Network structure and resilience of Mafia syndicates by Santa Agrestea, Salvatore Catanesea, Pasquale De Meoc, Emilio Ferrara, Giacomo Fiumaraa.
Abstract:
In this paper we present the results of our study of Sicilian Mafia organizations using social network analysis. The study investigates the network structure of a Mafia syndicate, describing its evolution and highlighting its plasticity to membership-targeting interventions and its resilience to disruption caused by police operations. We analyze two different datasets dealing with Mafia gangs that were built by examining different digital trails and judicial documents that span a period of ten years. The first dataset includes the phone contacts among suspected individuals, and the second captures the relationships among individuals actively involved in various criminal offenses. Our report illustrates the limits of traditional investigative methods like wiretapping. Criminals high up in the organization hierarchy do not occupy the most central positions in the criminal network, and oftentimes do not appear in the reconstructed criminal network at all. However, we also suggest possible strategies of intervention. We show that, although criminal networks (i.e., the network encoding mobsters and crime relationships) are extremely resilient to different kinds of attacks, contact networks (i.e., the network reporting suspects and reciprocated phone calls) are much more vulnerable, and their analysis can yield extremely valuable insights.
Studying the vulnerabilities identified here may help you strengthen your own networks against similar analysis.
To give you the perspective of the authors:
Due to its normative structure as well as strong ties with finance, entrepreneurs and politicians, Mafia has now risen to prominence as a worldwide criminal organization by controlling many illegal activities like the trade of cocaine, money laundering or illegal military weapon trafficking [4].
They say that as though it is a bad thing. As Neal Stephenson says in Snow Crash, the Mafia is just another franchise. 😉
Understanding the model others expect enables you to expose a model that doesn’t match their expectations.
Think of it as hiding in plain sight.