Organised Crime and Law Enforcement

"David Bright and Chad Whelan have written a must-read primer for anyone seeking to understand, investigate, or respond to organised crime. Combining research findings with practical examples from the field, this book illustrates how surveillance, detection and enforcement efforts to disrupt organized crime benefit from adopting a network perspective." Gisela Bichler, Professor of Criminology, California State University, San Bernadino, USA "At a general level, social theory has long observed social relations in terms of networks. This book neatly brings together what is understood about how concepts concerning social networks informs thinking about both crime and law enforcement. Readers will benefit from the clear elucidation of research and theory in this policy domain." James Sheptycki, Professor of Criminology, York University, Toronto, Canada "This is a timely, lucid, and well-informed examination of the network perspective as it relates to organized crime and organized crime control. The main emphasis is on the potential, as well as on the limitations, of conceptualizing organized crime in terms of criminal networksIn many ways, this book is a valuable contribution to the literature." Klaus von Lampe, Professor of Criminology, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany

David Bright is an Associate Professor of Criminology with the Centre for Crime Policy and Research at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. Chad Whelan is an Associate Professor of Criminology in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.

1. Introduction Part 1 Organised Crime 2. Organised Crime, Criminal Organisations, and Criminal Networks 3. Applying a Network Perspective to Organised Crime 4. Strengths and Vulnerabilities of Networks 5. Enablers of Organised Criminal Groups Part 2 Law Enforcement 6. Organised Crime and Law Enforcement 7. Disrupting Organised Criminal Groups 8. Network Structure 9. Network Dynamics and Tensions 10. Conclusion