| Spring 2008 UMASS
Amherst Operations Research / Management Science Seminar Series |
Date: Friday, February 22, 2008 Time: 11:00 AM Location: Isenberg School of Management, Room 112 |
| Speaker: Professor Andrew
Papachristos Department of Sociology University of Massachusetts at Amherst |
| Biography: Andrew Papachristos received his
Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the University of
Chicago. Dr. Papachristos' research uses social network analysis
to
examine: (1) the social structures and group processes at the
heart of interpersonal violence and delinquency; (2) issues of group
dominance and reciprocity; and (3) the use of violence and honor as
measures of social control. His current research combines
ethnographic and quantitative techniques to explain the network
dynamics responsible for the social contagion of gang murder in Chicago
over nearly two decades. Dr. Papachristos is also currently
involved in the
evaluation of the Project Safe Neighborhoods program in Chicago and has
just completed data collection on a four-neighborhood study of how
illegal and pro-social networks of probationers and parolees
influence offending patterns, interpersonal violence, gun markets, and
perceptions of neighborhood social order. His research has
appeared in Foreign Policy, Criminology and Public Policy, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies,
and several edited books. |
| TITLE: Murder Markets: Group
Dominance and the Social Contagion of Gang Homicide in Chicago |
| Abstract: Gang murder spreads much
like the diffusion of innovations in a market—gangs interpret and
absorb information as they respond to the status perceptions of other
actors in their local network environment. This paper 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. Gang murder occurs through an epidemic-like
process of social contagion as competing groups jockey for positions of
dominance and address perceived threats to social status. I use a
network approach and incident level homicide records to recreate and
analyze the structure of gang murders in Chicago. The findings
demonstrate that individual murders between gangs create an
institutionalized network of group conflict, net of any individual’s
participation or motive. Murders spread as gangs respond to threats by
evaluating the highly visible actions of others in their network
neighborhoods. Gangs must constantly (re)establish the social order
through highly visible displays of solidarity which, in turn, merely
strengthen these murder networks. |
| This series is organized by the
UMASS Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter. Support for this series is
provided by the Isenberg School of Management, the Department of
Finance and Operations Management, INFORMS, and the John F. Smith
Memorial Fund. For questions, please contact the INFORMS Student Chapter Speaker Series Coordinator, Ms. Trisha Woolley, twoolley@som.umass.edu |