Relational hyperevent data capture time-stamped/-ordered interactions among any number of nodes in a network. Such data are central in criminal network research, both in studies on social organisation of crime and on co-offending. Until recently, researchers had to coerce these data for standard network methods, risking loss of information and biased results. The relational hyperevent model (RHEM) solves this by modelling hyperevent data directly, preserving their temporal and structural detail.This article introduces RHEM to criminal network researchers. We show how to collect and prepare data for RHEM, outline the model's logic in non-technical terms, compare it to other models and highlight the theoretical questions RHEM enables to answer. Two examples - a directed communication network and an undirected co-offending network - were used to illustrate the full workflow from data processing to model interpretation. Finally, we point the readers to RHEM applications in both criminal and non-criminal network studies for inspiration.
Caribbean Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programmes present considerable money laundering risks that Middle Eastern financial institutions must navigate under intense international scrutiny. Through semi-structured interviews with 47 senior financial executives across six Gulf and Levant states, we examine how professionals assess CBI-related transactions in their daily compliance work. Participants described attending to red flags including unusually rapid passport acquisition, mismatches between stated business activities and transaction patterns, and layered fund transfers designed to obscure origins. Executives described balancing legitimate client migration needs against regulatory pressures from Western correspondent banks that increasingly flag Caribbean passports as high-risk indicators. The findings suggest that front-line compliance professionals developed practical heuristics for risk assessment despite regulatory ambiguity, often relying on relationship banking knowledge and network intelligence rather than formal due diligence protocols alone. These insights illuminate the operational realities of anti-money laundering compliance in contexts where geopolitical tensions, economic instability and global mobility intersect.
This article explores growing support for mano dura (iron-fist) policies in four historically safe Latin American democracies: Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Uruguay. Through 32 focus groups with 259 participants, we find that mano dura narratives are popular, but cross-national variations are sharp. Ecuador shows the strongest support for extreme, often extralegal measures, whereas participants in Uruguay favour an institutional 'law and order' approach. Chile and Costa Rica occupy a middle ground, with contested trust in mano dura. We argue that two factors condition the intensity and form of support: (1) perceptions of institutional fragility and (2) the availability of social scapegoats - dynamics embedded within deeper historical legacies. These comparative findings reveal a reality with implications beyond Latin America: insecurity can fuel mano dura's appeal even in stable democracies, but robust institutions can curb its most extreme manifestations.
This study examines the relationship between crimes type and depressive symptoms among adults using nationally representative data. Data from the 2021-2023 Mexican Health and Nutrition Survey (n = 31,946; age >= 20) were analysed. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-7). Exposure to physical attacks (categorised as common crimes, domestic/partner violence and high-intensity crime) in the preceding 12 months was the independent variable. Logistic regression models controlling for covariates and incorporating state and year fixed effects were fitted. Depressive symptoms were most prevalent among those experiencing domestic/partner violence (47.44%), followed by high-intensity crime (42.55%) and common crimes (23.29%). The odds of depressive symptoms were significantly higher for all attack types (all p < 0.001), highest for high-intensity crime (OR = 5.83) and domestic/partner violence (OR = 4.87), followed by common crimes (OR = 2.00), compared to no attack. Findings indicate a strong association between crimes type and depressive symptoms.
Currently, there is a substantial gap in contemporary criminology and health scholarship regarding illicit organ transplantation, or organ trade, in the United States. What research does exist is con-ducted in international contexts. Despite legislation outlining organ trade as an illicit act, wherein organs are exchanged for anything of value, and medical policy banning such actions, no empirical work has explored whether it occurs. In addition, unlike countries with more empirical evidence, little awareness exists about U.S. organ trade, causing medical professionals to operate under myths, spec-ulation and estimates that are unsubstantiated. Building on scholar-ship conducted in international contexts, this study utilised qualitative interviews with transplant professionals to provide expert insight into how U.S. professionals perceive organ trade. The findings suggest that various professionals across the trans-plant community define and understand organ trade and traffick-ing in the U.S. as a risk to patient safety, transplant outcomes and medical ethics.
