Crime Networks Research Articles

Understanding Co-Offending Patterns and Criminal Mentorship Using Police Registry Data

ABSTRACT The current study examines registration data from the Dutch police pertaining to 2,757 individuals and 10 different crime categories, at the offense, individual, and network levels of analysis. Moreover, a novel estimate is introduced which identifies individuals’ tendency to operate as mentors or mentees in criminal networks. We find co-offending to be conditional on the type of crime and to typically involve groups of two to three offenders. Moreover, we find that men and those aged 18–25 are most likely to co-offend and that co-offenders typically do not show a preference for particular co-offenders. Individuals with central positions in the co-offending network were found to be older and to offend more frequently with a higher average of co-offenders per offense, than those less central. Lastly, we find the novel estimate to be a promising tool for identifying mentor and mentee roles in large quantitative network data. The results of the current study emphasize the importance of studying co-offending on different analytical levels, and to differentiate co-offending by different crime types, network positions, and individual roles, to better inform theory and policy.

Evaluation of Human Trafficking and its Causes in Kosovo

The occurrence of human trafficking is a very harmful and disturbing crime for Kosovo and the countries of the region, which are encountering this criminal issue that seriously attacks human rights. Human trafficking is often associated with organized criminal groups that operate outside the state borders of Kosovo, making the fight against this occurrence much more challenging for the mechanisms that combat this type of crime. This research paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of human trafficking in Kosovo, evaluating the contributing factors and assessing the effectiveness of existing legal frameworks. It also offers actionable recommendations for enhancing collaboration among key stakeholders. The method used in this research is a literature review, systematically analyzing academic literature, reports, and relevant documents on human trafficking. The findings indicate that human trafficking severely deteriorates the socio-economic conditions in Kosovo and reinforces organized crime networks. Therefore, close cooperation at both regional and international levels is essential for effectively addressing this criminality, which remains a pressing concern in Kosovo and beyond.

Shadows of fear: Extortion and protection racketeering amidst organized crime in South Africa

This paper investigates organized crime networks that engage in extortion and protection racketeering in South Africa. Due to socio-economic hardships and weak institutional frameworks, criminals have employed fear and violence as a means to gain control over local communities and businesses illegally. The study employed a literature analysis of scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed journals, books, and reports by law enforcement agencies and nongovernmental organizations among others to gather knowledge on extortion and protection racketeering in organized crime in South Africa. The study examines the operational strategies and impacts of organised crime networks on extortion and protection racketeering on local economies as well as public safety. The findings review that there is an all-pervasive culture of fear which underlies blackmailing as well as racketeering activities thereby increasing the vulnerability of communities while undermining social cohesion. The paper concludes by recommending policies meant to improve law enforcement capability and community resilience against this threat on communities.

Crime Knows No Borders: The Necessity of International Police Cooperation

This article delves into the evolution of international police cooperation, examining its origins, challenges, and significance in addressing transnational crime. The study highlights the influence of globalization, technological advancements, and increased international travel on criminal activities, which have necessitated more sophisticated and coordinated policing efforts across borders. The discussion traces the development of police cooperation from the 19th century, where crime was initially viewed through a moral lens, to the present day, where a more scientific and international approach to policing has emerged. The article underscores the complexities of multilateral and bilateral cooperation, each with its advantages and limitations. Multilateral efforts, exemplified by organizations like INTERPOL, promote accountability and transparency but are often hindered by bureaucratic challenges. Conversely, bilateral cooperation offers agility and direct engagement but faces issues of trust and accountability. The study concludes by advocating for the continuous refinement of international policing strategies, emphasizing the importance of tailored approaches to specific operational needs. Through effective collaboration, law enforcement agencies can better combat global crime networks and enhance international security in an increasingly interconnected world.

State co-optation as habitus: Guatemala’s elite-driven pathway to a criminal state

ABSTRACT Ideas of state co-optation and corruption feature heavily in Latin American debates as scholars examine how elite factions and organized crime networks capture institutional operations. Based on the case of Guatemala I signal shortcomings in this actor-focused literature and propose alternative ways to theorize elite formations and state trajectories. I draw on Bourdieu’s concepts of social field, habitus and capital to illustrate how Guatemalan elites have subsumed the state into an exclusive field of elite interactions that mediates the competition to control institutional processes. By tracing the evolution of electoral politics and the judicial apparatus, I maintain that state co-optation must be understood in line with a historically constituted habitus and the structure of this social field, as elites attempt to preserve dominance following the transition to formal democracy. The ensuing patterns of elite interactions have allowed for emerging illicit groups to decisively influence and ‘criminalize’ the state trajectory.

