Criminal Mobility Research Articles

Identity, Clothing, and Criminal Mobility in Early Modern Ottoman Society

In the early modern Ottoman Empire, social identity was closely tied to a hierarchical structure, with the sultanate occupying the highest tier and ordinary subjects positioned at the lower end. Empire’s inhabitants were divided into groups based on the style and color of their clothes. By dressing in clothing from a different gender, socioeconomic class, or ethnoreligious group, one could disguise their true identity and social status. This article endeavors to unveil the motivations that compelled ordinary people to employ clothing as a means to conceal their involvement in criminal activities. Furthermore, it investigates the constraints associated with common identity-altering practices, particularly from the vantage points of religion, gender, and intersectionality. Drawing from an array of archival sources such as mühimme records, chronicles, manuscripts, and qadi court registers, the article scrutinizes the consequences of these practices.

Deconstructing journey-to-crime's questionable validity in theft-related crimes

PurposeThis study empirically quantifies the methodological biases of the journey-to-crime measurement, by investigating the extent to which they affect its ability to estimate the itineraries offenders actually travel during the perpetration of their crimes. MethodsWith the support of police-arrest records, interviews, and web-mapping technologies, the detailed route taken by 98 offenders during 449 theft-related crimes are reconstructed in order to test some of the key assumptions underlying journey-to-crime research. ResultsPolice data used to compute home-crime distances have been found to provide satisfactorily accurate crime-location addresses, but poorly accurate offender home-addresses. Several explanations of why the police have problems correctly identifying where an offender is truly residing on the day of a given crime are presented. Even if the offender's residence was the most important node in their crime journey, the actual travel undertaken by offenders was much more complex than the home-crime-home itinerary assumed by the journey-to-crime measurement. ConclusionsDespite its numerous drawbacks, the traditional journey-to-crime measure is still a valid and useful proxy for the total distance actually traveled by offenders in robbery and “other theft,” but not in burglary and motor-vehicle theft. Implications for criminal mobility research and future studies are discussed.

Uncovering the degree of criminal organization: Swedish street gangs and the role of mobility and co-offending networks

In this study we investigate organized crime by studying the degree of criminal organization. We use population-level register data on criminal suspicions between 2011 and 2016 to analyze the territoriality of Swedish street gangs in terms of geographical mobility, their collaboration in crime through their co-offending network's clustering and community structure, and their crime versatility. Although Swedish street gangs exhibit varying degrees of geographical mobility and criminal collaboration, overall, they have limited reach along these dimensions, characterized by low clustering and limited crime specialization. Violence seems to become a necessary tool only when a gang reaches a certain degree of organization. By unbraiding criminal mobility and its association with other organizational elements such as criminal collaboration in different settings, we provide insights into the structure and dynamics of criminal organizations and contribute to a richer understanding and conceptualization of how crime is organized.

Criminal Mobility and Motiveless Homicide: An Investigative Approach

Criminal Mobility and Motiveless Homicide: An Investigative Approach

‘ndrangheta e “ricerca del potere”: riflessioni su mafia e potere politico in Australia

This research is linked to studies on the criminal mobility of the 'ndrangheta in Australia. Starting from extensive research in the field, and from a critique of the concept of ethnicity and its links with organised crime in Australia, this work reflects on the political interests of the Calabrian clans in Australia. Some clans can maintain ties with powers and professional elites also by exploiting ethnic solidarity” within the migrant community.

