Gisela Bichler

Networks of Collaborating Criminals: Assessing the Structural Vulnerability of Drug Markets:

Uncovering the resiliency of ties between individuals involved in criminal enterprise will contribute to our understanding of how illicit markets function. To examine activities along the entire drug market commodity chain, this study extracted information about individuals involved or associated with trafficking (1,998 people) from police intelligence reports generated from 2004 to 2006. Significant differences were found for centrality and cohesion across market niches. Results show that the highest fragmentation potential lies with individuals who are involved with smuggling, supply, and financing, particularly when these individuals are also involved in other niches. Variability in small-world and scale-free properties suggest that interdiction strategies must be tailored to niche characteristics.

Co-offending between criminal enterprise groups

Rather than examining networks of individuals as prior research has done, this study systematically examines the structure and composition of co-offending among types of criminal enterprise groups. Using social network analysis, the authors show that different types of crime groups tend to have unique co-offending patterns as measured by network composition and structure. The results also support the countercurrent of criminologists who suggest that ethnically derived categories may be misleading when trying to classify criminal enterprise groups.

Address matching bias: ignorance is not bliss

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that despite the critical importance of using accurate data when identifying geographic patterns and studying hotspots, few have explored the data quality issues introduced by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software applications. While software manufacturers provide some information about the address matching process, critical details are left out or are buried in technical, and sometimes proprietary, jargon. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach – The paper demonstrates, with three datasets of 100 cases each, how the assumptions built into popular GIS software produce systematically missing data during the data importing process commonly referred to as address matching.Findings – Inclusion of directional indicators and zip codes are more important than previously thought. The results highlight the critical need to provide complete descriptions of research methodology. All geographic analyses must be accompanie...

An Examination of Police Officers’ Insights Into Problem Identification and Problem Solving

Problem solving begins with problem identification. Conventional knowledge suggests that because patrol officers work specific geographical areas (beats) on a fairly constant basis, they come to see where the problems exist; thus, police experience alone can be relied on to identify crime problems. However, few have examined whether officers are effective in identifying problems in their areas. This research examined the consistency of officer problem identification across focus groups for an entire police department in terms of the kinds of problems identified, the location of problems, and the suggested responses. Although there was little consistency across focus groups, officers were able to identify specific sites or properties thought to generate high levels of disorder-related calls. Solutions to crime problems tended to involve increased police presence for complex problems affecting areas and crime prevention for specific sites facing single-crime problems.

Magnetic Facilities: Identifying the Convergence Settings of Juvenile Delinquents

Facilities that draw youth from different communities are prone to become offender convergence settings and intercity crime generators. Applying network analysis to self-nominated hangouts of 5,082 delinquent youth residing in Southern California revealed specific facilities acting as regional convergence settings. A small number of magnetic locations (measured by popularity and breadth of appeal) enable the congregation and interaction of youth that would otherwise not be exposed to each other. As predicted, the sociocirculatory structure of place networks remains relatively constant over time. In-degree and betweenness centrality statistics offer a viable analytic strategy to identify facilities operating as stable regional convergence locations. Crime prevention programs invoking effective place management through ordinances may offer a way to publicly govern these private facilities.

White Collars and Black Ties: Interlocking Social Circles of Elite Corporate Offenders

Focusing on business leaders in control of Fortune 500 companies, this study examines corporate interlock among CEOs with security exchange commission (SEC) violations and CEOs without. Using affiliation networks built from publicly available information, we analyzed rates of participation (outdegree centrality), organizational influence (indegree centrality), and brokerage (betweenness centrality). The findings suggest that a single, integrated network exists. However, within these interlocking directorates, subsets of executives exhibit substantial cohesion suggesting the presence of distinct social circles. Only a few organizations and individuals were found to link the subset of offending CEOs to their law-abiding counterparts. Moreover, SEC violators were more socially isolated, thereby increasing the influence of weak ties to active executives playing a controlling role within the network.

Small arms, big guns: a dynamic model of illicit market opportunity

Transnational illicit markets are deeply embedded within legal trade systems and thus should be affected by shifting market conditions. Applying a stochastic actor-oriented model (SAOM), this study tests whether variation in illicit market opportunity could account for changing relations within the small arms trade (2003–2008). Measures of market accessibility – changes in export activity, reporting transparency and the percent of the labour force that is armed – outperformed measures of weapon availability with the exception of involvement in armed conflict. Significant structural change in outdegree density and transitivity suggest the development of trade factions, and decreasing balance hints that leaders are emerging. With the pending de-escalation of US-led conflict in the Middle East, a flood of second-hand weaponry is about to enter the market. Continued research is required to further uncover how the legitimate trade infrastructure facilitates the illicit flow of goods.

Mind the gap: Perceptions of passenger aggression and train car supervision in a commuter rail system

Negative perceptions about the safety of a commuter rail system can act as a barrier to using public transportation. When operational issues increase rider tension (i.e., crowding or worsening on-time performance), or the management capabilities of conductors and law enforcement personnel are called into question, an upsurge in passenger-on-passenger aggression may occur. In turn, riders concerned about their safety may retreat to personal vehicles or other forms of “less risky” transit, such as express buses. Modifying an interstitial estimation process, this study presents a new method of identifying where rider concerns about public safety concentrate. Using the commuter rail system of Los Angeles as a case study, specific inbound and outbound trip segments were found to exhibit different problems. Raw scores identify segments in need of greater train car supervision, and these segments differ from where discontented riders congregate (requiring customer service outreach). Tailored responses, focused on a few segments, stand to improve perceptions of safety and, ultimately, may increase ridership.

The Routine Nature of Transnational Crime

If Cohen and Felson (1979) is the only version of Routine Activity Theory (RAT) that you are familiar with, you are sadly out of date.1 Marcus Felson and colleagues — perhaps, more suitably referred to as co-conspirators — have been very busy for the last 35 years. Although Cohen and Felson (1979) is important in its own right, theoretical evolution continues to significantly extend the conceptual foundation of this theory, which in turn broadens its scope, changing it from a suggested model of crime analysis and explanation of predatory crime to a general theory of crime events. Though many people continue to apply RAT to street crime, by revisiting some of the theoretical developments of recent years, it becomes clear that many of the tenets are easily applied to transnational crime. Why is this important?

Seeds of Collaboration The Illicit Networks Workshop

This introduction to the JCCJ special issue on illicit networks seeks to accomplish three objectives. First, we offer a brief explanation of the network paradigm and its importance to criminology; our purpose is to convince readers of the utility of social network analysis (SNA). Second, we summarize the benefits of working groups with the aim of providing readers with the context from which they can understand why these informal collectives are critical to the advancement of science. And finally, the remainder of the article introduces the research assembled for this special issue.