Street Gangs & Gang-Related Violence

Peer-Reviewed Manuscripts

Urbanik, M., Valasik, M., Maier, K., Greene, C., & Enkhtugs, B. (2025). ““It’s a trap!”: Exploring the Rise of Gang-Led “Cuckooing” and its Relationship to Homelessness.” International Criminology. DOI:10.1007/s43576-025-00167-3

Valasik, M. (2025). “Gang Injunction, What’s Your Function?: A Case Study on the Relationship between Civil Gang Injunctions and Gang Associates’ Patterns of Association.” Journal of Criminal Justice, 96, 102339.

Gravel, J., Valasik, M., Mulder, J., Leenders, R., Butts, C., Brantingham, P. J., & Tita, G. E. (2023). “Rivalries, reputation, retaliation, and repetition: Testing plausible mechanisms for the contagion of violence between street gangs using relational event models.” Network Science, 11(2): 324-350.

Valasik, M., Gravel, J., Tita. G. E., Brantingham, P. J., & Griffiths, B. (2023). “Territory, Residency and Routine Activities: A Typology of Gang Member Mobility Patterns with Implications for Place-based Interventions.” Journal of Criminal Justice, 86: 102048

Valasik, M. & Torres, J. (2022). “Civilizing Space or Criminalizing Place: Using Routine Activities Theory to Better Understand How Legal Hybridity Spatially Regulates ‘Deviant Populations.’” Critical Criminology, 30(2), 443-463.

Gravel, J., Valasik, M., & Reid, S. E. (2021) “Reimagining Gang Research without the Police: Moving the Field Forward in the Era of ‘Defund the Police.’” Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 13(2/3): 73-81.

Valasik, M. & Reid, S. E. (2021) “‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’: Research on Gang-Related Violence in the 21st Century — Introduction to Special Issue.” Social Sciences,  10(6): DOI: 10.3390/socsci10060225

Valasik, M. & Reid, S. E. (2021). “East Side Story: Disaggregating Gang Homicides in East Los Angeles.” Social Sciences, 10(2), 48: DOI: 10.3390/socsci10020048

Barton, M. S., Valasik, M., Brault, E., & Tita, G. E. (2020). “‘Gentefication’ in the Barrio: Examining the Relationship between Gentrification and Homicide in East Los Angeles.” Crime & Delinquency, 66(13-14): 1888-1913.

Brantingham, P. J., Valasik, M., & Tita, G. E. (2019). “Competitive Dominance, Gang Size Diversity and the Directionality of Gang Violence.” Crime Science, 8(1): 1-20.

Valasik, M. (2018). “Gang Violence Predictability: Using Risk Terrain Modeling to study Gang Homicides and Gang Assaults in East Los Angeles.” Journal of Criminal Justice, 58: 10-21.

Valasik, M., Barton, M. S., Reid, S. E., & Tita, G. E. (2017). “Barriocide: Investigating the Temporal and Spatial Influence of Neighborhood Structural Characteristics on Gang and Non-Gang Homicides in East Los Angeles” Homicide Studies, 21(4): 287-311.

Valasik, M. & Philips, M. D. (2017). “Understanding Modern Terror and Insurgency Through the Lens of Street Gangs: A Case Study of The Islamic State.” Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, 3(3): 192-207.

Valasik, M., Reid, S. E., & Phillips, M. D. (2016). “CRASH and Burn: Abatement of a Specialized Gang Unit.” Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, 2(2): 95-106.

Smith, L. M., Bertozzi, A. L., Brantingham, P. J., Tita, G. E., & Valasik, M. (2012). “Adaptation of an Ecological Territorial Model to Street Gang Spatial Patterns in Los Angeles.” Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems – Series A, 32(9): 3223-3244.

Book Chapters

Reid, S. E. & Valasik, M. (2025). “The Gun-Centric Nature of Gang Violence.” In N. Thomson (Ed.) The Handbook of Gun Violence (pp. 387-400). Cambridge, MA. Elsevier.

Valasik, M. & Brantingham, P. J. (2024) “Somebody’s Watching Me”: Surveilling Police Surveillance of Gangs. In D.C. Pyrooz, J.A. Densley, & J. Leverso (Eds.) TheOxford Handbook of Gangs and Society (pp. 809-831). New York, NY. Oxford University Press.

Brantingham, P. J. & Valasik, M. (2024). “Gang Ecological Diversity in the Hollenbeck Area of Los Angeles, 1978-2012.” (Chapter 24) In D.C. Pyrooz, J.A. Densley, & J. Leverso (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society (pp. 518-542). New York, NY. Oxford University Press.

Valasik, M., Reid, S. E., & Barton, M. S. (2024). “Barriocide Reloaded: An Updated Analysis of the Temporal and Spatial Characteristics of Gang Homicide in East Los Angeles.” In K. Burgason & M. DeLisi (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Homicide Studies (pp. 382-409). New York, NY. Routledge.

Reid, S. E., Valasik, M., & Bagavathi, A. (2020). “Examining the Physical Manifestation of Alt-Right Gangs: From Online Trolling to Street Fighting.” In C. Melde & F. Weerman (Eds.) Understanding Gangs in the Era of Internet and Social Media (pp. 105-134). New York, NY:  Springer.

Valasik, M. & Reid, S. E. (2020). “Distinguishing between aggression in groups and in gangs: Are gangs always violent?” In C. A. Ireland, M. Lewis, A. Lopez, & J. L. Ireland (Eds.) The Handbook of Collective Violence: Current Developments and Understandings (pp. 273-290). New York, NY. Routledge.

Valasik, M. & Reid, S. E. (2019). “Taking Stock of Gang Violence: An Overview of the Literature” in R. Geffner, V. Vieth, V. Vaughan-Eden, a. Rosenbaum, L.K. Hamberger, & J. White (Eds.) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan. Springer Science/Nature. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-62122-7_105-1

Valasik, M. & Tita. G.E. (2018) “Gangs and Space”. In S. D. Johnson & G. Bruinsma (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Criminology (pp. 843-871). Oxford, UK. Oxford University Press.

Valasik, M. & Phillips, M. D. (2018). “Drive-bys in Chiraq or ethnic genocide in Iraq: Can violent street gangs inform our comprehension of the Islamic State?”. In J. L. Ireland, C. A. Ireland & P. Birch (Eds.) The Routledge International Handbook of Human Aggression: Current Issues and Perspectives (pp. 388-399). New York, NY. Routledge.

Valasik, M., Reid, S. E., West-Fagan, J. & Gravel, J. (2018). “Group Processes, Gang Policy, and Gang Delinquency”. In J. L. Ireland, C. A. Ireland & P. Birch (Eds.) The Routledge International Handbook of Human Aggression: Current Issues and Perspectives (pp. 411-423). New York, NY. Routledge.

Edited Books

Valasik, M., & Reid, S. E. (2021). Research on Gang-Related Violence in the 21st Century. Basel, Switzerland. MDPI.