ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on co-offending networks in cannabis cultivation. It explores whether the complexity of cannabis cultivation affects the stability of co-offending networks, due to the fact that it requires organization and special skills. The chapter then discusses co-offending networks and the social network concepts of redundancy and composition. While the occurrence of co-offending in cannabis cultivation has been substantiated through empirical research, the shape, composition, and structure of these co-offending relationships have not been examined in any depth. Since the chapter explores the shape, redundancy, and composition of individual co-offending networks, the egocentric approach to network analysis was chosen over the whole network approach. While the whole network approach captures all links within a population of interest, egocentric networks focus on a single actor and define all of the individuals they are tied to and the links between these associates.
