Law enforcement agencies rely on data collected from wire taps to construct the organisational\udchart of criminal enterprises. Recently, a number of academics have also begun\udto utilise social network analysis to describe relations among criminals and understand\udthe internal organisation of criminal groups. However, before drawing conclusions\udabout the structure or the organisation of criminal groups, it is important to understand\udthe limitations that selective samples such as wire taps may have on network analysis\udmeasures. Electronic surveillance data can be found in different kinds of court records\udand the selection of the data source is likely to influence the amount of missing information\udand, consequently, the results. This article discusses the impact that the selection\udof a specific data source for the social network analysis of criminal groups may have on\udcentrality measures usually adopted in organised crime research to identify key players.
展开▼