Beyond police boundaries: network analysis of multi-jurisdictional crime

• Main Authors: Andrew M. Fox, Mutsumi Ogaki, Jordan C. Pickering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tatar Educational Center "TAGLIMAT" Ltd. 2021-06-01
• Series: Aktualʹnye Problemy Èkonomiki i Prava
• Subjects: multi-jurisdictional crime
• Online Access: http://apel.ieml.ru/storage/archive_articles/10026.pdf

Objective network analysis of multijurisdictional crime in the United States of America. nbsp Methods dialectical approach to cognition of social phenomena allowing to analyze them in historical development and functioning in the context of the totality of objective and subjective factors which predetermined the following research methods formallogical comparativelegal and sociological. nbsp Results in spite of the longstanding belief that crime is not restricted by arbitrary city or law enforcement jurisdictional boundaries with a few exceptions previous network studies relying on law enforcement data have been limited to criminal networks in one jurisdiction. Using incident and arrest data from seven law enforcement agencies in King County Washington the current study constructed crime specific multijurisdictional cooffending networks for four categories of crime 1 violent 2 property 3 sex and 4 domestic violence. Results indicate the existence of highly socially connected criminal networks in the county with a higher percentage of offenders committing violent and property crime in two or more jurisdictions 16.8 and 29 respectively. Moreover logistic regression models indicate that network position of an individual is a significant predictor of engaging in multijurisdictional offending. For violent crime offenders with high betweenness centrality are likely to operate multijurisdictionally. nbsp Scientific novelty the findings support the existence of a sizeable portion of offenders that cross jurisdictional boundaries to commit crime implying the importance of sharing data among law enforcement jurisdictions. nbsp Practical significance the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific pedagogical and law enforcement activities when considering issues related to the crime prevention and suppression.