The Caribbean region has emerged as an epicentre of transnational organised crime, where firearms are not only tools of protection but also increasingly function as both currency and commodities within the drug trade. Despite limited network analyses on the interrelationship between arms and drug trafficking in the region, existing literature suggests their interconnection remains to be empirically tested. As a step in this direction, this research undertakes a quantitative analysis of regional seizures of drugs and firearms based on an open-source dataset, complemented by anecdotal evidence from available regional jurisprudence to assess whether the two commodities are frequently seized jointly, thus indicating an interconnectivity of the markets and various trends observed. The analysis of 1,098 seizure instances from press articles and 107 court cases reveals a moderate correlation, pointing to a possible link between firearm and drug seizures, with some countries acting as 'hotspots' while others exhibiting only weak associations.
Serious Organised Crime (SOC) offences include high-value fraud and other financial crimes, and cybercrime. Until 2015, UK law did not consider cybercrime a SOC. Rising levels of SOC now impact more people in the UK than any other national security threat. UK law enforcement adopted the 4Ps (Protect, Prevent, Pursue and Prepare) strategy from counter-terrorism to tackle cybercrime. This paper is based on a study examining how law enforcement handles online crime (cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled crime). The study interviewed 23 law enforcement officers and 20 service providers, support organisations and victims of online crime. Participants revealed that UK law enforcement considered cybercrime a SOC after the 2017 WannaCry attack. Team Cyber UK has flourished, but now Organised Criminal Groups (OCGs) are operating successful business models committing cybercrime and fraud. OCG's involvement and increasing levels of online crime have seemingly overwhelmed UK policing's resources despite the increased resources in Team Cyber.
This study focuses on the Netherlands' position in the global drug market and on Dutch drug offenders' positions in transnational drug-related criminal networks as emerged from the ANOM closed encrypted communications platform. The ANOM network consisted of 11,690 accounts (cryptophones) and 65,167 edges (communications). Location information was available for 35.5% of the cryptophones. Geospatial analysis revealed that the Netherlands was a true hub where Dutch drug offenders primarily operated locally, as did transnationally active foreign drug offenders. Social network analysis revealed that ANOM was a (small-world) network of networks. Dutch drug offenders were scattered throughout the ANOM network; however, 66% were part of three communities. Dutch drug offenders scored highest on centrality in all three networks, even in the two communities where they made up only a small segment of the population. This is most likely because they were (also) facilitators, specialised in (encrypted) communications tools and tooling.
This study draws on General Strain Theory and analyzes international survey data collected from adults across six countries (Ukraine, Guatemala, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United States) to examine gender differences in pandemic-related stressors, emotional responses and violence perpetration. In five of the six countries, pandemic stress is associated with violence. We find no gender differences in the links between pandemic stress and violence perpetration. On the other hand, the associations of depression and negative affect (anger and irritability) with violence are moderated by gender and vary across contexts. In several countries, pandemic stress is more strongly linked to emotional responses among men. Country- and gender-specific policy implications are discussed.
The current study maps the social networks of the Hells Angels in British Columbia, Canada (BC HA). The BC HA has recently seen an increase in recruitment and has become a top priority for law enforcement, yet remains relatively insulated from police investigations, unlike other OMGs in Canada. Using police interactions from 158 members over 12 years (2007-2018), we analyse how the addition of two chapters - West Point (2012) and Hardside (2017) - affected the overall structure of the BC HA as well as the network trajectories of members. Findings revealed that the HA network did not expand after the opening of West Point and that members affiliated with this chapter were promoted from within the organisation. Members selected for transfer did not necessarily have better network positions in the organisation, but they gained prominence afterwards. Hardside recruits, for their part, were already at the top of the organisation.
