Concurrent session 2b—Networks: Outwit, outplay, outlast—An examination of how resilience develops in criminal networks

Mr Rohan Trevascus, PhD candidate, The University of Melbourne

Despite growing acknowledgement within law enforcement circles that criminal networks are becoming ever more resilient, there remains a tendency in the academic community to gloss over how crime groups actually recover and adapt to law enforcement targeting. It is not enough to claim, as many do, that criminal networks are able to endure law enforcement disruption and persist long after lengthy operations conclude. We must deepen our understanding of how this actually unfolds, or fails to unfold in a variety of crime groups in response to different law enforcement tactics. This presentation will therefore offer a contemporary assessment of how resilience develops in criminal organisations by examining many of the key variables and environmental conditions that either facilitate or impede survival when groups are under attack. Having conducted interviews with law enforcement officers, this research should enable criminologists to better understand the endurance of criminal groups and provoke thoughtful discussion among conference delegates with regard to available strategic and tactical approaches that may just perhaps ensure that those groups who are targeted are unable to reform post-intervention.