ABSTRACT
This chapter establishes the definitional foundations of organised crime and related concepts. The chapter addresses the many debates involved in defining organised crime and outlines how we navigate these differences in this book. We follow extant research in distinguishing between organised criminal activities and organised criminal groups, noting that our primary focus in the book is on the latter. Network perspectives are used to analyse and understand the underlying properties of organised criminal groups, including how they form and function, and how they can be disrupted. The chapter also provides an overview of the three main associational structures used to describe and analyse organised criminal groups: markets, hierarchies, and networks. This overview is needed to properly appreciate the value a network perspective brings to the study of organised criminal groups.
