Civil Gang Injunction, What's Your Function?
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UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title "Saving the World, One Neighborhood at a Time": The Role of Civil Gang Injunctions at Influencing Gang Behavior Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2065d17s Author Valasik, Matthew A Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE “Saving the World, One Neighborhood at a Time”: The Role of Civil Gang Injunctions at Influencing Gang Behavior DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Criminology, Law and Society by Matthew Aaron Valasik Dissertation Committee: Professor George E. Tita, Chair Professor Emeritus C. Ronald Huff Professor Charis E. Kubrin Professor Cheryl L. Maxson 2014 © 2014 Matthew Aaron Valasik DEDICATION To my wife Molly and son Oscar with their support anything is possible “… and all the pieces matter” Det. Lester Freamon “The Wire, Episode 1.6” ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF TABLES vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii CURRICULUM VITAE x ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION xi CHAPTER 1: Context and Background 1 THE CHANGING PATTERNS OF GANGS, VIOLENCE, AND CRIME 1 THE PRAXIS OF CGIs 7 THE THEORETICAL RATIONALE FOR A CGI 11 Deterrence Theory 11 Broken-Windows Theory 14 THE CGI MECHANISM AND ROUTINE ACTIVITIES THEORY 17 Routine Activities Theory and Patterns of Association 17 Routine Activities Theory and the Characteristics of Gang Violence 18 Routine Activities Theory and the Spatial Mobility of Gang Violence 19 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 20 WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT CGIs 21 RESEARCH SITE: HOLLENBECK’S PHYSICAL AND HUMAN GEOGRAPHY 33 A BRIEF CHRONICLE OF THE GANGS IN HOLLENBECK 41 FIELDWORK OVERVIEW 45 REFERENCES 48 CHAPTER 2: Civil Gang Injunction, What’s Your Function?: Exploring the Relationship between Civil Gang Injunctions and Gang Member’s Patterns of Association 57 INTRODUCTION 57 POLICE INTERVENTIONS AND ROUTINE ACTIVITIES THEORY 60 APPLYING ROUTINE ACTIVITIES THEORY TO EXAMINE THE INFLUENCE OF CGIs 63 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 66 DATA 66 MEASURES 72 FI Characteristics 72 Actor Characteristics 75 Spatial Characteristics 76 Social Network Characteristics 81 ANALYTIC STRATEGY 82 Members’ Patterns of Association and Enforcement Patterns of Police 83 Social Networks of Enjoined Gangs: A Case Study Approach 83 RESULTS 85 iii Descriptive Statistics 85 Pre/Post Sample of Enjoined Gangs 85 Enjoined/Non-enjoined Gang Sample 91 COMPARISON OF ENJOINED GANG MEMBERS’ PATTERNS OF ASSOCIATION & THE ENFORCEMENT PATTERNS OF POLICE 96 Pre/Post Sample of Enjoined Gangs 96 Enjoined/Non-enjoined Gang Sample 102 A CASE STUDY OF ENJOINED GANGS’ SOCIAL PATTERNS OF ASSOCIATION 109 Pre/Post Sample: Disruption and Convergence Among Social Networks 109 Enjoined/Non-enjoined Sample: Analogous Social Networks 119 DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION 124 REFERENCES 133 CHAPTER 3: Investigating the Relationship Between Civil Gang Injunctions and the Characteristics of Gang Homicide 142 INTRODUCTION 142 DATA 146 Analytic Strategy 147 MEASURES 147 Defining Gang Homicides 147 RESULTS 153 Descriptive Statistics 153 Trends in Gang Homicide in the City of Los Angeles 154 Trends in Gang Homicide in the Hollenbeck Community Policing Area 155 Discovering “Ground Truth: Gang v. Non-gang Homicides 159 A CGI’S Influence: Comparing Enjoined Gang & Non-gang Homicides 162 Comparing Enjoined Gang & Non-enjoined Gang Homicides 167 Supplementary Comparison of Enjoined Gang Homicides Before and After the Introduction of a CGI 171 DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION 173 REFERENCES 179 CHAPTER 4: A Spatial Typology of Gang Violence: Do Civil Gang Injunctions Influence the Mobility Patterns of Gang Homicide? 183 INTRODUCTION 183 Background on the Spatial Typology of Homicide 185 Constructing a Spatial Typology of Gang Homicide 187 The Influence of CGIs on Spatial Types of Gang Homicide 188 CGIs and Suspect Mobility 189 CGIs and Victim Mobility 190 DATA 190 MEASURES 192 Participant Characteristics 192 RESULTS 196 Descriptive Statistics 196 Internal Gang Homicides 199 Predatory Gang Homicides 202 Intrusion Gang Homicides 205 iv Total Mobility Gang Homicides 207 Offense Mobility Gang Homicides 210 The Influence of CGIs on the Spatial Typology of Gang Homicides 214 DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION 215 REFERENCES 221 CHAPTER 5: Conclusions, Policy Implications, & Future Directions 224 INTRODUCTION 224 DISCUSSION OF CONTRIBUTIONS & PRINCIPAL FINDINGS 227 CGIs & Gang Member’s Patterns of Association 228 CGIs & A Gang’s Patterns of Association 228 Police Enforcement of CGIs 230 The Significance of CGIs Non-significant Impact on Enjoined Gang Homicides 231 CGIs & The Mobility Patterns of Gang Homicide Participants 232 OVERALL LIMITATIONS 233 POLICY IMPLICATIONS 236 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 239 REFERENCES 243 BIBLIOGRAPHY 246 APPENDIX 265 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1: Total Number of Part-1 Gang Crimes by Reporting District in the City of Los Angeles in 2000 and 2012. 