L.A., home of the original gangster paradise, accidentally provided us a great example of the interplay between gangs, policing, and homicide rates. Takeaways Increasing gang activity leads to lower homicide clearance rates. Lower homicide clearance rates, in turn, facilitate/encourage gang activity. This led people in L.A.’s Southeast Division (i.e., south central) to having a chance of being murdered at a rate of 1 in 2,200, almost 9X higher than the national average. A spontaneous chart appeared The chart above landed on our desk among the  never-ending flow of new data (we are busy little beavers here at the Gun Facts Project). What was interesting was that this was one of the more concise bits of data proffered by local law enforcement, measuring both their homicide rate and the percentage of homicides that were gang-related.