Criminalization Challenge and Analysis of Network Crime Assistance Behaviors

The rapid development of the network society is in sync with the current era's pace. In comparison to traditional criminal methods, the utilization of the internet for criminal activities has progressively emerged and become increasingly prevalent. Nonetheless, this also poses a challenge in characterizing the offender's behavior. The objective of the study is to reveal the inadequacies in existing laws, policies and practices, and clarifying the harm of assisting in cybercrime and the plight of victims will help develop more effective support services and coping strategies, thereby improving the efficiency and quality of assistance to victims. This study focuses on the identification disputes that arise during the adjudication process of practical cases, combined with the existing legal provisions of the data for qualitative and quantitative analysis, and carries out a type study on the identification of helping behavior of cybercrime. Although China has specified the crime of assisting information network criminal activities in Article 287 bis of the Criminal Law, it remains controversial in distinguishing this offense from other crimes in actual cases. The study found that the techniques and means of cybercrime continue to evolve, from simple scams to sophisticated cyberattacks and data breaches, indicating that perpetrators are adapting to technological developments and changes in security measures. Consequently, it is crucial to clearly elucidate the connection between various recognition schemes from the theoretical perspective of norm violation and legal interest infringement, in order to provide an effective solution for the resolution of identification disputes in actual cases.

Study on International Cooperation to Address Cross-border Telecommunication Network Fraud Offence

In recent years, under the new technological environment of the international society, cross-border telecommunication network fraud crime cases are high, and various countries are faced with difficult problems of law enforcement cooperation, such as: less channels of information exchange, difficult investigation and evidence collection, low efficiency, more obstacles to investigation and arrest cooperation, slow speed and low effectiveness of recovering stolen goods. In order to achieve effective international governance of cross-border network crimes and strengthen cooperation between China and other countries, this study is based on the collection of cross-border telecommunication network fraud crimes of international cooperation cases and literature, combined with the current situation of cross-border international cooperation in China, proposed to effectively solve the problem of cross-border telecommunication network fraud international cooperation from the prevention and governance level. In order to achieve a higher level of international cooperation and governance between countries, and continuously reduce the occurrence of cross-border telecommunication network fraud cases.

Research on Identification Standard and Judicial Determination of Destructive Procedure - Based on Technical Specifications and Legal Provisions

With the rapid development of Internet technology, the identification of destructive procedures has a dilemma that the legislative purpose is inconsistent with the practice at the judicial level. The traditional identification is generally based on technical specifications, but the legal positioning of the procedure is often ignored in computer network crimes. In order to establish the identification standard of destructive procedures as soon as possible and reduce the judicial problems caused by the identification of procedures, this paper, based on the computer network crime, through the combination of technical specifications and legal provisions, through in-depth analysis of the computer technical parameters and typical cases of crimes of destructive procedures, expounds the technical level to follow the destructive procedure inspection operation specification, at the legal level to subjective malice and serious harm two aspects of the judgment method. The results of the study revealed that the double identification of destructive procedures through technical specifications and legal provisions is not only more practical than ever, but also saves judicial resources and improves litigation efficiency.

Crime Registry Platform using Blockchain Ethereum and web3

Abstract: Criminal activities in India are on the rise, with many incidents going unreported. Despite the availability of an online portal for storing the First Information Reports (FIRs) handwritten FIRs always will remain common due to some of the traditional methods and practices. And probably in most cases, the complainants should personally visit the police stations in order to file a offense report. Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) was launched in 2010 for national wide e-governance, it will operates on a centralized system and it is particularly limited to some individual states. Therefore, there is a need for the decentralized solution in order to ensure failure of a single point and secure managing of criminal complaints from the unauthorized access.