The phenomenon of cybercrime in modern criminological theory

The article considers the concepts and signs of cybercrime, the phenomenon of cybercrime through the prism of indicators thatcharacterize it, in particular the level, dynamics, structure. The social conditionality and the current state are determined taking intoaccount various factors that influence the change of quantitative and qualitative indicators. Globalism, a high level of public danger andthe massive consequences of cyber threats are emphasized.It is pointed out that the scale of threats to the information space is not limited to the borders of one country, as modern globalcomputer networks cover the vast majority of countries, which further contributes to a sharp increase in criminal computer professiona lism and high mobility of criminals. Therefore, it is timely to study and analyze the system of rapidly changing high-tech cyberthreats, tactics of interaction in the field of information security, which affects the formation of sustainable development of society, thefunctioning of mechanisms to counter information threats taking into account modern realities.The signs of the phenomenon of cybercrime through the prism of indicators that characterize it are highlighted:– the scale of threats to the information space is not limited to the borders of one state;– changes in the quantitative and qualitative indicators of cybercrime, in particular a sharp increase in criminal computer professionalismand high mobility of criminals;– the level of cybercrime is closely related to the economic level of development of society in different countries and regions;– cyber threats are fast-changing and high-tech;– high level of latency;– the dependence of the geography of distribution on the factor of urbanization;– Cybercrime is a social phenomenon that manifests itself in a set of cybercrimes.It is noted that in order to prevent these crimes it is necessary to conduct further research in social and criminological areas to studythe psychophysiological properties of cybercriminals, improve domestic legislation in the field of state secrets and official information,international cooperation in information security, improve the content of higher education information security professionals states.

Criminal mobility, fugitives, and extradition rules

AbstractTwo countries set their enforcement noncooperatively to deter native and foreign individuals from committing a crime in their territory. Crime is mobile, ex ante (migration) and ex post (fleeing), and criminals hiding abroad after committing a crime in a country must be extradited. When extradition is not too costly, countries overinvest in enforcement: insourcing foreign criminals is more costly than paying the extradition cost. When extradition is sufficiently costly, instead, significant enforcement may induce criminals to flee the country whose law they infringed on. The fear of paying the extradition cost enables the countries to coordinate on the efficient outcome.

Constructing Suspicion Through Forensic DNA Databases in the EU. The Views of the Prüm Professionals

AbstractThis article explores the fluid and flexible forms of constructing suspicion, which take shape in transnational governance of crime through forensic DNA databases. The empirical examples are the views of professionals engaged with the so-called Prüm system. This technological identification system was developed to enable DNA data exchange across EU Member States in the context of police and judicial cooperation to control cross-border crime and terrorism. We argue that suspicion is constructed through forms of deterritorializing and reterritorializing assumptions about criminality linked to the movements of suspect communities across the European Union. Transnational crime management is configured through narratives of global expansion of criminal mobility, technical neutrality of DNA identification and the reliance on criminal categorizations of particular national populations.

Cross-border patterns in DNA matches between the Netherlands and Belgium

In this article we present the results of a study to explore if cross-border DNA matches between the Netherlands and Belgium are relatively more likely to occur in areas near the Dutch-Belgian border than in areas at some distance from this border. For this study we used the results of the transnational DNA profile exchange and comparison between the Belgian and Dutch DNA databases, which first took place in 2014.It appears that the Dutch regions adjacent to Belgium, i.e., Zeeland-West-Brabant, Oost-Brabant and Limburg, have relatively more DNA matches with Belgium than the other Dutch regions. In other words, a DNA profile obtained from a crime scene close to the Dutch border with Belgium is more likely to match with the profile of a person whose DNA profile is stored in the Belgian database than a DNA profile that originates from a crime scene further afield.Our data suggest that crimes committed by repeat offenders show a spatial pattern despite the presence of a national border, with crime scenes clustering in relatively close proximity to each other. The results of this study provide a better understanding of geographical patterns of cross-border criminal mobility.

Strategic Mobsters or Deprived Migrants? Testing the Transplantation and Deprivation Models of Organized Crime in an Effort to Understand Criminal Mobility and Diversity in the United States

AbstractThe aim of this research is to study the emergence and mobility of organized crime in the United States. Focusing on Albanian organized crime in New York City, it investigates whether organized crime groups move abroad easily and reproduce their territorial control in a foreign country. This research explores the relevance of two perspectives on organized crime: the transplantation/importation model, and the deprivation model. Findings are based on analysis of court documents, interviews with law enforcement officials, Albanian immigrants, and Albanian offenders. The study did not find strong support for either the transplantation or the deprivation model of organized crime. There is no evidence of strategic organized crime transplantation. The findings suggest that the mobility of organized crime groups is functional and varies across criminal markets, and that not only economic foundations but also social forces and symbolic rewards of criminal migration need to be examined for better government policies.

