The Value of Multiplex Ties Bridging Legitimate and Illegitimate Networks

• In Event: Criminal Network Analysis: Applications of Social Network Analysis to the Study of Co-Offending, Gangs and Violence

Abstract

Offenders, like most people, are embedded within intertwined, partially overlapping networks comprised of diverse groups of people: some of whom are also involved in crime, some of whom are not, and some of whom occupy a grey area between legitimate and illegitimate worlds. Ties connecting legitimate and illegitimate worlds have long been known to be the hallmark of serious and organize crime, but until very recently, were all too often overlooked by scholars. The current study considers theories of differential association and criminal opportunity to assess the value of multiplex ties bridging otherwise seemingly legitimate and illegitimate actors involved in serious and organized crimes of drug trafficking, fraud, and money laundering. Our data afford us this unique opportunity, capturing the nature and qualities of more than 3,600 unique ties connecting more than 3,000 career criminals, serious and non-serious offenders, associates, and non-offenders knowingly involved, suspected, or associated with serious and organized crime in the Canadian province of Alberta, throughout 2014 – 2015. We test the value of multiplexity in this context using exponential random graph models, controlling for various node-level network measures of human and social capital that influence co-offender selection.

Authors

• Mitch Mcdonald, Simon Fraser University

• Martin Bouchard, Simon Fraser University

• Andrew Wright, Criminal Intelligence Services of Alberta