Relational Dynamics of Networks of Far-Right Extremists Engaging in Financial Schemes

• In Event: Social Networks of Criminals and Crime

Abstract

This study examines the utility of a dynamic network perspective of organized criminal behavior, which argues that society is organized around constantly evolving local relations between individuals. These collective relational connections form the context for opportunities to engage in criminal events. Network analytical methods are used to examine criminal behavior as a system involving different social structures that change across time and space. Network analysis can be used to better understand co-offending relations among criminal offenders and events, including political and religious extremists engaging in financial schemes. Using open source data from the Extremist Financial Crime Database (EFCDB), the networking approach is applied to a network of known criminals linked to the tax protest group “We the People” that operated across the United States in the 1990s. Clearly identifiable social structures are separable into distinct subgroups shaped largely by changes in relational behavior over the life course. The discussion informs the development of theoretical explanations of group and network-based criminality.

Author

• Brandon A. Sullivan, Michigan State University