Location, location, location – Environmental impact on transnational organised crime ties

• In Event: Multidisciplinary Tools and Approaches to Organised Crime Research

Abstract

The general consensus today in the international community is that organised crime is no longer a security threat on a national level, but rather a global security threat. Indeed, the last two decades have seen a rise of sophisticated activities by organised crime groups, including a high level of networking capabilities between groups across national borders. These groups have been observed to increasingly operate, and indeed connect with their counterparts across state boundaries. As a result of these changes in the offending landscape, academics increasingly study the transnational characteristics of organised crime.

One of the frequently given explanations for the transnational level of organised crime is derived from theories of globalization. Thus, academics and practitioners acknowledge that changes on a larger environmental scale can explain the changes in the nature of transnational organised crime. The current study will explore this idea by taking it a step further: do changes in the environment have an impact on connectivity between transnational organised crime groups? The study will present results based on a unique dataset, exploring the direct impact of environmental variables on group centrality values, within a large transnational organised crime network.

Author

• Sanaz Zolghadriha, University College London