The Social Network Consequences of a Gang Murder Blowout

An unexpected crisis in a criminal organization offers a rare opportunity to analyze whether and how the configuration of business and trust relationships changes in response to external shocks. The current study recreates the social network of the Red Scorpion gang members involved in the Surrey Si...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial sciences (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 11; p. 204
Main Authors Airola, Alice, Bouchard, Martin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published MDPI AG 01.11.2020
Subjects
crisis
gangs
homicide
organized crime
social networks
violence
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Summary:An unexpected crisis in a criminal organization offers a rare opportunity to analyze whether and how the configuration of business and trust relationships changes in response to external shocks. The current study recreates the social network of the Red Scorpion gang members involved in the Surrey Six Murder, one of the deadliest gang-related homicides to occur in Canada. The event, which involved two bystanders and six victims in total, was the result of a poorly executed retaliation. Our analyses focus on two phases of the network, the conspiracy phase and the post-murder phase. In each phase, we examine the balance of business, trust, and conflictual ties. Results show that the relative importance of key participants changed from the conspiracy to the post-murder phases, whereby strong, trusted ties gained prominence over the mostly business-oriented network of the conspiracy phase.
ISSN:2076-0760
2076-0760
DOI:10.3390/socsci9110204