SPATIALIZING SOCIAL NETWORKS: MAKING SPACE FOR THEORY IN SPATIAL ANALYSIS BY STEVEN MATTHEW RADIL DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Colin Flint, Chair Professor Sara McLafferty Assistant Professor Julie Cidell Associate Professor George Tita, University of California, Irvine ABSTRACT This study is a quantitative and spatial analysis of the gang-related violence in a section of Los Angeles. Using data about the spatial distribution of gang violence in three neighborhoods of Los Angeles, this research first adopts a deductive approach to the spatial analysis of gang violence by spatial regression models that considers the relative location of the gangs in space while simultaneously capturing their position within a social network of gang rivalries. Several models are constructed and compared and the model that seems to best fit the observed geography of violence is one in which both the territorial geography and the social geography of the gangs is utilized in the autocorrelation matrix. Building on the findings of the spatial regression modeling, the concept of social position and associated techniques of structural equivalence in social network analysis is then explored as a means to integrate these different spatialities. The technique of structural equivalence uses the two different spatialities of embeddedness to identify gangs that are similarly embedded in the territorial geography and positioned in the rivalry network which aids in understanding the overall context of gang violence. The importance of theory to guiding spatial regression modeling is demonstrated by these findings and the hybrid spatial/social network analysis demonstrated here has promise beyond this one study of gang crime as it operationalizes spatialities of embeddedness in a way that allows simultaneous systematic evaluation of the way in which social actors’ position in network relationships and spatial settings provide constraints and possibilities upon their behavior. ii To Jennifer, Maxwell, and Kira. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is more than just the product of my own efforts and I owe a debt of gratitude to a great number of people. I first offer my thanks to the people whom encouraged me to pursue a PhD in geography while I was working on my Master’s degree, particularly Professors Eve Gruntfest and John Harner. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my Master’s advisor, Professor Roger Sambrook. His confidence and support has been constant as I continued the academic journey that I began under his tutelage. I am extremely grateful for the contribution and guidance provided by my committee members, Professors Sara McLafferty, Julie Cidell, and George Tita. Their support, suggestions, and collaborations during my time at Illinois have helped me find my way through the process of completing my dissertation. I am especially grateful for their flexibility and willingness to help me find my own path with my research. In nearly every way, this dissertation would not have been possible without the unwavering support and generosity of Professor Tita. What began as a simple request for data turned into an ongoing research partnership for which I am extremely grateful. Collaborating with George has made me a better scholar and I have encountered no better role model for my professional career. I would also like to thank Professors Paul Diehl and Shin Kap Han for their thorough and careful contributions during my preliminary exams. Finally, thanks to the many faculty who employed me in some capacity (Professors Julie Cidell, Colin Flint, and Courtney Flint), offered their insight through independent study (Professors Colin Flint, Jurgen Scheffran, Sara McLafferty, and Paul Diehl), or guided me and collaborated with me on research projects (Professors Colin Flint, George Tita, Paul Diehl, John Vasquez, and Jurgen Scheffran). iv While at Illinois I have had two homes: the Geography Department and the Program for Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS). I would like to thank the Geography Department staff, Susan Houston and Susan Etter, for their repeated help and support. I especially offer my earnest thanks to Kathy Anderson- Conner at ACDIS. She is a true professional and I thank her for making me welcome when I first arrived at ACDIS and for helping me stay productive and engaged since. In addition to my dissertation committee members, other faculty, and Geography and ACDIS staff at Illinois, I want to acknowledge several of my fellow PhD students for their consistent friendship, support, and professionalism. I thank Matt Anderson and Robert Cochrane for their excellent work in the classroom in Geography 110 with a special thanks to Matt for showing me the ropes during my first semester as a TA. Thanks as well to my excellent office mates at Davenport, Miriam Cope and Ben Cheng, for putting up with the long lines of undergraduate students during my office hours. I will dearly miss sharing an office with Miriam as her thoughtfulness and passion about her own work (and mine) is an inspiration. I also thank the many graduate students associated with the ACDIS program (too many to name here) that have formed a second social community for me around our shared academic interests. Of all the excellent graduate students I have encountered at Illinois, I have found a consistent source of inspiration and close friendship among my fellow Political Geographers: Andy Lohman, Sang-Hyun Chi, Richelle Bernazzoli, Jongwoo Nam, and Erinn Nicely. In many ways, each has inspired me and strongly shaped my own work, perhaps without them fully knowing it. I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to know each of them and look forward to many years of continued friendship and v professional collaboration. I especially thank Andy, Richelle, and Sang-Hyun for their friendship and support. In hindsight, I think it would not have been possible to finish this journey without the presence of outstanding friends and colleagues such as these. It is difficult to put into words how grateful I am to my advisor, Professor Colin Flint. He is, simply put, the person I most deeply admire in my professional life and his friendship and mentoring have forever altered my life and career for the better. Apart from my family, the experience of being his student has been perhaps the most rewarding of my life. After leaving Illinois, I can think of no higher praise than to strive to emulate Colin’s commitment to his students and his profession. I can not thank him enough for his guidance and friendship. Lastly, I could have never accomplished this goal without the support of my family and friends. I thank my wife Jennifer for her love and support during this sometimes bumpy journey. Between the two of us, Jennifer has perhaps shouldered the heaviest load during our time here and has done so with consistent grace and good humor while keeping one eye on the next phase of our lives. Our children Maxwell and Kira have largely grown up so far with their father in graduate school and their unconditional love and support have made my path easier while also reinforcing my determination to finish as soon as possible. Finally, thanks to my parents, my step parents, and to Jennifer’s parents. Each has unconditionally supported our goals, even when that meant increasing the geographic distance between us in order to pursue those goals. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: SPATIAL REGRESSION MODELS IN CRIMINOLOGY.....................13 CHAPTER 3: THEORIZING SPACE AND PLACE FOR SPATIAL ANALYSIS IN CRIMINOLOGY...........................................................45 CHAPTER 4: MODELING SOCIAL PROCESS IN THE SPATIAL WEIGHTS MATRIX ..............................................................................65 CHAPTER 5: SPATIALIZING SOCIAL NETWORKS: GEOGRAPHIES OF RIVALRY, TERRITORIALITY, AND VIOLENCE.......................109 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS...................................................................................153 REFERENCES............................................................................................................162 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The recognition of geography as a factor in the explanation of a multitude of social phenomena has been an increasingly notable component of quantitative social science (Goodchild et al. 2000). Research produced in a variety of disciplines now incorporates geographic or spatial elements into analysis that utilizes quantitative methodologies. An important reason for the adoption of spatial perspectives for quantitative social science has been a growing recognition of the importance of context to human action. As Flint (2002: 34) argues, spatial perspectives are now important in social science because “people with similar socioeconomic and cultural characteristics are likely to behave differently within unique contextual settings” and incorporating context into quantitative models of human behavior is the ongoing focus of the subfield of spatial analysis and spatial statistics within human geography. The analysis of spatial phenomena in social science has been made possible in recent years by the ongoing development of statistical techniques that attempt to deal with some of the