On the Validity and Reliability of Gang Homicide: A Comparison of Disparate Sources

One of the vexing problems of criminology is the search for valid and reliable measures of offending and victimization. Gang research has been plagued by similar concerns. This article provides an assessment of the reliability and validity of measures of gang homicide using police and survey reports collected from different sources over five annual points in time (2002-2006). Given public and political claims about the role of gangs in crime, assessing the validity of such measures is of critical importance to research and policy. Using data gathered from Uniform Crime Reports, Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), and National Gang Center (NGC), the results indicated that gang homicide data were found to meet tests of reliability and validity. Supplementary analyses, however, revealed that the specialized measurement system (NGC) outperformed the generalized measurement system (SHR). The results provide strong support for the use of NGC measures of gang homicide, but not SHR measures of gang homicide, in cross-sectional and time-series research. We conclude by offering suggestions for future research.

[1]  Scott H. Decker,et al.  Racial and Ethnic Heterogeneity, Economic Disadvantage, and Gangs: A Macro‐Level Study of Gang Membership in Urban America , 2010 .

[2]  Dennis Mares.  Social Disorganization and Gang Homicides in Chicago , 2010 .

[3]  J. Howell,et al.  Highlights of the 2008 National Youth Gang Survey , 2010 .

[4]  A. Papachristos.  Murder by Structure: Dominance Relations and the Social Structure of Gang Homicide1 , 2009, American Journal of Sociology.

[5]  Victor M. Rios.  Street Gang Patterns and Policies , 2009 .

[6]  C. Melde,et al.  Exploring the Use of Victim Surveys to Study Gang Crime , 2009 .

[7]  Janet L. Lauritsen,et al.  TRENDS IN THE GENDER GAP IN VIOLENT OFFENDING: NEW EVIDENCE FROM THE NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY* , 2009 .

[8]  S. Hallsworth,et al.  Gang talk and gang talkers: A critique , 2008 .

[9]  J. Logan,et al.  Data Consistency in Multiple Source Documents , 2008 .

[10]  Catherine D. Marcum,et al.  Digital Piracy: An Examination of Three Measurements of Self-Control , 2008 .

[11]  D. McDowall,et al.  A Comparison of SHR and Vital Statistics Homicide Estimates for U.S. Cities , 2008 .

[12]  The Criminologists' Gang , 2007 .

[13]  Kenneth C. Land,et al.  Understanding Crime Statistics: Revisiting the Divergence of the NCVS and UCR , 2007 .

[14]  C. Huff.  Policing Gangs in America , 2007 .

[15]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using multivariate statistics, 5th ed. , 2007 .

[16]  J. Pizarro,et al.  Explaining gang homicides in Newark, New Jersey: Collective behavior or social disorganization? , 2006 .

[17]  M. Rand,et al.  Understanding Crime Statistics: Introduction to the National Crime Victimization Survey , 2006 .

[18]  Andrew V. Papachristos,et al.  Neighborhood Effects on Street Gang Behavior , 2005 .

[19]  L. Hughes.  Studying Youth Gangs , 2005 .

[20]  M. W. Klein,et al.  The Value of Comparisons in Street Gang Research , 2005 .

[21]  G. Kruse,et al.  New wine in old bottles , 2004 .

[22]  C. Sumner.  The Blackwell Companion to Criminology , 2003 .

[23]  C. Kubrin,et al.  Identifying the Structural Correlates of African American Killings , 2003 .

[24]  Laurence Steinberg,et al.  Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention , 2003 .

[25]  Charles M. Katz,et al.  THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A POLICE GANG UNIT: AN EXAMINATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS* , 2001 .

[26]  Terrance J. Taylor,et al.  Youth Gangs and Definitional Issues: When is a Gang a Gang, and Why Does it Matter? , 2001 .

[27]  Vincent J. Webb,et al.  The Validity of Police Gang Intelligence Lists: Examining Differences in Delinquency Between Documented Gang Members and Nondocumented Delinquent Youth , 2000 .

[28]  G. David Curry,et al.  SELF-REPORTED GANG INVOLVEMENT AND OFFICIALLY RECORDED DELINQUENCY* , 2000 .

[29]  Albert J. Meehan.  The Organizational Career of Gang Statistics: The Politics of Policing Gangs , 2000 .

[30]  Richard Rosenfeld,et al.  Facilitating Violence: A Comparison of Gang-Motivated, Gang-Affiliated, and Nongang Youth Homicides , 1999 .

[31]  Scott H. Decker,et al.  Are arrest statistics a valid measure of illicit drug use? The relationship between criminal justice and public health indicators of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana use , 1999 .

[32]  J. Howell.  Youth Gang Homicides: A Literature Review , 1999 .

[33]  M. Riedel.  Sources of Homicide Data , 1999 .

[34]  Margaret A. Zahn,et al.  Homicide : a sourcebook of social research , 1999 .

[35]  Scott H. Decker,et al.  Confronting Gangs: Crime and Community , 1998 .

[36]  Scott H. Decker,et al.  A tale of two cities: Gangs as organized crime groups , 1998 .

[37]  Ruth Horowitz,et al.  The American Street Gang: Its Nature, Prevalence, and Control.Malcolm W. Klein , 1996 .

[38]  Scott H. Decker,et al.  Collective and normative features of gang violence , 1996 .

[39]  G. David Curry,et al.  THE LOGIC OF DEFINITION IN CRIMINOLOGY: PURPOSES AND METHODS FOR DEFINING “GANGS” , 1995 .

[40]  Charles M. Katz,et al.  The Police in America: An Introduction , 1992 .

[41]  Richard Rosenfeld,et al.  TREND AND DEVIATION IN CRIME RATES: A COMPARISON OF UCR AND NCS DATA FOR BURGLARY AND ROBBERY* , 1991 .

[42]  Jeffrey Fagan,et al.  THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF DRUG USE AND DRUG DEALING AMONG URBAN GANGS , 1989 .

[43]  Peter J. McDonough,et al.  Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research , 1986 .

[44]  M. W. Klein,et al.  DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GANG AND NONGANG HOMICIDES , 1985 .

[45]  J. C. Moore,et al.  New wine in old bottles. , 1967, Rehabilitation record.

[46]  P. Lejins.  Uniform Crime Reports , 1966 .

[47]  D. Campbell,et al.  Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. , 1959, Psychological bulletin.

[48]  Frederic M. Thrasher,et al.  The gang : a study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago. , 1936 .