Exploring internal child sex trafficking networks using social network analysis

This article explores the potential of social network analysis as a tool in supporting the investigation of internal child sex trafficking in the UK. In doing so, it uses only data, software, and training already available to UK police. Data from two major operations are analysed using in-built centrality metrics, designed to measure a network’s overarching structural properties and identify particularly powerful individuals. This work addresses victim networks alongside offender networks. The insights generated by SNA inform ideas for targeted interventions based on the principles of Situational Crime Prevention. These harm-reduction initiatives go beyond traditional enforcement to cover prevention, disruption, prosecution, etc. This article ends by discussing how SNA can be applied and further developed by frontline policing, strategic policing, prosecution, and policy and research

Towards effective practice in offender supervision

This paper has been prepared principally for the Performance Improvement Strategy Group - a group convened by the Community Justice Division of the Scottish Government to advise and assist in the development of criminal justice social work services in particular and of community justice more generally. The PISG comprises representatives of the Scottish Government's Community Justice Division, of the Effective Practice Unit, of the Association of Directors of Social Work, of the voluntary sector service providers in Scotland, of the Scottish Prison Service, of the Risk Management Authority and from various Scottish universities. Discussions between the chair and some of the members of the PISG charged with leading work-streams on accreditation, interventions and inspection, indicated the need for the provision of a summary of effective practice that was sensitive to the unique Scottish context for the community supervision of offenders. The paper aims to provide that summary and to develop some ideas around a Scottish model of effective practice in offender supervision; as such it is concerned principally with the roles and tasks of criminal justice social work staff rather than with the important but broader debates around community and criminal justice in Scotland

The Factors of Interest Group Networks and Success: Organization, Issues and Resources

While interest groups use a variety of techniques to exert influence, coalition strategies are the dominant lobbying technique. However, many questions remain about such coalitions. This paper is the second in a series of social network analyses of purposive and coordinated interest group relationships. We utilize a network measure based on cosigner status to United States Supreme Court amicus curiae, or friend of the court briefs. The illuminated structures lend insight into the central players and overall formation of the network over the first several years of the 21st century. The factions are tied together by various central players, who act as hubs, leaving a disparate collection of organizations that work alone. Using an exponential-family random graph model (ERGM), we find that graph-theorectic and organizational characteristics, such as size and budget, as well as policy interests explain interest group network formation

Final Report from the Models for Change Evaluation

Note: This evaluation is accompanied by an evaluation of the National Campaign for this initiative as well as introduction to the evaluation effort by MacArthur's President, Julia Stasch, and a response to the evaluation from the program team. Access these related materials here (https://www.macfound.org/press/grantee-publications/evaluation-models-change-initiative).Models for Change is an initiative of The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundationto accelerate juvenile justice reforms and promote fairer, more effective, and more developmentally appropriate juvenile justice systems throughout the United States. Between 2004 and 2014, the Foundation invested more than $121 million in the initiative, intending to create sustainable and replicable models of systems reform.In June 2013, the Foundation partnered with Mathematica Policy Research and the University of Maryland to design and conduct a retrospective evaluation of Models for Change. The evaluation focused on the core state strategy, the action network strategy, and the national context in which Models for Change played out. This report is a digest and synthesis of several technical reports prepared as part of the evaluation

Priorities and Public Safety II: Adopting Effective Probation Practices

Outlines the structural problems of Massachusetts' corrections, the role of probation in public safety, best practices in community supervision in other states, and the elements of an evidence-based probation system, including inter-agency collaboration

SYSTEMIC ANALYSIS OF ILLEGAL MASS MIGRATION IN THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN REGION

This thesis explores the systemic behavior of illegal mass migration in the Central Mediterranean region and proposes strategic approaches to address the problem. We hypothesize that the illegal migration is a complex systemic problem, where parts of the system are interdependent and behavioral change of any element effects the behavior of the whole. This research applies a series of quantitative and qualitative analyses where each reveals different aspects and properties of the migration system as a whole. The systemic analysis highlights the interconnectedness of different parts and their impact of the system’s output. Also, it reveals the cognitive background as a unique aspect of this region: namely, the decision to migrate is based on biased perception and bounded rationality rather than rational choice. In conclusion, we claim that the system’s output (i.e. level of illegal migration) is characterized by the interrelated behavior of parts of the migration system; therefore, strategic planning requires the notion of the dominant feedback loops, self-organization, time delays, limitations, and non-linear relations. Also, we conclude that a skewed perception based on social influence and cognitive biases influences a large number of people in that region to migrate.Captain, Hungarian Defence ForceApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Uncertain legacies : resilience and institutional child abuse : a literature review

No abstract available

Organised networks in Serbia: Crime control and state capture in a country undergoing democratic transition and EU accession

This thesis explores whether the extent of criminal networks in Serbia and their impact upon the country as it undergoes EU accession indicates a phenomenon that has been termed ‘state capture’. Through an analysis of Serbia’s stalled democratic transition and its association with the EU accession process, conditions for state capture in the field of crime control are found to have been established. Given recurrent references in international monitoring reports to organised crime as one of the key obstacles to accession, the impact of organised criminal networks on the crime control system is examined to understand their potential to act as captors. For the purpose of this exploration, the effectiveness of state institutions responsible for suppression of organised crime and drug trafficking, conceptualised as a state response network, is investigated. The findings of this research identified particular opportunities and mechanisms of capture, which involve systemic gaps or structural holes in the network of state institutions responsible for crime control. The positioning of these systemic loopholes creates points of arbitrage through a symbiosis of state actors, corruption and criminal networks, which hinders effective suppression of organized crime and eventually leads to state capture. The findings are based on a comprehensive review of official reports, international assessments and elite interviews with a sample of 65 state officials and civil society. Two methodological approaches were combined. First, a content analysis was used to identify the key issues hindering the effectiveness of crime control in this field. The identified issues were subsequently analysed using Social Network Analysis to increase the validity of the findings through quantitative assessment. Social network analysis was implemented in an innovative manner to map the state response network and quantitatively detect potential loopholes in its functioning, not all of which had been fully recognised in their extent or form in the first, qualitative, approach. On the basis of these analyses, this research proposes that state capture can be defined as a set of seemingly inexplicable system deficiencies involving patterns of structural omissions and covert practices that have the potential to disrupt legitimate institutional behaviour and exert influence by using corruption and other forms of personal linkage and exchange