The paper argues that kinship ties and sharing information on violent acts can be interpreted as forms of 'hostage-taking' likely to increase cooperation among cooffenders. The paper tests this hypothesis among members of two criminal groups, a Camorra clan based just outside Naples, and a Russian Mafia group that moved to Rome in the mid-1990s. The data consist of the transcripts of phone intercepts conducted on both groups by the Italian police over several months. After turning the data into a series of network matrices, we use Multivariate Quadratic Assignment Procedure to test the hypothesis. We conclude that the likelihood of cooperation is higher among members who have shared information about violent acts. Violence has a stronger effect than kinship in predicting tie formation and thus cooperation. When non-kinship-based mechanisms fostering cooperation exist, criminal groups are likely to resort to them.

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How do Mafias operate across territories? The paper is an in-depth study of the operations of a Neapolitan Camorra group. It relies on a unique data set of contacts manually extracted from the transcripts of phone conversations wiretapped by the police. The data show that the clan is indeed involved in the production and supply of extra-legal protection, but only in its territory of origin. The expansion abroad followed the lines of a functional diversification: branches were created to carry out specific activities but no large-scale international alliances were forged. The strategies underpinning the group’s operations differ greatly across territories. Overall, the clan is still highly dependent on the territory of origin. Finally, the paper argues against the concept of ‘transnational organized crime’ and proposes a new taxonomy that better accounts for the ways in which Mafia groups choose to operate outside their territories of origin.

The structure of human trafficking: Lifting the bonnet on a Nigerian transnational network Contrary to widespread belief, human trafficking operations are characterised by significant costs, particularly monitoring costs, and diseconomies of scale. How do traffickers achieve high capacity in their operations? This paper is an empirical in-depth study of the structure and activities of a large-scale human trafficking ring operating between Nigeria and Europe. It is based on a set of novel data sets that was manually coded and analysed using network analysis techniques, and shows that high trafficking capacity is associated with a high level of externalisation of activities. Offenders mostly act as independent agents, in a similar way to contractors. The trafficking ring does not appear to be run along ethnic or family lines, but what does emerge is a rather clear division of labour and role specialisation. Finally, the paper contributes to the broader debate on coordination in illegal settings and puts into question the idea that transnational crime is invariably best fought transnationally.

This paper focuses on governance-type organised crime (OC). Firstly, it explores two cases of illegal governance in Salford (Greater Manchester) and Derbyshire by relying on a wide range of qualitative data. Next, it presents a novel instrument measuring the strength of governance-type OC, the 'Illegal Governance (i-Gov) Index'. This instrument is then included in a survey we conducted with Derbyshire Constabulary. This is the first systematic attempt to measure such crime in the UK. The paper shows that the governance dimension of OC is present in the UK, although with varying degrees of sophistication and development. While comparatively rare, this form of OC is pernicious and highly destructive of communities. This paper therefore calls for a systematic evaluation of such phenomenon across the UK, based on the i-Gov Index.

How are human smuggling operations organized? This paper presents an empirical in-depth study of the structure and activities of a smuggling ring operating between the Horn of Africa and Northern Europe via Libya. It relies on a unique set of novel data sets manually extracted from an extensive police investigation launched after the 2013 Lampedusa shipwreck, in which 366 migrants lost their lives. The evidence includes wiretapped conversations on both sides of the Mediterranean. Using a number of network analysis techniques, this paper reconstructs the structure of the ring and investigates the determinants of coordination among its actors. This paper is the first work to offer a formal network modelling of human smuggling operations. It shows that, rather than being internalized within a single organization, activities are segmented and carried out by localized and rudimentary hierarchies with a small number of high-centrality actors operating at various stages along the smuggling route. Coordination is more likely to occur vertically than horizontally, indicating that higher-level smugglers are largely independent and autonomous. There are also indications of competition among them. Finally, even in rings involved in the supply of a truly transnational commodity, the local dimension still plays a crucial role. The implications for criminal justice responses to human smuggling are discussed.

This article offers some remarks on a few critical issues related to explanation in criminal network research. It first discusses two distinct perspectives on networks, namely a substantive approach that views networks as a distinct form of organisation, and an instrumental one that interprets networks as a collection of nodes and attributes. The latter stands at the basis of Social Network Analysis. This work contends that the instrumental approach is better suited to test hypotheses, as it does not assume any structure a priori, but derives it from the data. Moreover, social network techniques can be applied to investigate criminal networks while rejecting the notion of networks as a distinct form of organisation. Next, the article discusses some potential pitfalls associated with the instrumental approach and cautions against an over-reliance on structural measures alone when interpreting real-world networks. It then stresses the need to complement these measures with additional qualitative evidence. Finally, the article discusses the use of Quadratic Assignment Procedure regression models as a viable strategy to test hypotheses based on criminal network data.

A current challenge in soil ecotoxicology is the use of natural soils as test substrates to increase ecological relevance of data. Despite the existence of six natural reference soils (the Euro-soils), some parallel projects showed that these soils do not accurately represent the diversity of European soils. Particularly, Mediterranean soils are not properly represented. To fill this gap, 12 natural soils from the Mediterranean regions of Alentejo, Portugal; Cataluña, Spain; and Liguria, Italy, were selected and used in reproduction and avoidance tests to evaluate the soil habitat function for earthworms (Eisenia andrei) and enchytraeids (Enchytraeus crypticus). Predictive models on the influence of soil properties on the responses of these organisms were developed using generalized linear models. Results indicate that the selected soils can impact reproduction and avoidance behavior of both Oligochaete species. Reproduction of enchytraeids was affected by different soil properties, but the test validity criteria were fulfilled. The avoidance response of enchytraeids was highly variable, but significant effects of texture and pH were found. Earthworms were more sensitive to soil properties. They did not reproduce successfully in three of the 10 soils, and a positive influence of moisture, fine sand, pH, and organic matter and a negative influence of clay were found. Moreover, they strongly avoided soils with extreme textures. Despite these limitations, most of the selected soils are suitable substrates for ecotoxicological evaluations.