Social disorganization perceptions, fear of gang crime, and behavioral precautions among Whites, Latinos, and Vietnamese
Introduction
During the 1990s policymaker, practitioner, and public concern about youth violence was very high, as Americans saw youth violence reach new heights at mid-decade and faced warnings that these crimes would continue to increase as demographic shifts created an even larger youth population by the early 2000s Bennet et al., 1996, Fox, 1996. Much of the policy focus during this decade was specifically on gangs and their violent crimes, as media reported heinous incidents (e.g., the “wrong way” murder in Los Angeles, where a three-year-old child was shot by gang members after her family turned down the “wrong” street) and law enforcement pointed to increasing numbers of gangs, gang members, and gang-related crimes Curry et al., 1996, Klein, 1995, Krikorian, 1997, McCorkle & Miethe, 2002, Spergel, 1995.
During this time, policymakers and practitioners rushed to address the gang problem before it got out of hand. They held congressional hearings about gangs to help a nation “caught in the grip of fear,” passed laws to ensure tougher punishments, and stepped up gang suppression strategies at the local level The gang problem in America, 1994, Administration's anti-gang, 1997, Fearn et al., 2001, Gang-related witness, 1997, Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of, 1994. One of the primary justifications for the tougher approach to gangs was the policymaker and practitioner perception that some communities were terrorized by gang members who randomly killed innocents without remorse and that people in other areas, even generally unaffected ones, feared that a “random” gang shooting could affect them at any time. As the California Council on Criminal Justice (1995, p. 7) reported to Governor Pete Wilson after he requested recommendations on how to address juvenile gun violence:
[r]eports of drive-by gang shootings, violent carjackings, home invasions, armed robberies, and drug warfare have become an all too common part of life in our state…No matter where one lives, the fear of violent juvenile crime has become overwhelming. Statistics indicate that the public's fear is justified.
For the most part, however, there has been little empirical data on how fear of gang crime has affected different communities, and policymakers have been forced to rely on tragic stories of victimization and other anecdotal evidence when making decisions about new laws or programs.
Policy, however, is not the only reason to study the specific fear of gang crime, rather than just fear of crime more generally. Although fear of crime researchers continually indicated the need to add more specific measures to allow for variation in fear across different types of crime (e.g., vandalism versus murder), very few studies investigated the importance of perpetrator characteristics Ferraro, 1995, Ferraro & LaGrange, 1988, LaGrange & Ferraro, 1987, LaGrange & Ferraro, 1989, Warr, 1994, Warr, 2000. Certain perpetrators (e.g., gangs or terrorists) may induce more fear than others because of the images (ethnically or racially different) and crimes associated with them (e.g., random or violent) Best, 1999, Lane & Meeker, 2003c, Madriz, 1997. In addition, people may be particularly afraid of gangs and gang crimes when they see community characteristics such as diversity and disorder, because gangs more often reside in inner-city urban areas where these factors and social disorganization are more prevalent Howell, 1998, Maxson, 1998.
It is clear that gang crime disproportionately affects certain geographic and ethnic communities. The presence of gangs itself is an indicator of the level of disorganization Sampson, 1993, Sampson & Groves, 1989. In America, minority groups are more likely to live in these areas and therefore as a group are more affected by gang crime. Consequently, logic would dictate that minority groups, in general, would perceive more community problems related to social disorganization and would feel more at risk of victimization by and be more afraid of gang-related crimes. Most studies that included race or ethnicity in the analyses examined Whites versus African-Americans. Very few studied fear among Latinos (cf. Chiricos et al., 2000, Haghighi & Sorenson, 1996, Lane & Meeker, 2003a, Lane & Meeker, 2003b, Lane & Meeker, 2003c, Parker et al., 1993), and the authors know of only one that studied fear of crime among Vietnamese (Torres & Vogel, 2001). There were even fewer studies that examined fear of gangs specifically Lane, 2002, Lane & Meeker, 2000, Lane & Meeker, 2003a, Lane & Meeker, 2003b, Lane & Meeker, 2003c, Vila & Meeker, 1999. Yet, in many Southern California communities, and in Orange County, where this study was conducted, Latinos and Vietnamese were the most affected by social disorganization and gang violence (see Moore, 1978, Moore, 1991, Vigil, 1988, Wyrick, 2000). Gangs and gang members there were most likely to be Latino, but Vietnamese constituted the second largest group of gang members. There were very few White or Black gangs (Capizzi, 1998).
