Was it a washout? Analyzing the influence of a high intensity, countywide gang crackdown on the formation of new co-offending relationships

IF 3.3 1区社会学 Q1 CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY

Journal of Criminal Justice Pub Date : 2025-05-01 DOI:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102423

Thomas Bryan Smith

{"title":"Was it a washout? Analyzing the influence of a high intensity, countywide gang crackdown on the formation of new co-offending relationships","authors":"Thomas Bryan Smith","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102423","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Purpose</h3><div>In 2021, the US Marshals Service (USMS) partnered with law enforcement agencies across Galveston County, TX to conduct Operation Washout (OW), a 10-day operation intended to reduce violent crime through the execution of arrest warrants targeting gang members, firearm, and drug law violators. This study examines the impact of OW on the co-offending of OW arrestees.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Arrest data for all of Galveston County are scraped from Police2Citizen Bulletins and used to construct pre- and post-OW co-offending networks. Networks consist of individuals arrested during the intervention, as well as all co-offenders in distance one or two. Stochastic actor-oriented models are estimated to model the formation of new co-offending relationships.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Arrest during the operation was generally associated with a reduced likelihood of forming new co-offending ties. The probability of forming new co-offending ties following OW was greater among operational targets than non-target fugitives and non-fugitive arrestees apprehended during the intervention. The estimated effect of OW on targets' co-offending was insignificant.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Consistent with research on Operation Triple Beam, USMS-led fugitive operations effectively target higher priority fugitives. Despite the selection of appropriate operational targets, fugitives' ability to forge new co-offending relationships appears unimpeded by arrest – barring the requisite period of incapacitation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"98 ","pages":"Article 102423"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Criminal Justice","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235225000728","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Purpose

In 2021, the US Marshals Service (USMS) partnered with law enforcement agencies across Galveston County, TX to conduct Operation Washout (OW), a 10-day operation intended to reduce violent crime through the execution of arrest warrants targeting gang members, firearm, and drug law violators. This study examines the impact of OW on the co-offending of OW arrestees.

Methods

Arrest data for all of Galveston County are scraped from Police2Citizen Bulletins and used to construct pre- and post-OW co-offending networks. Networks consist of individuals arrested during the intervention, as well as all co-offenders in distance one or two. Stochastic actor-oriented models are estimated to model the formation of new co-offending relationships.

Results

Arrest during the operation was generally associated with a reduced likelihood of forming new co-offending ties. The probability of forming new co-offending ties following OW was greater among operational targets than non-target fugitives and non-fugitive arrestees apprehended during the intervention. The estimated effect of OW on targets' co-offending was insignificant.

Conclusions

Consistent with research on Operation Triple Beam, USMS-led fugitive operations effectively target higher priority fugitives. Despite the selection of appropriate operational targets, fugitives' ability to forge new co-offending relationships appears unimpeded by arrest – barring the requisite period of incapacitation.

查看原文本刊更多论文

这是一次失败吗？分析高强度、全县范围的帮派打击对新共犯关系形成的影响

2021年，美国法警署（USMS）与德克萨斯州加尔维斯顿县的执法机构合作，开展了为期10天的“清洗行动”（Operation Washout， OW），旨在通过执行针对帮派成员、枪支和毒品违法者的逮捕令来减少暴力犯罪。本研究探讨了低犯罪率对低犯罪率被捕者共同犯罪的影响。方法从Police2Citizen公报中收集加尔维斯顿县的最完整数据，并用于构建ow前后的共犯网络。网络包括在干预期间被捕的个人，以及距离1或2的所有共犯。随机因素导向的模型估计，以模拟新的共同犯罪关系的形成。结果手术期间休息通常与形成新的共同犯罪关系的可能性降低有关。在干预期间逮捕的非目标逃犯和非逃犯被捕者中，在行动目标中形成新的共同犯罪关系的可能性大于非目标逃犯。估计OW对目标共犯的影响不显著。结论与“三束”行动的研究结果一致，美军主导的逃亡行动有效地锁定了高优先级的逃亡者。尽管选择了合适的行动目标，但逃犯建立新的共同犯罪关系的能力似乎不受逮捕的影响——除非有必要的丧失行为能力的时期。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Criminal Justice CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY-

CiteScore

6.90

自引率

9.10%

发文量

审稿时长

23 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Criminal Justice is an international journal intended to fill the present need for the dissemination of new information, ideas and methods, to both practitioners and academicians in the criminal justice area. The Journal is concerned with all aspects of the criminal justice system in terms of their relationships to each other. Although materials are presented relating to crime and the individual elements of the criminal justice system, the emphasis of the Journal is to tie together the functioning of these elements and to illustrate the effects of their interactions. Articles that reflect the application of new disciplines or analytical methodologies to the problems of criminal justice are of special interest. Since the purpose of the Journal is to provide a forum for the dissemination of new ideas, new information, and the application of new methods to the problems and functions of the criminal justice system, the Journal emphasizes innovation and creative thought of the highest quality.