Local criminal networks recruit young people and can impact their criminal trajectories, making effective prevention an emerging policy concern. Social network analysis reveals insights and structural reasoning through depiction of networks as well as measurements to describe them. The goal is using social network analysis to provide evidence-based knowledge that informs a decision-making approach for network interventions. Our analysis examines five local crime networks in Ireland. The data was gathered through interviews with local police force from five sub-districts. We utilise network measures, including betweenness centrality, to identify recruiters of young people in networks. To account for noisy, incomplete data, we provide a tool that informs the robustness of our results and supports the decision-making for interventions. We combine the quantitative results with qualitative, expert knowledge to form a 'dream team', capable of identifying overall patterns at the network level but also examining individual narratives of key actors and relationships.
Peter Reuter's scholarship reshaped drug policy analysis by treating drugs as commodities traded by rational actors. He showed how prohibition creates a risk - price premium and urged analytic humility, warning that hidden-market opacity and cross-context variation make universal policy claims fragile. This paper maps Reuter's intellectual trajectory and his systematic approach to evaluation. It highlights his shift away from single metrics (seizures, prevalence) towards a portfolio of outcomes: public health harms, market-generated harms (violence, corruption), and control harms (incarceration, inequality), and explains why causal inference is especially tenuous when indicators are noisy. Drawing on evidence across eras and substances, it describes mechanisms behind diminishing returns to supply-side control: upstream costs are small relative to retail markups, enforcement functions as a stochastic tax, and traffickers adapt in ways that blunt effects on price and availability. The paper derives practical implications for reform and concludes with Reuter's roles in institution-building and mentorship.
This article examines Peter Reuter's contributions to the study of illicit drug markets, focusing on the Risks and Prices theoretical framework. Reuter's interdisciplinary approach shifted analytical attention away from production costs and emphasized the structural consequences of product illegality. Inspired by industrial organization economics, he identified how the distribution process becomes cumbersome, and this conceptual contribution advanced the study of illegal drug markets. The article described key concepts including bounded rationality and opportunism, costs, risks, structures, and violence. Particular attention is paid to how Reuter's work bridges economic analysis with insights from sociology and criminology, providing a more comprehensive framework for studying illicit markets. The article concludes with identifying current challenges to the framework and identifying how it has inspired research outside of economics, particularly on online drug distribution.
The booming cross-border trade has led to a surge in the smuggling of regular and illicit goods in China's bordering regions. While much attention has been paid to studying drugs and human trafficking, little is known about the smuggling of regular goods in China. Utilizing sentencing documents collected from the website of China Judgements Online, this study systematically evaluated the geographic pattern of smuggling regular goods and examined the factors contributing to sentencing smugglers in China. The findings revealed a geographic discrepancy in the distribution of smuggling cases in China. And defendants holding Hong Kong, Macao, or foreign travel documents were granted small leniency for smuggling regular goods. Our semi-structured interviews revealed that smuggling regular goods was primarily driven by economic motivation, and systematic gaps in tax regimes, visa systems, and law enforcement capacities, etc., have contributed to the residents' participation of smuggling activities.
How do far-right groups transplant abroad without the kin or diaspora ties that typically abet criminal mobility? This article offers a qualitative, single-case study of the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), drawing on eleven semi-structured elite interviews, systematic observation of social media content, and open-source documents collected between 2023 and 2025. The analysis shows that RIM embedded foreign nodes where three conditions converged: permissive conflict arenas that furnished combat experience and local brokers; a shared ultranationalist-monarchist ideology that substituted for kinship by generating cross-border trust; and tacit home-state toleration that enabled paramilitary infrastructure in Russia to operate as an international training hub. The findings extend transplantation theory by demonstrating that ideological trust and selective state collusion can perform the gate-opening functions long attributed to ethnicity and diaspora.
This article takes stock of Peter Reuter's contribution to money laundering research, starting with Reuter and Truman's seminal book Chasing dirty money: The fight against money laundering (Reuter & Truman, 2004). Next, the three main themes in this book are discussed, including later empirical work by Peter Reuter and co-authors addressing these themes and moving the field forward. First, we describe the development from measuring the volume of money laundering to risk assessments. Second, we discuss money laundering methods and markets. The final theme is the public policy theme that Peter Reuter has worked on consistently, with colleagues, throughout his career: how well does the anti-money laundering regime work?
