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Social Network Analysis and the Organisational Characteristics of Law Enforcement Agencies: Investigative Focus

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Social Network Analysis and Law Enforcement

Part of the book series: Crime Prevention and Security Management ((CPSM))

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Abstract

Chapters 5, 6 and 7 present what has been termed the ‘organisational characteristics of law enforcement agencies’ and the impact they can have on the ability of analysts to apply social network analysis (SNA) to criminal networks in operational environments. This chapter examines the first organisational characteristic, investigative focus. The chapter begins by discussing the size of law enforcement investigations. That is, the number of individuals being targeted in the investigation rather than the number of detectives/analysts involved or the amount of resources being utilised. Attention then turns to prosecution-oriented nature of most law enforcement investigations and concludes with an examination of reactive versus proactive investigations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Statistical measures are a reference to the mathematical computations used in SNA, such as betweenness centrality (see Chap. 2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Victoria, VIC, Australia

    Morgan Burcher

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  1. Morgan Burcher
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Correspondence to Morgan Burcher .

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Burcher, M. (2020). Social Network Analysis and the Organisational Characteristics of Law Enforcement Agencies: Investigative Focus. In: Social Network Analysis and Law Enforcement. Crime Prevention and Security Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47771-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47771-4_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-47770-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-47771-4

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

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