Carlo Morselli

The Efficiency/Security Trade-off in Criminal Networks

A consistent trade-off facing participants in any criminal network is that between organizing for efficiency or security—participants collectively pursue an objective while keeping the action leading to that goal concealed. Which side of the trade-off is prioritized depends on the objective that is pursued by the criminal group. The distinction is most salient when comparing terrorist with criminal enterprise networks. Terrorist networks are ideologically driven, while criminal enterprises pursue monetary ends. Time-to-task is shorter in the criminal enterprise and group efficiency is therefore prioritized over group security. Terrorist networks, in contrast, have longer horizons and security is prioritized over the execution of any single attack. Using Krebs’ exploratory research on networks of terrorist cells and electronic surveillance transcripts of a drug importation network, our analyses demonstrate how these opposing trade-offs emerge in criminal group structures.

Law-Enforcement Disruption of a Drug Importation Network

This study focuses on the structure and evolution of a drug importation network that operated from Montreal, Canada, and that was the target of an extensive two-year criminal investigation. The investigation was atypical in that it followed a seize-but-do-not-arrest strategy - while eleven drug shipments were seized by police throughout this period, arrests were never made until the final phase of the investigation. Such a case offers a rare opportunity to study the dynamics of a criminal network under intense surveillance and disruption. The reconstruction of the importation network is based on electronic communication transcripts that were intercepted and compiled during the investigation. Findings from analyses of the principal changes that took place within the communication network reveal how network centralization and critical node status are variable, and not static, properties of a criminal network under considerable constraint. The study demonstrates how a criminal network decentralizes and is re-ordered in response to intense law-enforcement targeting. Contributions are made to research on disruption in criminal networks. We conclude with a discussion on how a criminal networks flexibility, a feature generally presented as a sign of resilience, may contribute to a more significant demise within a context of intensive control.

Assessing Vulnerable and Strategic Positions in a Criminal Network

This study focuses on individual positioning within an illegal drug distribution network surrounding a reputed criminal organization (the Quebec Hells Angels). The aim is to distinguish between participants who were positioned vulnerably and/or strategically during a period when the network was targeted by an intensive law-enforcement investigation. Two centrality measures are used throughout the analysis. Degree centrality accounts for the number of direct contacts surrounding a participant. Betweenness centrality accounts for a participant’s brokerage leverage by measuring the scope of indirect relationships that s/he mediates. The final results reveal how differential positions in the network influence the judicial outcomes (arrests) within the case. Participants with high degree centrality were more likely to be arrested. Participants with high betweenness centrality were less likely to be arrested. Most importantly for law-enforcement concerns, those participants with high brokerage level were less likely to be members of the Hells Angels, thus suggesting that targeting strategies must take consider the patterns that represent an offender’s network at any given time, rather than simply focusing on an offender’s status and reputation within a criminal organization.

Career opportunities and network-based privileges in the Cosa Nostra

The paper provides an interpromotionalanalysis of Sammy (a.k.a. the Bull)Gravanos career in New York Citys Gambinofamily. Biographical material as well ascomplementary data sources (courtproceedings and electronic surveillancetranscripts) are used to create Gravanosworking network throughout his 30-yearcareer in illegal and legitimate businessventures. A social network design is usedto construct the interpromotionalsurroundings that accounted for Gravanosrise from associate to underboss throughhis ability to attain a competitive edgewithin a patron-client exchange system.Structural hole properties (personalnetwork constraint andhierarchical-constraint) shapeopportunities for a members advancementwithin fixed, organizational workingsettings. Such promotions within anorganization, in turn, affect variousfacets of criminal entrepreneurial careers(i.e. shifts in criminal activities,increased participation in legitimateactivities, increased financial earnings,and variations in access to regulatorylethal violence).

The Mobility of Criminal Groups

This article reviews evidence from past research that addresses diverse themes and theories regarding shifts and patterns in the mobility of criminal groups. Our main objective is to identify push and pull factors that will help us understand how and why criminal groups, organisations or general organised crime patterns are present across a variety of settings (i.e. geographical locations, criminal markets and legitimate industries). Push factors refer to forces which drive criminal groups from a setting. Pull factors refer to forces which draw criminal groups to a setting. A distinction is also made between contexts in which offenders organise around available opportunities (the strategic context) and contexts in which opportunities induce greater organisational levels amongst offenders (the emergent context). The most general statement that can be formulated from the present exercise is that opportunities matter more than the group itself. What we demonstrate is that the problems concerning geographical locations, criminal markets and legitimate industries that are vulnerable to organised crime are persistent and stable over time. Groups that seize such opportunities, on the other hand, are transient and more than often short-lived. Aside from reviewing past research in search of such factors, we also apply the general understanding that emerges from our analysis to critically assess case studies that reflect popular images of organised crime threats in Canada during recent years. The concluding section identifies the key issues that must be addressed within this area.

