Adaptation of an Animal Territory Model to Street Gang Spatial Patterns in Los Angeles

Territorial animals and street gangs exhibit similar behavioral characteristics. Both organize themselves around a home base and mark their territories to distinguish claimed regions. Moorcroft et al. model the formation of territories and spatial distributions of coyote packs and their markings in [24]. We modify this approach to simulate gang dynamics in the Hollenbeck policing division of eastern Los Angeles. We incorporate important geographical features from the region that would inhibit movement, such as rivers and freeways. From the gang and marking densities created by this method, we create a rivalry network from overlapping territories and compare the graph to both the observed network and those constructed through other methods. Data on the locations of where gang members have been observed is then used to analyze the densities created by the model.