The Network Paradigm Applied to Criminal Organisations: Theoretical nitpicking or a relevant doctrine for investigators? Recent developments in the Netherlands

Abstract

Peter Klerks EysinkSmeets&Etman The Hague, the Netherlands September 1999 up JL Theorthodoxorganizedcrimedoctrinethatfocusesonmoreorlessstableandhierarchical criminal organizations is slowly givingway to new and more sophisticatedparadigmata, such as the enterprise metaphor and the concept of fluid social networks. This has certain consequences for control strategies. Thinking about crime more in terms of opportunity, of risk mechanisms, of personal motives, co-optation and seduction demands a willingness to depart from familiar paths and usual suspects. In the Netherlands, an unprecedented crisis of confidence in law enforcement in the mid-1990s produced the organisational and intellectual space for more elaborate approaches to organised crime. As' a result at least two dozen academics have started working with and in Dutch law enforcement in some capacity, many of them with a direct involvement in operational matters. A multitude of solid organized crime analyses and studies have appeared, which confirm that the network mode of organisation between people and functional entities is far better adapted to modern modes of collaboration, trading and communication than the traditional hierarchic structures. Sophisticated network analysis methods need to enable investigators to identify positions of power and to attribute these to specific individual traits or to structural roles that these individuals fulfill. A unique position involving certain intermediate contacts for example can allow someone to monopolize the connection between two networks. Social network mapping can show what material resources someone can mobilise and which information he has access to. It can also introduce dynamics into the rigid and 'frozen' understanding of social structures that traditional organisational diagrams convey. Processes of recruitment become clearer by looking at previous connections, asdoes the transfer of knowledge and criminal innovations. Innovating criminal analysis alone however will not suffice. Ultimately, controlling organized crime can only be done succesfully through more flexible modes of organisation and operation, thus creating effective law enforcement and intelligence networks to deal with criminal networks. of