra Ciomek, Harvard University