The Relative Ineffectiveness of Criminal Network Disruption
By P. Duijn, V. Kashirin, Peter M. A. Sloot. Scientific Reports, 2014
368 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Researchers, policymakers and law enforcement agencies across the globe struggle to find effective strategies to control criminal networks. The effectiveness of disruption strategies is known to depend on both network topology and network resilience. However, as these criminal networks operate in secrecy, data-driven knowledge concerning the effectiveness of different criminal network disruption strategies is very limited. By combining computational modeling and social network analysis with unique criminal network intelligence data from the Dutch Police, we discovered, in contrast to common belief, that criminal networks might even become ‘stronger’, after targeted attacks. On the other hand increased efficiency within criminal networks decreases its internal security, thus offering opportunities for law enforcement agencies to target these networks more deliberately. Our results emphasize the importance of criminal network interventions at an early stage, before the network gets a chance to (re-)organize to maximum resilience. In the end disruption strategies force criminal networks to become more exposed, which causes successful network disruption to become a long-term effort.
Subfields: Information Systems, Sociology and Political Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1a0ec9bb3cae7ffccf3f8d395f5257e9520194cd
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Information Systems
In Sociology and Political Science
- Timon Elmer
- M. Wichers
- R. Krause
- L. Bringmann
- Sacha Epskamp
- David Schoch
- Johanna T. W. Wigman
- E. Snippe
Citations in the corpus
- Distribution of shortest path lengths in subcritical Erdős-Rényi networks. (2018, background): “Examples of fragmented networks include secure networks with controlled access, such as the communication networks of commercial enterprises, government agencies, and illicit organizations [4].”
- Saving Human Lives: What Complexity Science and Information Systems can Contribute (2014, neutral): “A recent study analyzing cannabis producer networks in the Netherlands, however, shows that this strategy may be fundamentally flawed: all network disruption strategies analyzed in the study did not disrupt the network at all or, worse, in fact increased the efficiency of the network through efficie”
- What do centrality measures measure in psychological networks? (2019, background): “Using degree and betweenness centrality, Duijn et al. (2014) tried to find the most important or influential criminals.”