Listening to the wire: criteria and techniques for the quantitative analysis of phone intercepts

Campana, Paolo; Varese, Federico

doi:10.1007/s12117-011-9131-3

Cited by 71 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Broadly speaking, we follow Natarajan (2000Natarajan ( , 2006 in coding both the structure and the content of the ties among the actors. In addition, our data meet the validity and reliability requirements identified in Campana and Varese (2012) and Berlusconi (2012).…”

Section: The Datasupporting

confidence: 65%

Cooperation in criminal organizations: Kinship and violence as credible commitments

Campana

Varese

2013

Rationality and Society

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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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Section: The Datasupporting

confidence: 65%

Cooperation in criminal organizations: Kinship and violence as credible commitments

Campana

Varese

2013

Rationality and Society

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“…It is plausible to think that information on actors who have been arrested and accused is maintained, whereas the information on individuals who fell into the surveillance net but were not brought to court is discarded. Source: Author's adaptation of Campana and Varese 2012. However, the amount of missing data might be larger, since only a sample of conversations among arrested and accused individuals might be included in the arrest warrant and the judgment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do all the pieces matter? Assessing the reliability of law enforcement data sources for the network analysis of wire taps

Berlusconi

2013

Global Crime

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Law enforcement agencies rely on data collected from wire taps to construct the organizational chart of criminal enterprises. Recently, a number of academics have also begun to utilise social network analysis to describe relations among criminals and understand the internal organisation of criminal groups. However, before drawing conclusions about the structure or the organisation of criminal groups, it is important to understand the limitations that selective samples such as wire taps may have on network analysis measures. Electronic surveillance data can be found in different kinds of court records and the selection of the data source is likely to influence the amount of missing information and, consequently, the results. This article discusses the impact that the selection of a specific data source for the social network analysis of criminal groups may have on centrality measures usually adopted in organised crime research to identify key players.

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“…Varese (2013) compellingly shows the potential of analysing the connections between members of a hierarchical organisation through a network approach (in this case it was a Russian Mafia group). By reconstructing the informal patterns of interaction, one can derive the structure of hierarchical organisations from the ground (Varese 2010(Varese , 2013Campana and Varese 2012). This opens up the possibility to develop formal models to assess the determinants of these interactions as well as their change over time; crucially, this can also be carried out in relation to hierarchies (Campana and Varese, 2012;Varese, 2013; see also the section, 'Explanation in criminal network research: The use of QAP regression models').…”

Section: Network As a Form Of Organisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining criminal networks: Strategies and potential pitfalls

Campana

2016

Methodological Innovations

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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.

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Listening to the wire: criteria and techniques for the quantitative analysis of phone intercepts

Cited by 71 publications

References 28 publications

Cooperation in criminal organizations: Kinship and violence as credible commitments

Cooperation in criminal organizations: Kinship and violence as credible commitments

Do all the pieces matter? Assessing the reliability of law enforcement data sources for the network analysis of wire taps

Explaining criminal networks: Strategies and potential pitfalls

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