Crime and networks

Abstract

Networks have been central to criminological thinking since its origins. Subcultural and social learning theories call attention to dense connections between deviant peers in promoting delinquency. Social bond and strain theories emphasize the role of prosocial relationships in tethering individuals to conventional society. Contemporary social disorganization and collective efficacy theories also contend with the role of social cohesion in shaping local crime rates. By formalizing relational constructs, networks help shape a wide and diverse scholarship about the etiology of crime and delinquency. Criminologists use network methods to answer questions as broad as peer influence in adolescence and the diffusion of gun violence to human trafficking and drug exchanges on the dark web. The centrality of networks to a wide range of crime issues emphasizes the need to take stock of recent advances. This chapter charts the growth of network analysis within criminology, focusing on some of the earliest pieces to introduce network methods to the field and then details major innovations since these landmark studies. We focus on key developments in the area of peer effects, criminal organizations, gangs, co-offending, and neighborhood networks. We conclude with a discussion of more recent applications of networks to the study of crime that are generating insight into prison structures, police misconduct, and digital crimes.