Murder by Structure: Dominance Relations and the Social Structure of Gang Homicide

TLDR

Traditional sociological theories attribute murder to uneven distributions of individual, neighborhood, or social characteristics, explaining aggregate homicide rates but failing to account for the social order of murder—who kills whom, when, where, and why—an order shaped by the construction of social networks and individuals’ positions within them. The study posits that gang murder should be understood through the social networks of action and reaction that generate it, rather than through individual determinants. Using a network approach applied to incident‑level homicide records, the author reconstructs and analyzes the structure of gang murders in Chicago. The analysis shows that individual gang murders institutionalize a network of group conflict independent of individual motives, and that murders propagate through an epidemic‑like social contagion as gangs assess visible actions of neighbors and negotiate dominance during violent incidents.

Abstract

Most sociological theories consider murder an outcome of the differential distribution of individual, neighborhood, or social characteristics. And while such studies explain variation in aggregate homicide rates, they do not explain the social order of murder, that is, who kills whom, when, where, and for what reason. This article argues that gang murder is best understood not by searching for its individual determinants but by examining the social networks of action and reaction that create it. In short, the social structure of gang murder is defined by the manner in which social networks are constructed and by people's placement in them. The author uses a network approach and incident‐level homicide records to recreate and analyze the structure of gang murders in Chicago. Findings demonstrate that individual murders between gangs create an institutionalized network of group conflict, net of any individual's participation or motive. Within this network, murders spread through an epidemic‐like process of social contagion as gangs evaluate the highly visible actions of others in their local networks and negotiate dominance considerations that arise during violent incidents.