Building A Social Network Of Crime
Organized Crime Michelle Mruk In Chicago's gang-embattled South Side, a shooting can incite swift retaliation, which spawns even further violence. That’s what may have happened in September in Cornell Square Park when gunmen opened fire on a basketball court just hours after one of them had been wounded in a separate incident. When officers can’t connect the dots between people fast enough, it’s nearly impossible to get ahead of crime. In Cornell Square Park, the fallout wounded 13, including a three-year-old boy. Gang violence is generally not random. It’s usually related to territorial disputes or personal rifts—that is, to geographic, cultural, and social connections. Some police departments have had marginal success monitoring social networks like Facebook for clues about where bloodshed might erupt next. But a new kind of software being used in Chicago can turn an entire...