Knowing how different ethnic communities are affected by community problems related to social disorganization and gang crime would be useful to policymakers and practitioners who now focus many of their efforts on improving community quality of life indicators, including disorder (sometimes related to cultural differences in lifestyle), perceived risk, and fear of gang crime. In times when criminal justice agencies are facing limited resources, information about who worries most about community problems, who is afraid, and what they are afraid of would help decision makers strategically target their fear-reducing policies and programs to the ethnic populations who need them the most. Using ANOVA techniques, this article increases knowledge about the differences in perceived community problems related to social disorganization, perceived risk and fear of gang crime, and resulting behavioral precautions among Whites, Latinos, and Vietnamese. The six research questions were:
- (1)
Were Whites, Latinos, or Vietnamese more concerned about social disorganization indicators (disorder and diversity) in their neighborhoods?
- (2)
Which of these groups felt more at risk for victimization by gang crimes?
- (3)
Which of these groups was more afraid of gang crimes?
- (4)
Which gang crimes did these groups believe they were most at risk of being victimized by?
- (5)
Which gang crimes did they fear most?
- (6)
What behavioral precautions did they take to avoid gang crime?
Section snippets
Social disorganization and gangs are concentrated
Although definitions of social disorganization vary, researchers indicated that it existed when community residents were unable to work together to address local issues such as disorder, crime, and gangs (Bursik, 1988). Social disorganization theory proposes that urban areas that have more poverty also tend to have high residential mobility and racial and ethnic diversity, and therefore, experience more crime. The higher crime rates likely result from residents' inability to maintain informal
Gangs and their communities
Much of the research focused specifically on the relationship between gangs and their communities, but studies showed that the relationships were complex. Community members can be either antagonistic toward the gang, receptive, or a combination of both. Sometimes gang members are integrated and serve important economic and protective functions in the neighborhoods where they reside Howell, 1998, Jankowski, 1991. Some community members see both their good and bad qualities, and others see only
The local context
Like many studies that address Latino and Vietnamese gangs, this study took place in Orange County, which neighbors Los Angeles County and was facing rapid increases in ethnic heterogeneity, gangs, and gang-related crime in recent years (Baldassare, 2000). In the 1980s, the county's population increased by 25 percent, and in the 1990s, it increased another 13 percent (Gaquin & DeBrandt, 2000). In the one year period between 1996 and 1997, the year these data were collected, the county's net
Findings
To examine the research questions, one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted using Tukey HSD to test for significant differences across the three ethnic groups on the social disorganization, risk, fear, and behavioral precaution variables and indices.
Before examining the variables of interest, the authors conducted preliminary analysis to examine differences in demographic characteristics across the ethnic group subsamples. Studies showed that the demographic characteristics were
Interpreting the results
This study set out to examine differences across ethnic groups in perceptions of community problems, perceived risk and fear of gang victimization, and resulting protective and avoidance behaviors. The results indicated that Vietnamese were the most worried about community disorder and diversity, felt most at risk of gang-related victimization, and were most afraid of gang crimes. They were also more likely than the other two groups to have bought or secured a gun to avoid gang-related
Acknowledgements
The National Institute of Justice (96-IJ-CX-0030) and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (96-CN-WX-0019) funded this research. Parts of this article were presented at the 1998 American Society of Criminology Meetings in Washington, D.C. and the 2003 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. The authors would like to thank the Orange County Chiefs' and Sheriff's Association Juvenile Justice and Gang Strategy Steering Committee, Winnie Reed, Bryan Vila,
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