Taking care of everyone’s business: interpreting Sicilian Mafia embedment through spatial network analysis
Mafia-type organisations often have a strong geographical and cultural entrenchment in the territory they belong. However, their analysis as a spatially networked social structure is still missing. A combined socio-spatial network analysis is presented here, through the demise of a large police oper...
| Authors: | ; ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
Global crime
Year: 2022, Volume: 23, Issue: 2, Pages: 171-192 |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | Mafia-type organisations often have a strong geographical and cultural entrenchment in the territory they belong. However, their analysis as a spatially networked social structure is still missing. A combined socio-spatial network analysis is presented here, through the demise of a large police operation called Operazione Perseo in 2008. This approach is developed in two ways. At first, a visual representation of the social network of this large group of mafiosi embedded in a geographical space is presented. Three main salient territorial features of the network are thus highlighted. A high density of links in some neighbourhoods, as well as connections across different Mandamenti, the territorial units where Mafia families operate, and the correlation of links and socio-economic determinants, like the unemployment rates. Secondly, a spatial econometric analysis of centrality measures of the group is suggested here. Findings show a positive spatial correlation in the Eigenvalue centrality scores. |
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| ISSN: | 1744-0580 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/17440572.2022.2073440 |