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Analyzing and Visualizing Criminal Network Dynamics: A Case Study

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Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI 2004)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 3073))

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Abstract

Dynamic criminal network analysis is important for national security but also very challenging. However, little research has been done in this area. In this paper we propose to use several descriptive measures from social network analysis research to help detect and describe changes in criminal organizations. These measures include centrality for individuals, and density, cohesion, and stability for groups. We also employ visualization and animation methods to present the evolution process of criminal networks. We conducted a field study with several domain experts to validate our findings from the analysis of the dynamics of a narcotics network. The feedback from our domain experts showed that our approaches and the prototype system could be very helpful for capturing the dynamics of criminal organizations and assisting crime investigation and criminal prosecution.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Information Systems, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Jennifer Xu, Byron Marshall, Siddharth Kaza & Hsinchun Chen

Authors
  1. Jennifer Xu
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  2. Byron Marshall
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  3. Siddharth Kaza
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  4. Hsinchun Chen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Information Systems, Eller College of Management,, The University of Arizona, AZ 85721, USA

    Hsinchun Chen

  2. San Diego Supercomputer Center, 9500 Gilman Drive, CA 92093-0505, La Jolla, USA

    Reagan Moore

  3. MIS Department, University of Arizona, AZ 85721, Tucson, USA

    Daniel D. Zeng

  4. Tucson Police Department, 270 S. Stone Avenue, AZ 85701, Tucson, USA

    John Leavitt

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Xu, J., Marshall, B., Kaza, S., Chen, H. (2004). Analyzing and Visualizing Criminal Network Dynamics: A Case Study. In: Chen, H., Moore, R., Zeng, D.D., Leavitt, J. (eds) Intelligence and Security Informatics. ISI 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3073. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25952-7_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25952-7_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-22125-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-25952-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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