Art Crime Does not pay: Multiplexed Social Network Analysis in Cultural Heritage Trafficking Forensics

Nowadays, crimes connected to cultural heritage can feature as a staple for organised crime networks and act as financial enablers for international conflicts, including terrorism organisations and even inter-state conflicts, in several ways. Goods of cultural significance include a range of valuable objects related to human cultures, like works of art, historical artefacts, and other antiques, but also forgeries based on such objects. These crimes are almost always transnational, for instance, involving theft or looting in one country and goods moved across borders to be sold. This article presents an intelligence methodology based on Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques that can support law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in their daily struggle against criminals that also pose a threat to national security. The methodology proposed is based on the building of a blended, multiplexed social network graph, deriving from the fusion of a diverse set of data sources, both in the open-source domain (OSINT) and in the classified domain. We will present data collection methods, correlation between sources, possible ways to generate blended links between individuals that retain information from different sources, and SNA techniques applied to intelligence and investigations. The article provides an answer to the following research questions: how we can detect and identify criminal activities and networks related to cultural goods crimes, how we can assist LEAs in countering illicit trafficking, and how we can ensure that art crime does not pay.

Research on the Current Situation of Cybercrime and Criminal Law Regulation Issues

With the continuous development of network technology makes the Internet gradually into thousands of households, the network has increasingly become an indispensable part of people's work and life. In recent years, in the judicial practice of our country, there are a lot of cases about network crime, which makes people have to pay attention to the potential Internet security problems while enjoying the convenience and speed brought by the Internet. Followed by Internet crime cases to get people to re-examine network problems, now the network crime of technology advancement, the degree of complexity and concealment and difficult to obtain evidence is completely different to traditional crime, it also shows our country at present in the network crime in the criminal law on the regulation of some deficiencies, it is necessary to strengthen the regulation of network crime of criminal law, combining with the concrete problems in judicial practice make effective regulation measures, such as constructing cyber crime legislation system, perfecting the relevant charges system, improve the network technology and strengthen to the improvement of the network security system, improve the content of the social public network moral quality, So that citizens can actively participate in crime prevention and control, so that the criminal law regulation measures to play a real and effective role in curbing cybercrime.

Collecting and analyzing network-based evidence

Since nearly the beginning of the Internet, malware has been a significant deterrent to productivity for end users, both personal and business related. Due to the pervasiveness of digital technologies in all aspects of human lives, it is increasingly unlikely that a digital device is involved as goal, medium or simply ‘witness’ of a criminal event. Forensic investigations include collection, recovery, analysis, and presentation of information stored on network devices and related to network crimes. These activities often involve wide range of analysis tools and application of different methods. This work presents methods that helps digital investigators to correlate and present information acquired from forensic data, with the aim to get a more valuable reconstructions of events or action to reach case conclusions. Main aim of network forensic is to gather evidence. Additionally, the evidence obtained during the investigation must be produced through a rigorous investigation procedure in a legal context.

Collecting and analyzing network-based evidence

Since nearly the beginning of the Internet, malware has been a significant deterrent to productivity for end users, both personal and business related. Due to the pervasiveness of digital technologies in all aspects of human lives, it is increasingly unlikely that a digital device is involved as goal, medium or simply ‘witness’ of a criminal event. Forensic investigations include collection, recovery, analysis, and presentation of information stored on network devices and related to network crimes. These activities often involve wide range of analysis tools and application of different methods. This work presents methods that helps digital investigators to correlate and present information acquired from forensic data, with the aim to get a more valuable reconstructions of events or action to reach case conclusions. Main aim of network forensic is to gather evidence. Additionally, the evidence obtained during the investigation must be produced through a rigorous investigation procedure in a legal context.

Characteristics and Countermeasures of Assisting Information Network Criminal Activities

In the context of the era of big data, the crime of assisting in information network crimes (hereinafter referred to as "aiding and abetting crimes") has shown a high incidence and wide coverage, and it is also a key hub for many information network crimes, which seriously hinders the social management order and the property security of the masses, and undermines the normal, safe and orderly development of cyberspace. This article summarizes the types and characteristics of aiding and abetting crimes and the causes of their high incidence by analyzing the adjudication cases of aiding and abetting crimes in a district people's court in Chengdu in 2021 and 2022, and proposes corresponding governance measures to carry out necessary prevention and control of aiding and abetting crimes, in order to minimize the high incidence of aiding and abetting crimes and maintain social order and the legitimate rights and interests of the people.

