Mitchell Centre Seminar Series
| Dates: | 27 November 2024 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 17:30 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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Cecilia Menenghini, University of Exeter
A network approach to study organised crime movement across local communities
This talk explores how social network analysis can be used to understand the movement of organized criminal groups across geographical areas. I will introduce a novel method for quantitatively studying the structure and dynamics of these movements within local communities, as well as the underlying drivers. This method is applied to two distinct geographical areas in the UK. First, we reconstruct the movement of organized crime members across local areas in Cambridgeshire, using a large-scale police dataset spanning 41 months of recorded crime events. Second, we apply the same approach to organized criminal groups in Merseyside, drawing on a dataset covering four years of crime events. In both cases, we identify organized crime "turf" and "target" areas, and explore the factors driving movement from the former to the latter using Exponential Random Graph Models. The talk will present findings from this analysis, focusing on how geographical, socio-economic, and structural (network) factors create incentives for the movement of organized crime groups. I will also discuss key differences between the two counties. Ultimately, the study proposes a scalable methodology to identify communities at risk of being targeted by criminal organizations, offering practitioners a tool for early intervention.
Travel and Contact Information
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G6
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester
