ABSTRACT
Co-offending may be treated as a market phenomenon, with offenders searching for partners in a manner which maximizes the benefits of partnership and minimizes its costs. An alternative approach is to treat co-offending as an example of a network form of social organization. The theoretical approaches and terminology of the study of formal organizations, while at times useful for the analysis of particular examples, seldom seem fully appropriate to the study of criminal organization even when formal organizations are themselves criminal actors. While networks are a type of social organization distinct from that of formal organizations, lessons can be drawn from the study of organizations that provide insight for the study of networks. Many analyses of the nature and causes of specific forms of crime and deviance are rooted in what are implicitly network-based understandings of the social organization of criminal activity.
