Montagna_mafia: Montagna mafia (dataset)

In SNAnalyst/DF21: SNA functions and dataset for Data Forensics 2021-2022

Montagna mafia (dataset)

Description

Dataset collected by Cavallaro et al. (2020) derived from the pre-trial detention order, issued by the Court of Messina's preliminary investigation judge on March 14, 2007, which was towards the end of the major anti-mafia operation referred to as the "Montagna Operation".

This particular investigation was a prominent operation focused on two Mafia clans, known as the "Mistretta" family and the "Batanesi" clan. From 2003 to 2007, these families were found to had infiltrated several economic activities including major infrastructure works, through a cartel of entrepreneurs close to the Sicilian Mafia.

In the datasets, each node represents an individual, whereas links show mutual interactions among the individuals. The Meetings dataset, captures the physical meetings among suspects. The Phone Calls dataset refers to phone calls among individuals.

The networks are weighted since, for each pair of individuals, we recorded a coefficient representing the number of times the pair had a meeting (as reported by the police surveillance logs), and made a phone call (reported in police interceptions logs).

Vertices may belong to different categories. Some vertices represent the leaders (i.e., "bosses") or the soldiers (i.e., "picciotti", a Sicilian word which refers to the lowest rank of the Mafia hierarchy) of the criminal organization. Other nodes are associated with individuals (e.g., a fruit seller or a baker) who had one or more calls with members of a Mafia syndicate but are not affiliated with any criminal organization.

The dataset contains a total of 144 vertices, 95 of which are active in the meetings graph and also 95 are active in the phone graph. The numbers are not exactly equal to the numbers reported in the paper where the data came from. It is unclear why. The meetings graph has 289 edges, the phone graph has 150. Again, not exactly equal to the reported numbers in the source paper.

Usage

data(Montagna_mafia, package = "DF21")

Format

list of two igraph objects

Source

Cavallaro, L., Ficara, A., De Meo, P., Fiumara, G., Catanese, S., Bagdasar, O., Song, W., & Liotta, A. (2020). Disrupting resilient criminal networks through data analysis: The case of Sicilian Mafia. PLoS ONE, 15(8), e0236476.

SNAnalyst/DF21 documentation built on March 21, 2022, 12:02 a.m.