Criminal networks and black markets in transnational environmental crime: some thoughts on a conceptual framework Prof Lorraine Elliott Transnational Environmental Crime Project The Australian National University ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ir/tec

2 Introduction/overview Purpose: the ‘who’ but also the ‘how’ of TEC – criminal networks and black markets  Logistic trails  Network analyses to understand illegal market operations  Networks as entrepreneurial structures

Approach to criminal networks/black trade Focus/unit of analysisApproach CriminologySocial networks (SNA)Relational Transaction Cost Economics Value/commodity chains and production Transactional Public policy/management Governance/structureOrganisational 3

SNA: document roles, relationships, social complexity; but also useful conceptual scaffolding … brokerage, centrality, density, redundancy, structural holes TCE: spatial/geographic organisation of [illicit] production; inputs [material/labour], ‘outsourcing’, network supply relationships PPM: governance structures, collective action and patterns of interaction 4

Analytical framework for understanding logistic trails and entrepreneurial structures Nodes (managing illicit trade flows) –Functional –Geographic (‘black holes’) Organisational – form and function Chain networks  Loosely coupled, organisationally flat  Task specificity and arm’s length transactions Hub and spoke networks  functionally specific nodes,  higher density but ‘need to know’  opportunities for ‘king pin’ strategies 5

Relationships of illegal commercial exchange Specialisation and differentiation (skills) Redundancy and criticality (options) Brokerage (positioning) Supply and exchange relationships (product/skill/labour)  commodity suppliers  captive suppliers  turn-key suppliers 6