Journey to murder: examining the correlates of criminal mobility in sexual homicide

Although the empirical research on the journey to crime seems to indicate that most crimes are committed close to home, only a few studies have specifically examined the journey to crime in cases of sexual homicide. Using a sample of 214 sexual homicide cases, the current study investigates, using logistic regression, offenders who travel during the crime to those offenders who commit their crime, all at the same location. Current findings suggest that sexual murderers who engage in intra-crime travel tend to use a vehicle in the commission of their offence, target adult victims who are involved in the sex trade and move the body post murder.

Understanding criminal mobility: the case of the Neapolitan Camorra

Italian mafias are now present and active abroad, and many national legal economies are undermined by their activities. The American government responded to this threat in 2011 by introducing an ‘executive order’ that blacklisted the Camorra's (the Neapolitan mafia) activities in the United States. Recently, there has been a growing debate on criminal mobility and, in particular, why, when and how Italian mafiosi move out of their territory of origin and expand into new foreign territories. Recent literature suggests that Italian mafias change their behaviour across territories and will succeed in ‘transplanting’ when there are emerging new markets. This article examines some brief case studies of camorristi in Europe to discuss these concepts of mafia mobility; and it concludes by suggesting that there is no ‘one size fits all’ analysis and that more attention should be paid to the interdependence of territories.

Rogues of the Racecourse

This article focuses on the reporting of racecourse crime, exploring the shifting cultural contexts in which the press constructed outbreaks of metropolitan gang-related crime. The first part of the article looks at the extended coverage of what became known as the ‘racecourse wars’, concentrating on three key themes which permeate the accounts of racecourse crime between 1920 and 1925: the organisation of crime, the use of firearms and the mobility of criminals. The coverage of these events, which can be traced across a number of different newspapers, was often described in ways that reflected concerns about the organisation and professionalisation of crime. After 1925, despite continuing outbreaks of violence and racecourse-related crime, the press coverage subsided. However, in 1936 the racing men once again became ‘folk devils’, and the final part of the article explores the re-emergence of press reportage by considering the responses to the Lewes Racecourse Affray in June 1936. In this latter period, the rising influence of the American gangster film (as well as coverage of events in American cities such as New York and Chicago) meant that a newer language of gangsterdom would become increasingly embedded in British cultural forms.

The role of human rights in extradition: the imperatives of reforming the Indian extradition law

The mobility of criminals and the consequent internationalization of crime have made domestic criminal law enforcement dependent upon international cooperation. As there is no general obligation of extradition at the international level, every country outlines the conditions and procedure, subject to which requests for extradition are granted. In fact, from the origin of the extradition system, objections stemming from human rights have been the major considerations in the grant or decline of extradition. It is in this background that the article examines and critically reviews the current level of the human rights protections afforded to persons facing extradition under the Indian Extradition Act, 1962. This article notes that in the field of extradition and human rights, several landmark legal developments have occurred in the last 50 years, and accordingly calls for a complete overhaul of the Indian extradition framework, so that India truly and effectively cooperates with other countries in criminal matters.

Journey “During” Crime

The aim of this study was to test whether there is a relationship between situational and modus operandi characteristics and criminal mobility during the sexual assault event. Data collected from both police files and semistructured interviews with 72 serial sex offenders who have committed 361 sexual assaults have been used. Negative binomial regression was used to identify the relationships between the situational and modus operandi characteristics and the criminal mobility exhibited during the sexual assault. Events that involved child or adolescent victims, those where the offender did not use pornography prior to crime, and those where victim resistance was observed exhibited more criminal mobility. Moreover, crimes in which the victim was selected, the victim was alone when approached by the offender, and the assault was characterized by sexual penetration and a lack of premeditation exhibited more criminal mobility. Results seem to suggest that criminal mobility is a goal-oriented action taken by serial sex offenders to successfully complete their crime and to avoid detection and apprehension.

