Social Network and Distance Correlates of Criminal Associates Involved in Illicit Drug Production

This research examines the relationship between demographic, social network, and criminal history variables, and the distance between the home and locations of individuals (associates) involved in an illicit drug production network. The authors integrate principals from environmental criminology and routine activities theories, journey to crime research, and social network analysis in order to explore the geographic and social space of criminal associates. The results show that the distance between individuals in the drug production criminal network and their associates vary systematically with network characteristics (centrality measures) but not with demographics or criminal history variables.