Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Networks and Organized Crime

SES-1302778唐纳德Tomaskovic-DeveyChris SmithUniversity of马萨诸塞州阿默斯特本论文改进研究继续建立一个独特的关系数据库上世纪初芝加哥有组织犯罪。迄今为止，已对4 000多页档案文件和二手资料进行了编码，以提供关于2 800多人及其近14 000个社会关系的信息。这篇论文问：20世纪初芝加哥有组织犯罪集团的结构、活动和动态中，男女关系是如何起作用的？社会网络的方法集中在三个实质性的和可测试的问题的研究议程：（1）妇女在有组织犯罪网络中的作用是什么？(2)妇女在有组织犯罪网络中是否具有结构性重要性？(3)在非法网络中是否存在男女平等的场所？这些问题的答案有可能改变理论，通过增加性别和家庭的社会网络奖学金，并揭示了性别平等的位置在非法组织在一个历史时刻，当正式组织严重性别隔离。的角色和立场，有组织犯罪之前，期间和之后，禁止在芝加哥。社会网络分析提供了理论和方法的工具，以调查有组织犯罪集团之间的关系，高调的罪犯，但也家庭成员，工人，和鲜为人知的个人纠缠系统。在20世纪初芝加哥的边界，有组织犯罪网络是由妻子、女朋友、姐妹篇、母亲、女儿、堂姐妹和邻居组成的，他们为有组织犯罪的规模、力量、结构和持久性做出了贡献。该项目的广泛影响是双重的。首先，该项目将网络科学引入到有组织犯罪集团的研究中，这是一种日益增长的执法信息收集策略。将网络技术应用于一个具有广泛公共利益的历史性话题“黑帮时代芝加哥”，提高了我们对有组织犯罪集团的理解，并为公共政策和执法策略提供了相关的见解。第二，这个项目继续努力建设一个历史性的关系数据库的一个热门话题。分析和出版工作完成后，该数据库将在网上存档并向公众开放。

SES-1302778Donald Tomaskovic-DeveyChris SmithUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst This dissertation improvement research continues to build a unique relational database on early 1900s Chicago organized crime. To date, over 4,000 pages of archival documents and secondary sources have been coded for information on more than 2,800 individuals and their nearly 14,000 social ties. This dissertation asks: How did relationships between men and women contribute to the structures, activities, and dynamics of organized crime groups in early 1900s Chicago? Social network methods focus this research agenda on three substantive and testable questions: (1) What were women's roles in organized crime networks? (2) Were women structurally important to organized crime networks? (3) Were there locations of equality for men and women in illicit networks? Answers to these questions have the potential to change theory by adding gender and family to social network scholarship and revealing locations of gender equality in illicit organizations during a historical moment when formal organizations were severely gender segregated.This project uses a network analysis approach to examine women?s roles and positions in organized crime before, during, and after Prohibition in Chicago. Social network analysis offers theoretical and methodological tools to investigate organized crime groups as enmeshed systems of relationships between high profile criminals, but also family members, workers, and lesser-known individuals. At the boundaries of Chicago's early 1900s organized crime networks were configurations of wives, girlfriends, sisters, mothers, daughters, and female cousins and neighbors who contributed to organized crime's size, strength, structure, and durability. The broader impacts of this project are twofold. First, this project brings network science to the study of organized crime groups, which is a growing information gathering strategy for law enforcement. Applying network techniques to a historic topic of broad public interest "gangster era Chicago" improves our understanding of organized crime groups and provides relevant insights to public policy and law enforcement tactics. Second, this project continues the building efforts of a historic relational database on a topic of popular interest. Upon completion of analysis and publication, this database will be archived online and made publicly available.