Wildlife crime: causes, consequences and countermeasures: A review

Wildlife crime, encompassing illegal activities such as poaching, trafficking and habitat destruction, poses a critical threat to global biodiversity and ecological stability. This comprehensive review paper delves into the multifaceted dimensions of wildlife crime, exploring its causes, consequences and the various strategies employed to combat it. Drawing from an extensive body of literature, this paper examines ecological, economic, social and ethical impacts of wildlife crime. It analyzes the role of organized crime networks, the challenges of law enforcement and prosecution and the effectiveness of international conservation initiatives. Furthermore, this review highlights the critical importance of public awareness and community engagement in addressing wildlife crime. By synthesizing diverse perspectives and research findings, this paper offers a holistic understanding of the issue and underscores the urgency of concerted global efforts to protect our planet’s invaluable biodiversity from the menace of wildlife crime.

Connecting the Corrupt: Data Sources to Study Networks of Serious Financial Crime in the United Kingdom

Connecting the Corrupt: Data Sources to Study Networks of Serious Financial Crime in the United Kingdom

Correlating forensic data for enhanced network crime investigations: Techniques for packet sniffing, network forensics, and attack detection

<p class="MDPI18keywords">In today’s digitally saturated world, digital devices are frequently involved in criminal events as targets, mediums, or witnesses. Forensic investigations encompass the collection, recovery, analysis, and presentation of information stored on network devices, with specific relevance to network crimes. Such investigations often necessitate the use of diverse analysis tools and methods. This study introduces techniques that support digital investigators in correlating and presenting information derived from forensic data, with a primary focus on packet sniffing, network forensics, and attack detection. By leveraging these methodologies, investigators aim to achieve more valuable reconstructions of events or actions, resulting in enhanced case conclusions. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding how malware operates within the context of the Internet. It explores packet sniffing techniques to capture and analyze network data, enabling investigators to detect and trace the origins of malicious activities. Additionally, it delves into the realm of network forensics, proposing effective methods for gathering evidence from network devices and reconstructing digital events. Furthermore, the study covers the significance of attack detection in network crime investigations. It highlights techniques to identify and analyze attack patterns, facilitating the identification of perpetrators and their motivations. By correlating information obtained from forensic data, investigators can obtain comprehensive insights into the nature and impacts of network crimes. Overall, this study aims to arm digital investigators with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the complexities of packet sniffing, network forensics, and attack detection. By incorporating these techniques into their investigations, investigators can achieve more robust reconstructions of events, draw well-informed conclusions, and contribute to the successful resolution of network crime cases.</p>

The Role of Justice Collaborators in Narcotics Crime Prosecution

This article examines the significance of Justice Collaborators in the legal process, particularly in narcotics cases. With the evolution of crime, especially organized narcotics crime, the introduction of Justice Collaborators has become a pivotal component in the criminal justice system. This study explores the concept of Justice Collaborators, their roles, legal protections, and the impact of their participation in legal proceedings. Utilizing a qualitative approach, the research analyzes various legal documents, court decisions, and statutory provisions related to Justice Collaborators in Indonesia. The findings indicate that Justice Collaborators play a crucial role in unveiling complex criminal activities and assisting law enforcement in investigation and prosecution. The study also highlights the legal and physical protections offered to these individuals, emphasizing their importance in dismantling organized crime networks. The implications of these findings suggest a need for further refinement in legal provisions concerning the selection and protection of Justice Collaborators, ensuring their effective utilization in the judicial process.Highlights: Justice Collaborators are instrumental in uncovering complex criminal activities, particularly in organized narcotics crime. The legal system provides both physical and legal protections to Justice Collaborators, ensuring their safety and cooperation. The involvement of Justice Collaborators necessitates ongoing refinement in legal provisions for their selection, protection, and use in legal processes. Keywords: Justice Collaborators, Narcotics Crimes, Legal System, Organized Crime, Law Enforcement

Help information network crime limited application: legal logic and rule expansion

Help information network crime limited application: legal logic and rule expansion

Harms and the Illegal Wildlife Trade: Political Ecology, Green Criminology and the European Eel

This paper integrates political ecology and green criminology to examine the critical endangerment of the European eel. Using a harms-based approach, our research suggests that the identification of organised crime networks as the central perpetrators of illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and of IWT itself as the main threat to eels, neglects a myriad of practices—many of which are related to legal businesses and activities—that significantly contribute to the endangerment of the species. We suggest that, in order to better protect the European eel, we need more holistic conservation measures that go beyond a focus on fisheries and IWT.