Gang murders reflect rivalries, need to dominate, says Papachristos

Gang murders are much more than individual acts of violence, reflecting instead tensions between gangs – an epidemic-like process of social contagion as warring groups constantly jockey for dominance and status, says sociologist Andrew V. Papachristos.

And because gang murders are products of stresses within and between gang networks, responding only to individual killings won’t reduce the overall murder rate, he says. The findings are published in the July issue of the American Journal of Sociology.

Papachristos, who has studied gang violence and murder in Chicago, says his latest research attempts to unravel the social order of murder – who kills whom, when, where and for what reason. He finds that the murders of gang members, most often by members of rival gangs, need to be understood as part of an institutionalized group conflict that becomes self-reinforcing. Such killings frequently provoke violent responses – often another murder – that continues a cycle of violence, he says.

Papachristos also says the tensions and violence between gangs isn’t usually about money or drugs, but instead is prompted by gang members acting to secure or protect their concept of respect, the commodity that is the real currency within and between gangs.

Gang murder also isn’t caused by individual “risk factors,” he says. “Gang members do not kill because they are poor, young, or live in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods,” Papachristos says. “They kill because they live in sets of social networks in which violence shapes patterns of interaction. The gangs they join carry with them extra-individual sets of social relationships that restrain, filter and otherwise guide the choices and behaviors of gang members.”

He says gangs aren’t groups of murderers or criminal masterminds, but rather imbedded social networks in which violence ricochets back and forth. Individual murders string together to create extremely stable patterns of group conflict. And, rules of respect, honor and dominance help shape interactions within and between these networks.

The findings also suggest that while it may be impossible to eradicate gangs in impoverished neighborhoods and elsewhere around the country, it is possible to reduce levels of gang violence by dealing with the most volatile points of conflict between gangs, Papachristos says. For example, in Chicago, he says, if authorities focus on specific gangs, those at the center of the gang power structure and who control the most central physical turf, violence levels could be decreased.

Using incident-level homicide records from the Chicago police, Papachristos recreated, mapped and analyzed gang murders during several years. He says many people believe the source of gang murders in a city such as Chicago can be traced to the poverty and social conditions in the neighborhoods where gangs thrive. But his work doesn’t show that.

“Murder is not an airborne pathogen: one does not usually become a victim or murderer simply by living in or next to a high-risk area,” Papachristos says. “The present study implies that both the victims and offenders need to be incorporated in (or at least proximate to) the social networks conducive to sustaining such activities.”

Instead what happens, he says, is that gang members respond to challenges to their status or respect with violence or even murder, often killing people they know over relatively insignificant issues, including fights, girlfriends or boyfriends, or acts viewed as disrespectful. Papachristos says the basis for this behavior is laid when a person joins a gang. “The reason people join gangs if for mutual protection,” he says. “Also because they perceive that they are constantly under attack.” The gangs offer that mutual protection but at the same time amplify the sense of constant threat.

July 31, 2009.

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