Street gang motivated incident 1

Running Head: STREET GANG MOTIVATED INCIDENT

Street gang motivated incident by weapon

Jay Davis

Tuskegee University
 Street gang motivated incident 2

Hypothesis

My independent variable is the street gang that the respondent was affiliated with. The
dependent variable is the weapon that was used to kill the victim. The control values of gender
were male, female, and missing. The listed weapons that were used to murder the victims with
were a mystery weapon, an automatic gun/rifle, a non automatic hand gun, and a non automatic
rifle. Either the killings were street gang motivated (“yes”) or not (“not indicated”).

I think the street gang will affect the control variable or the gender of the offender.
Basically depending on whether one was in a gang or not, I think that will affect the control
variable. I also feel like there will be more males offenders, who are affiliated with a street gang
that killed the most victims.

Rationale

The independent variable affects the dependent variable. I say this because I feel like
being a part of a gang influences us to do bad things like kill and we are also pressured to do
things that we don’t want to do or wouldn’t normally do on our own. I also believe street gangs
cause a change in the weapon the victim was killed with and it isn’t possible that the weapon
could cause a change in the street gang one is affiliated with.

I feel the control variable will influence the bivariate relationship. The control variable
will influence the bivariate relationship because I think ones gender play a large role, sometimes,
in the choices we decide to make. I feel that males are prone to join street gangs and become
more violent and aggressive than a female. It almost seems as if a female is expected to act a
total different way, perhaps the opposite from a male. What I mean by this is more males will be
more violent and will kill and will join street gangs than a female would.
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Results

Table 1
Street Gang Motivated Incident by Weapon with which Victim was Killed by Weapon of R
(%)
R’s Weapon

Gang Automatic Handgun non auto Rifle-non auto Shotgun non-auto Firearm Type unknown

Not
Indicated 3048 7145 373 636 1967

Yes 712 797 112 83 338

Totals 15.8 33.3 2.0 3.0 9.7

(N) (3760) (7942) (485) (719) (2305 )

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 Table 2
Street Gang Motivated Incident by weapon with which victim was Killed by Weapon of R
Controlling for R’s Gender (%)
Age Group of R
Gang Auto Handgun Rifle Shotgun Firearm Knife sharp Club blunt Arson Other weapon Hands, feet,fist

Male Respondents

Nt ind. 2138 5487 322 516 1200 2947 887 221 505 1135

Yes 613 739 107 77 289 77 54 2 3 15

Totals 15.9 35.9 2.5 3.4 8.6 17.4 5.4 1.3 2.9 6.6

(N) (2751) (6226) (429) (593) (1489) (3024) (941) (223) (508) (1150)

Female Respondents

Nt ind. 143 691 22 28 75 1154 76 64 113 135

Yes 6 6 4 1

Totals 5.9 27.7 .9 1.1 3.0 46.0 3.1 2.5 4.5 5.4

(N) (149) (697) (22) (28) (75) (1158) (77) (64) (13) (135)

Street gang motivated incident 5

Discussion

In my bivariate table I saw something I felt was ironic. In my hypothesis I said I thought
that the most killings would have come from gang members or some affiliation of that sort.
However the total opposite has been proven. There were more killings that occurred by
respondents whose gang affiliation appeared to be “not indicated”. The most killings were done
with a non-automatic handgun. The least amount of killings was done with a non-automatic rifle.
Overall 7,145 killings were done with a non automatic handgun and 797 those killings were by
respondents who were affiliated with a gun.

The effects of the control variable are large and make a difference in the data as a whole.
The control variable affects the data as a whole because there is a huge difference between the
data of the females who killed using a weapon and the males who killed using different weapons.
The amount of killings the males had been more than the females. Take for example the
comparison between the murders that were committed by males. The female respondents whose
gang affiliation was “not indicated” and a non automatic handgun was used, there was 691
killings. And the female respondents who were affiliated with a street gang had 6 killings. On the
other hand the males whose gang affiliation was “not indicated” had 5,487 killings and of those
5,487 killings 739 killings were by males were in a street gang.

In conclusion, my hypothesis was incorrect. I hypothesized that there would be more

killing committed by respondents who were a part of a street gang. However the data proved
otherwise. There were more killings committed by males than females, I was correct in assuming
that. Most of the killings were done with a non automatic handgun, by males and females.
Another thing was ironic to me was the amount of killings done by females with a “sharp knife”
what I’ve learned from this project was to never assume because one is in a gang that they’re a
bad person or is a murderer. More killings occurred by people who weren’t affiliated w any street
gang at all, therefore proving me to be wrong.