The offender(s) responsible for crimes in a pattern may have group affiliations that offer clues regarding modus operandi, background, and location. Group affiliation can be broken down into two categories: non-criminal and criminal. Those lines may blur when, for example, an offender is in a family group that also, as a family, engages in criminal behavior.
While we most often think in terms of group affiliation when trying to understand, investigate, and apprehend the offender, it is also useful to think of the victim's group affiliations in order to understand why they might be targeted by an offender.
Social network analysis of criminal group affiliation can reveal more offenders involved in the patterned criminal activity and provide clues to their roles.
Non-Criminal Group Affiliation
Employment/Occupational Groups: Includes workplaces and groups related to professions and occupations (such as unions) – knowing where an offender works offers clues into their schedule, skill set, and possibly co-offenders. Victims may be selected because of occupation, such as realtors showing homes while alone being targeted for violent crimes.
Educational Institutions: Includes schools, colleges, vocational training centers, alumni networks, enrollment status, and attendance – knowing an offender's schedule based on classes they attend can be helpful in an investigation. Victims may be selected for harassment because they attended a certain school and a disgruntled former classmate stalks them. Fraternities or sororities may be of interest.
Religious Organizations: Be careful not to stereotype based on religion, but consider how an offender's connection to a religious group may inform their actions. Victims are sometimes targeted for hate crimes based on religion.
Social Clubs and Recreational Groups: Includes sports clubs, hobby groups, and meetup groups – offenders may meet other co-offenders or target victims in such groups.
Family Groups: Includes family ties, family circles, extended families – these relationships may offer insights into domestic or organized crime.
Geographic Communities: Includes neighborhood area and housing complexes and the contexts – offenders may also be victims in high crime areas.
Online Communities: Includes online forums and social media groups – offender participation may reveal ideologies, planning, and criminal contacts. Victims may be selected through the relative anonymity offered to offenders online.
Political or Activist Groups: These are usually non-criminal but may engage in illegal activities as a form of protest or expression. Victims may be targeted because of their affiliations with these groups.
Military or Paramilitary Groups: Veterans and active duty personnel may have particular sets of skills or experiences that could be relevant to certain types of offenses.
Healthcare or Therapeutic Groups: Includes addiction or recovery groups, healthcare programs, and therapy sessions – participation in such groups may provide insight into the offender's motivations or capabilities.
Cultural Organizations: Includes cultural or ethnic clubs, societies, or groups – may offer context for better understanding an offender or victim.
Volunteer Organizations: Includes volunteer groups and charitable organizations – may provide an understanding of the offender's or victim's life.
Criminal Group Affiliation
Different types of criminal groups vary in their scale of operation—local, national, or global—as well as in their methods, aims, and structures. An offender's affiliation in a criminal group provides insight into possible activities within a specific crime pattern.
Street Gangs
Scale: Local
Activities: Drug distribution, robbery, assault, turf wars
Identification Methods: Tattoos, graffiti, clothing, hand signs, language, known associates, hangout areas, territories, informants, specific criminal behavior
Drug Cartels
Scale: Global
Activities: Production, transportation, and distribution of illegal drugs
Identification Methods: Financial investigations, surveillance, wiretapping, undercover operations
Human Trafficking Rings
Scale: Global
Activities: Forced labor, sex trafficking, organ trafficking
Identification Methods: Financial investigations, surveillance, wiretapping, undercover operations
Mafia or Mob
Scale: National to Global
Activities: Drug trafficking, extortion, gambling, money laundering
Identification Methods: Financial investigations, surveillance, wiretapping, undercover operations
Triads
Scale: Global
Activities: Drug trafficking, extortion, human trafficking, illegal gambling
Identification Methods: Financial investigations, surveillance, wiretapping, undercover operations
Syndicates
Scale: Global
Activities: Drug trafficking, human smuggling, arms smuggling, fraud
Identification Methods: Financial investigations, surveillance, wiretapping, undercover operations
Counterfeit Networks
Scale: Global
Activities: Production and distribution of counterfeit goods
Identification Methods: Financial investigations, surveillance, wiretapping, undercover operations
Terrorist Organizations
Scale: Global
Activities: Acts of terror, bombings, assassinations
Identification Methods: Intelligence agencies, online communications monitoring, financial transactions, travel patterns, international law enforcement collaboration, public tips
Extremist Ideological Groups
Scale: National
Activities: Promotion of extremist beliefs, sometimes violent
Identification Methods: Informants, online activity, social media, rallies, extremist literature, open expression of beliefs
Financial Crime Networks
Scale: Global
Activities: Fraud, money laundering, insider trading, cybercrime
Identification Methods: Forensic accounting, business records, insider reports, whistleblowers, regulatory agencies, financial transactions
Organized Cybercrime Groups
Scale: Global
Activities: Hacking, identity theft, ransomware, data breaches
Identification Methods: Cyber forensic tools, online forums, digital footprints, dark web surveillance, digital forensics, IP tracking, technology company collaboration, international collaboration
Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs
Scale: National
Activities: Drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, extortion, violence
Identification Methods: Monitoring meetings, traffic stops, known associates, specific activities, undercover operations, community informants, insignias, patches, bike styles, gathering locations
Prison Gangs
Scale: Local to National
Activities: Various, often continue after incarceration
Identification Methods: Prison behavior, tattoos, hand signals, surveillance, communication monitoring, interviews, correctional officer collaboration, informants
Organized Theft Rings
Scale: National to Global
Activities: Large-scale thefts targeting valuable assets
Identification Methods: Surveillance, informants, specialized expertise within the group
Criminal groups can be local, national, or global. It is important to learn what types of organized crime groups might be operating in your jurisdiction.
Offender Group Affiliation Example Variables:
cartel, cybercrime network, drug trafficking organization, gang, hate group, human trafficking network, Italian Mafia, military, militia group, motorcycle gang, organized crime group, prison gang, professional group, Russian Mafia, school, street gang, team, terrorist group, trade union, Triad, weapons trafficking group, white-collar crime group, white supremacist group, Yakuza
Further Reading:
Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Global Organized Crime Index 2021. Available at: https://ocindex.net/assets/downloads/global-ocindex-report.pdf
Global Investigative Journalism Network. Reporter’s Guide to Investigating Organized Crime. Available online at: https://gijn.org/reporters-guide-to-investigating-organized-crime/
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