Transcript Slide 1
Criminal networks and black markets in
transnational environmental crime: some
thoughts on a conceptual framework
Prof Lorraine Elliott
Transnational Environmental Crime Project
The Australian National University
ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ir/tec
Introduction/overview
Purpose: the ‘who’ but also the ‘how’ of TEC –
criminal networks and black markets
Logistic trails
Network analyses to understand illegal market
operations
Networks as entrepreneurial structures
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Approach to criminal networks/black
trade
Focus/unit of analysis
Approach
Criminology
Social networks (SNA)
Relational
Transaction Cost
Economics
Value/commodity
chains and production
Transactional
Public
policy/management
Governance/structure
Organisational
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SNA: document roles, relationships, social
complexity; but also useful conceptual scaffolding …
brokerage, centrality, density, redundancy, structural
holes
TCE: spatial/geographic organisation of [illicit]
production; inputs [material/labour], ‘outsourcing’,
network supply relationships
PPM: governance structures, collective action and
patterns of interaction
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Analytical framework for understanding
logistic trails and entrepreneurial structures
• Nodes (managing illicit trade flows)
– Functional
– Geographic (‘black holes’)
• Organisational – form and function
Chain networks
Loosely coupled, organisationally flat
Task specificity and arm’s length transactions
Hub and spoke networks
functionally specific nodes,
higher density but ‘need to know’
opportunities for ‘king pin’ strategies
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Relationships of illegal commercial exchange
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Specialisation and differentiation (skills)
Redundancy and criticality (options)
Brokerage (positioning)
Supply and exchange relationships
(product/skill/labour)
commodity suppliers
captive suppliers
turn-key suppliers
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