ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the introductory context for this book. We provide an overview of why we have chosen to focus on organised crime, what we mean by the term law enforcement, and the value a network perspective brings to analysing organised crime as well as law enforcement responses to organised crime. The chapter then provides the origins the network perspective and how different network-related theories and concepts are used throughout the book. More importantly, we explain who we have in mind as the primary audience for the book and what contribution we seek to make to the extant literature on organised crime and law enforcement. The chapter also outlines our data and methods and the structure of the book, which is organised in two parts: network approaches to organised crime and network approaches to law enforcement.
