ABSTRACT
This chapter presents network analysis methodologies used in crime and criminal justice research and as part of the intelligence analysis process. It starts with the foundations of the network analysis of crime in computer science, policing and sociology that have led to the ‘link analysis’ and the ‘social network analysis’ approaches. It then addresses some of the general methodological recommendations, misconceptions and limitations of these approaches to analysing criminal networks of offenders. Finally, the contributions of forensic science to the reconstruction of crime networks are examined in regard to the potential of using traces to infer relationships among actors, the presence of unknown linked entities and the identification of their characteristics.
