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Taking Stock of Gang Violence: An Overview of the Literature

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Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan

Abstract

Over the last 25 years, the overall levels of violent crime rate dramatically declined in the United States, yet, in major urban centers, gang-related violence continues to be a serious concern. In order to understand gang violence, it is necessary to consider the complicated relationship violence has with gang identity, victimization, participation, gender, spatial proximity, and social distance. Gang violence plays an important role in the creation and maintenance of the group’s collective identity. Additionally, gang violence is not limited to only symbolic purposes (e.g., reputation) but can also serve instrumental (e.g., profit generation) purposes for a group. At the individual level, the risk/protective factors (e.g., gender, age, education) attributed to participation in gang violence and being a victim of gang violence are important to consider. At the group level, gang violence is defined by two unique features: social and spatial dependence. That is, both a gang’s geographic territory and the social distance to a rival contribute to gang violence. Due to the group-based nature of gang violence, a variety of interventions exist. Gang activity prevention focuses on disrupting the antisocial behaviors of gangs to reduce their overall harm to the community (e.g., civil gang injunctions, crime prevention through environmental design). Gang activity suppression programs are often deterrence-based and follow the “pulling levers strategy” emphasizing arrest and imprisonment through targeted police and prosecution provisions (e.g., Operation Ceasefire). These programs attempt to minimize future levels of gang violence and victimization by reducing gang member participation with the group.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Matthew Valasik

  2. Criminal Justice and Criminology College, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Shannon E. Reid

Authors
  1. Matthew Valasik
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  2. Shannon E. Reid
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew Valasik .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma, Alliant International University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Robert Geffner

  2. School of Health and Human Sciences, University of North Carolina at Greensbo, Greensboro, NC, USA

    Jacquelyn W. White

  3. Dept of Family and Community Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    L. Kevin Hamberger

  4. Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA

    Alan Rosenbaum

  5. Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Viola Vaughan-Eden

  6. Education and Research, Zero Abuse Project, St. Paul, MN, USA

    Victor I. Vieth

Section Editor information

  1. School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

    Michael B. Greene

  2. Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA

    Robert L. Johnson

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© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Valasik, M., Reid, S.E. (2019). Taking Stock of Gang Violence: An Overview of the Literature. In: Geffner, R., White, J.W., Hamberger, L.K., Rosenbaum, A., Vaughan-Eden, V., Vieth, V.I. (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62122-7_105-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62122-7_105-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62122-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62122-7

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