3 Figure 1.2: Part-1 Gang Crimes in the Hollenbeck Community Policing Area and the City of Los Angeles from 2000 to 2012. 5 Figure 1.3: Total Homicides in the Hollenbeck Community Policing Area and the City of Los Angeles from 1964 to 2013. 6 Figure 1.4: The Hollenbeck Policing Area within the Los Angeles Police Department’s Four Bureaus and 21 Policing Areas. 34 Figure 1.5: The Neighborhoods of Hollenbeck and Surrounding Regions with Terrain. 36 Figure 1.6: The Territorial Boundaries and Rivalries of the 31 Active Street Gangs Residing in Hollenbeck. 38 Figure 1.7: The Territorial Boundaries of Hollenbeck’s Gangs from 1978 to 2014. 43 Figure 2.1: The Front and Back of a LAPD Field Identification (FI) Card. 68 Figure 2.2: Territorial Claims for Hollenbeck’s 31 Active Gangs. 77 Figure 2.3: Gang Set-Space Corresponding with the Territorial Boundaries of Hollenbeck’s 31 Active Gangs. 79 Figure 2.4: Civil Gang Injunction Safety-Zones and the Corresponding Territorial Boundaries for Hollenbeck’s Seven Enjoined Gangs. 80 Figure 2.5: The frequency of enjoined gang members involved in a FI during the 744 time window pre/post a CGI, N = 1427. 90 Figure 2.6: Big Hazard Gang Members involved in FIs Before and After Enjoinment. 100 Figure 2.7: FIs Involving Enjoined White Fence Gang Members. 107 Figure 2.8: FIs Involving Non-enjoined The Mob Crew (TMC) Gang Members. 108 Figure 2.9: A Sociogram Displaying VNE’s Patterns of Association Before Being Enjoined. 110 Figure 2.10: A Sociogram Displaying VNE’s Patterns of Association After Being Enjoined. 111 Figure 2.11: A Sociogram Displaying Big Hazard’s Patterns of Association Before Being Enjoined. 113 Figure 2.12: A Sociogram Displaying Big Hazard’s Patterns of Association After Being Enjoined. 114 Figure 2.13: A Sociogram Displaying Clover, Eastlake and Lincoln Heights’ Patterns of Association Prior to Being Enjoined. 116 Figure 2.14: A Sociogram Displaying Clover, Eastlake and Lincoln Heights’ Patterns of Association After Being Enjoined. 117 Figure 2.15: A Sociogram Displaying the Clover’s Patterns of Association 122 Figure 2.16: A Sociogram Displaying the Breed Street’s Patterns of Association 123 Figure 3.1: Gang and non-gang homicides within the city of Los Angeles, 2003 - 2012. 155 Figure 3.2: Trends in enjoined gang, non-enjoined gang, and non-gang homicides in the Hollenbeck Community Policing Area, January 16, 2003 - January 13, 2013. 156 Figure 3.3: Trends in the number of enjoined gang members, 2003 - 2012. 158 Figure 5.1: Path Model of a Civil Gang Injunctions Relationship to a Gang’s Patterns of Association and Crime / Perceptions of Crime. 241 vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1: Characteristics of Pre/Post and the Enjoined/Non-enjoined Samples. 72 Table 2.2: Descriptive Statistics for the Pre/Post Sample. 86 Table 2.3: Descriptive Statistics for the Enjoined/Non-enjoined Sample. 92 Table 2.4: Comparison of the Seven Enjoined Gangs in the Pre/Post Sample. 97 Table 2.5: T-test Comparison of the Enjoined Gang Members’ Documented FIs Before and After a CGI. 101 Table 2.6: Comparison of all Gangs in the Enjoined/Non-enjoined Sample. 102 Table 2.7: Descriptive Statistics of the Social Network Characteristics for the Seven Enjoined Gangs. 109 Table 2.8: Descriptive Statistics of the Social Network Characteristics for the Seven Enjoined and 24 Non-enjoined Gangs 120 Table 3.1: Descriptive Statistics of the Incident Characteristics for all Homicides (N=241). 153 Table 3.2: Incident Characteristics for Gang and Non-gang Homicides 160 Table 3.3: Incident Characteristics for Enjoined Gang and Non-gang Homicides. 163 Table 3.4: Incident Characteristics for Enjoined Gang and Non-enjoined Gang Homicides. 166 Table 3.5: Comparison of the Bullets Impacting the Victim of an Enjoined Gang and Non- enjoined Gang Homicide. 169 Table 3.6: Total Number of Enjoined Gang Homicides. 170 Table 3.7: Incident Characteristics for Enjoined and Will be Enjoined Gang Homicides. 172 Table 4.1: Descriptive Statistics of the Participant and Incident Characteristics for Gang Homicides (N=493). 196 Table 4.2: Distribution of Gang Member Homicides in Hollenbeck within the Spatial Typology Categories 198 Table 4.3: Logit and Multinomial Logit Estimates for Internal Gang Homicides. 200 Table 4.4: Logit and Multinomial Logit Estimates for Predatory Gang Homicides. 203 Table 4.5: Logit and Multinomial Logit Estimates for Intrusion Gang Homicides. 206 Table 4.6: Logit and Multinomial Logit Estimates for Total Mobility Gang Homicides. 208 Table 4.7: Logit and Multinomial Logit Estimates for Offense Mobility Gang Homicides. 211 Table 4.8: Differentiating Characteristics for the Spatial Typology of Gang Homicides 213 Table 4.9: Comparison of Gang Homicides Pre-CGI and Post-CGI by Spatial Category. 214 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With this dissertation being the culmination of my tenure as a graduate student there are many people who have supported me throughout this challenging process. Without their support, guidance, wisdom, and time, I would never have reached the end of this journey.