“Connected islands”: Examining the Larger Social Structure in Which Police Targets are Embedded

• In Event: Social Networks of Criminals and Crime

Abstract

As part of a portfolio of strategies used to achieve crime reductions, law enforcement agencies routinely establish lists of prolific and serious offenders to be targeted as priorities. Rarely considered, however, is the fact that offenders are embedded in larger social networks. Such networks can facilitate the prioritizing process, and assess the potential impact of interventions. Drawing from a variety of official police records, we constructed the egocentric networks of two targeted offenders from a mid-size city in British Columbia, Canada. Network ties were defined in multiple ways, including criminal events where co-offending ties were recorded, and social settings where contacts were observed together in a non-criminal context. Results showed that both targets had a similar sized network of social and criminal associates (62 contacts for target A, 63 for target B). Interestingly, both targets were directly connected, and had nine other contacts in common. Networks were also similar with respect to the presence of contacts with a criminal history (36% of the 116 unique contacts in the network). Results are discussed in the context of an increased awareness by illicit network scholars to recognize the multiplex nature of the social networks in which adult offenders are embedded.

Authors

• Sadaf Hashimi, Simon Fraser University

• Martin Bouchard, Simon Fraser University