Criminal Mobility and Criminal Achievement

This study examines the impact of criminal mobility on criminal earning patterns in a sample of incarcerated offenders who reported their criminal experiences over a three-year period. Criminal mobility is indicated by an individuals offending perimeter and not the traditional journey-to-crime measure. Findings reveal that the offending perimeter length is a factor of criminal achievement in that mobile offenders reported higher financial earnings from crime than immobile offenders. Greater distances traveled for crime were also generally associated with higher criminal earnings, but this was more salient for predatory offenders than market offenders.

Crime facilitation purposes of social networking sites: A review and analysis of the ‘cyberbanging’ phenomenon

There have been growing claims in media circles and law-enforcement settings that street gangs and criminal groups are turning to Internet-based social networking sites for various reasons ranging from the showcasing of their images and exploits to the suspected recruitment of members. The present study investigates whether such a trend is, in fact, in place. The presence of street gangs on these Internet sites is referred to as cyberbanging. While there is some anecdotal evidence suggesting that gangs are turning to social networking sites, there is little available research on exactly how street gangs and criminal groups use the Internet. Our main argument is that gang culture is in many ways an individualized phenomenon and this feature ties in directly with recent assessments of the Internet as a setting that is governed by a process of networked individualism. This theoretical link between the individualized gang setting and the presence of gang members on social networking sites helps us understand why recruitment is improbable even in a context where people are openly diffusing their image and exploits to a growing number of Internet users. The empirical segment of this research adds to this general outlook. Based on a keyword search of over 50 street gang names, the three main social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace) were monitored for street gang presence. Results illustrate that gang presence on social networking sites is linked primarily to promoting a general gang or street culture through individual displays. In regard to the visitors to such sites, there is no evidence that they are being tricked or manipulated in any way. They are, however, showing their curiosity in regard to such groups and, for those who share their comments and opinions, signs of support are evident. Thus, whereas criminal gangs are not proactively using the Internet to convert anyone into being gang members, social networking sites are creating a new venue for people who share or are sensitive to the values underlying street gang lifestyle to come together. These sites essentially create a new convergence setting for gang members to interact with a wider number of people who would probably never have been exposed to their lifestyles and exploits through physical interactions. The studys conclusion extends these findings toward further research in this area, as well as outlining the more relevant implications for law-enforcement monitoring of this growing phenomenon.

Coercion, Control, and Cooperation in a Prostitution Ring:

Coercion and control are key components of the dominant narrative on sex trafficking, but the power and exchange relations between some of the key players in trafficking have not been carefully examined. This study is based on electronic surveillance data from a two-year police investigation of a prostitution network in Montreal. All of the prostitutes in the network had initially been recruited when they were minors. Whereas most of the writing on sex trafficking portrays pimps as being involved in highly exploitative and coercive relationships with prostitutes, we found that control was not always the sole purview of the pimps, that prostitutes often held key positions and privileged roles within the network, and that pimps’ and prostitutes’ relationships involved complex exchanges of network resources.

Welcome to the Scene: A Study of Social Organization and Recognition among Warez Hackers

Objectives. This article seeks to describe and understand the social organization as well as the distribution of recognition in the online community (also known as the warez scene) of hackers who illegally distribute intellectual property online. Method. The data were collected from an online index that curates a list of illegal content that was made available between 2003 and 2009. Sutherland’s notion of behavior systems in crime as well as Boase and Wellman’s notion of network individualism are used to theorize the social organization and the distribution of recognition in the warez scene. These were then analyzed using social network theory. Results. There is a strong correlation between the productivity of the hacking groups and the recognition they receive from their peers. These findings are limited by the lack of data on the internal operations of each hacking groups and by the aggregate nature of the network matrix. Conclusions. We find that hacking groups that make this online community generally have a very limited life span as well as low production levels. They work and compete in a very distributed and democratic community where we are unable to identify clear leaders.

Alliances, Conflicts, and Contradictions in Montreal’s Street Gang Landscape

This study proposes an analytical framework for examining the network of street gangs in Montreal. The objectives are twofold. One aim is to describe the core features of Montreal gangs. The second aim is to examine the structure of social relations between these gangs. These analyses allow us to assess whether the city’s gang landscape is structured around popularized rivalries between the Crips and the Bloods. Data for this research were gathered during focus group interviews involving 20 youth gang members residing in the Centre jeunesse de Montreal–Institut universitaire, the city’s main youth correctional institution. These gang members identified a total of 35 active gangs in Montreal. The network does reveal a relational setting that supports the popular Crips versus Bloods rivalry, with intercoalition conflicts and intracoalition alliances accounting for the vast majority of intergang relations. However, the study also revealed some important exceptions to this popular outlook. Such exceptions must be taken into consideration in order to arrive at a more complete and nuanced understanding of Montreal’s street gang landscape. The authors suspect that the conflicts and contradictions that emerge in the Montreal scene are also relevant for other major North American cities.