Comparing Violent and Non-Violent Gang Incidents: An Exploration of Gang-Related Police Incident Reports

Dena Carson,Natalie Kroovand Hipple

doi:10.3390/socsci9110199

Abstract

Prior research has established a strong link between gangs and violence. Additionally, this connection is demonstrated across multiple methodologies such as self-report surveys, qualitative interviews, as well as official records. Officially recorded gang data can be increasingly hard to obtain because data collection approaches differ by agency, county, city, state, and country. One method for obtaining official gang data is through the analysis of police incident reports, which often rely on police officers’ subjective classification of an incident as “gang-related.” In this study we examine 741 gang-related incident reports collected over four years from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. This study will explore reasons why incidents were attributed to gangs as well as compare the characteristics of violent, drug, and non-violent gang-related incidents. This work has implications for understanding the complexities associated with gang incident reports as well as for the commonality of violent gang crimes.

Highlights

The link between gangs and violence is well-established in prior literature, which has resulted in gang researchers naming violent behavior as one of the key features of gang life (Carson et al 2017; Decker 1996; Irwin-Rogers et al 2019; Pyrooz et al 2016)
Our work revealed that law enforcement intelligence is the primary reason incident reports were labeled gang-related but beyond that, it was common for the reporting officer to not articulate a reason, especially if the incident involved a violent crime
Our research supports the idea that official records of gang-related crimes or gangs may not be generalizable across cities, see (Maxson and Klein 1990) and, as our data indicate, may be dependent on the type of law enforcement activity

Summary

Introduction

The link between gangs and violence is well-established in prior literature, which has resulted in gang researchers naming violent behavior as one of the key features of gang life (Carson et al.2017; Decker 1996; Irwin-Rogers et al 2019; Pyrooz et al 2016). This strong relationship between gangs and violence persists across time, geographic location, and appears regardless of the research methodology (e.g., ethnographies, survey data, official records). The “cafeteria-style” nature of offending among gang members is largely supported in both qualitative (Decker and Winkle 1996; Fleisher 1998; Lauger 2012; Miller 2001) and survey research

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Discussion

Conclusion