Original Article
Security Journal advance online publication 26 October 2009; doi: 10.1057/sj.2009.18
Comparing the ties that bind criminal networks: Is blood thicker than water?
A version of this paper was presented at the International Symposium of Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis held on 17–19 March 2008; Izmir, Turkey. This meeting was hosted by the Turkish National Police. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Aili Malma, Gisela Bichlerb and Stephanie Van De Wallec
- aDepartment of Criminal Justice, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, California 90840, USA
- bCalifornia State University, San Bernardino, California, USA.
- cRoyal Canadian Mounted Police, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Correspondence: Aili Malm, E-mail: amalm@csulb.edu
Abstract
Structural analysis of illicit markets suggests that criminal enterprise is to some degree linked with legitimate enterprise, and that, networks generally comprise groups and clusters of individuals with varying subgroup structural characteristics. Rather than investigating networks formed exclusively through formal organizational ties, this study compares the structure of criminal networks formed by different types of ties (co-offending, kinship, formal organization membership and legitimate business or other non-criminal connections) using p*(exponential random graph) models. The results indicate that kinship and formal organization networks are highly cohesive and have low fragmentation probabilities. Therefore, the results show that blood, both through kinship ties or the metaphoric blood that ties formal criminal organizations is thicker than the ties that bind co-offending groups. Policy implications for policing techniques are also discussed.
Keywords:
network analysis, organized crime, criminal enterprise, kinship, p*models, exponential random graph modeling