Dynamic Analysis for Geographical Profiling of Serial Cases Based on Bayesian-Time Series

The analysis of spatial information has long been considered valuable for police agency within the criminal investigative process. This is especially true for serial crime cases where criminologists and psychologist apply geographical profiling to model criminal mobility distribution and behavior patterns in order to estimate a criminal’s likely residence. In recent years the availability of advanced computational mathematic tools ensured us to establish some mathematical models to replace traditional empirical method. However, as a new technology, current geographical profiling models are still fundamental and impractical. In this article, based on existing frameworks, we establish three new methodologies, namely, Bayesian—Factor analysis model, Time series analysis model and GIS(Geographic Information System)—Decay model, to study geographical profiling problems. Then, we test and compare their accuracy, efficiency, sensitivity and robust according to 11 historical serial crime samples and Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, we discuss the advantage and disadvantage of each model and provide executive guidelines about how to synthetically apply these models for real cases.

Crime, Criminal Mobility and Serial Offenders in Early Twentieth-Century Britain

This article examines the criminal records of 427 convicts present in Dartmoor Prison during a large-scale riot on 24 January 1932. The structure of this notorious convict population is outlined and the significant proportion of relatively minor crimes on their records is highlighted. The geographical mobility of these offenders is considered along with the diverse reasons why these men, and others like them, travelled. The idea of mobility, the excitement of crime, the motor car and dangerous offenders were all important factors in the way in which a small minority of offenders achieved a high level of public attention and became part of inter-war culture. Heightened fears about crime focused in particular on the motor bandit, who was perceived as a new kind of criminal at war with society.

Criminal Mobility and Criminal Achievement

This study examines the impact of criminal mobility on criminal earning patterns in a sample of incarcerated offenders who reported their criminal experiences over a three-year period. Criminal mobility is indicated by an individual's offending perimeter and not the traditional journey-to-crime measure. Findings reveal that the offending perimeter length is a factor of criminal achievement in that mobile offenders reported higher financial earnings from crime than immobile offenders. Greater distances traveled for crime were also generally associated with higher criminal earnings, but this was more salient for predatory offenders than market offenders.

Ewolucja przestępczości zorganizowanej w Rosji

The article presents the development of the organized crime in Russia. The author has identified four stages of the evolution: period before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, then years 1917–1945, years 1945–1991 and finally period starting from 1991. She presents an opinion that the political events in each of these periods had big influence on shape of this kind of crime. The important role is connected with years before the October Revolution, because in this period the organized crime has emerged. The post – revolution period was also important, because in the first years after revolution gangs – so called „vory v zakonie” had good opportunities to develop. The real bloom of the organized crime took place after World War II, when the professional crime was replaced by the organized one. The reason for this evolution was the inefficiency of centralized economy, not limited power of the communist party apparatus and the mobility of criminals. After 1991 strong tights between business, politics and crime were established. This process made some of people very rich (illegally), but then their properties were legalized and the ruling class was corrupted. This process had great influence on emerging the new form of organized crime – the mafia. The article shows that present criminal situation in Russia is a result of many historical events, complex social processes and complicated relations between citizens and government.

Enforcement Costs and the Optimal Magnitude and Probability of Fines

WHENEVER the government uses fines to control harmful activities, it incurs certain costs in connection with the enforcement process. This article will show how these costs affect the optimal magnitude of fines and the optimal degree of enforcement effort-that is, the optimal probability of detection of those who commit harmful acts. We will distinguish between two types of enforcement costs. Fixed enforcement costs are costs that do not depend on the number of individuals who commit harmful acts. These costs would include, for example, the expenses borne by a pollution control agency in testing water quality in a lake. Variable enforcement costs are costs that do depend on the number of individuals who commit harmful acts, such as the costs of prosecuting and penalizing polluters. In our basic model, we assume that the fixed enforcement costs are the costs of maintaining the probability of detection at a certain level and that the variable enforcement costs are the costs of fining individuals. The main conclusions of this article may be summarized as follows. The optimalfine equals the harm, properly inflatedfor the chance of not being detected, plus the variable enforcement cost of imposing the fine. If the fine is of this magnitude, the expected fine will equal the harm caused by the harmful act plus the expected increase in enforcement costs occasioned by it. For instance, suppose that the probability of detecting a