Counterfeit alcohol distribution: A criminological script network analysis
| Date | 01 July 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370818794870 |
| Published date | 01 July 2020 |
| Author | Jon Spencer,Elisa Bellotti,Katie Benson,Nick Lord |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370818794870
European Journal of Criminology
2020, Vol. 17(4) 373 –398
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370818794870
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Counterfeit alcohol
distribution: A criminological
script network analysis
Elisa Bellotti , Jon Spencer, Nick Lord
University of Manchester, UK
Katie Benson
Lancaster University, UK
Abstract
This paper analyses a series of subsequent and connected investigations by a domestic European
regulator on the network of distribution of counterfeit alcohol across two jurisdictions. The
analysis mixes script analysis, a narrative framework for enhancing the understanding of how
crimes unfold and are organized, with multi-node multi-link social network analysis, to observe
the social structure in which crime scripts take place. We focus our attention on the key players
that occupy strategic positions within the network of the crime commission process, from where
they overview and control the various phases (scenes) and perform brokerage activities across
the scenes, and on strategies of concealment of illicit products beyond the facade of legitimate
business. Our findings indicate that actors in charge of managing the proceeds of the criminal
activity are also the ones better positioned to monitor the entire process. The overall structure
of the criminal network shows a good level of resilience and efficiency, although actors do not
adopt common traits of a criminal lifestyle that facilitate secrecy and covertness. We believe that,
by shifting the analysis from the nature of the group organization to the network of links between
all the aspects of a crime commission process, the organizational structure and its weakest links
become more detectable, easier to compare across proto- and meta-scripts, and ultimately more
prone to situational preventive measures.
Keywords
Counterfeit alcohol, criminal networks, multi-link networks, multi-mode networks, script
analysis, social network analysis
Corresponding author:
Elisa Bellotti, Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis, Department of Sociology, University of
Manchester, Arthur Lewis Building, Bridgeford Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
Email: elisa.bellotti@manchester.ac.uk
794870EUC0010.1177/1477370818794870European Journal of CriminologyBellotti et al.
research-article2018
Article
374 European Journal of Criminology 17(4)
Introduction
Counterfeit alcohol production and distribution are a high priority concern for EU and
domestic authorities. A report from Europol and the Office for Harmonization in the
Internal Market (OHIM, 2015) argues that, despite the worrying growth in counterfeit-
ing, the rise of domestic production in several EU countries and the damage it does to
businesses and consumers, there is no comprehensive picture of its criminal dimension
and dynamics. This paper presents the results of the first study, to our knowledge, of a
criminal case related to the international distribution of counterfeit alcohol. Previous
studies have looked at the distribution of other counterfeit products, such as tobacco
(Antonopoulos and Hall, 2016; Di Nicola and Terenghi, 2016; Kupka and Tvrdá, 2016),
olive oil (Lord et al., 2017), pharmaceuticals (Lavorgna, 2014a); or at the composition of
surrogate and illegal alcohol in Estonia and Russia (Lang et al., 2006; McKee et al.,
2005) and the extension and consequences of its consumption (Kotelnikova, 2014;
2017). However, to date none have investigated the routes and structure of counterfeit
alcohol distribution across European jurisdictions.
A common underlying perspective of the public authorities is that counterfeit crimes
are predominantly pursued by organized crime groups and that these in turn need to be
disrupted owing to the inherently illicit market contexts of their activities. However, it
has been argued that the problem of organized crime groups is in the concept itself
(Edwards and Levi, 2008). Our paper discusses the appropriateness of referring to organ-
ized crime groups when studying transit crimes (that is, criminal trafficking activities;
see Kleemans, 2007). In doing so, it contributes to the ongoing debate about the political
and practical reasons and consequences involved in adopting an organized crime groups
framework (Ashby, 2015; Lavorgna and Sergi, 2016) and the alternatives to hand.
Shifting the analytical focus away from a preoccupation with the attributes of organized
crime groups and towards the nature of illicit trading relations, practices and networks in
‘grey’ or ‘dirty’ markets allows us to better understand the routine and rational practices
of these traders in their pursuit of crime as an enterprise (Edwards and Gill, 2002: 204).
To do this we combine social network analysis with script analysis, a fruitful mix of
methodology that has already produced significant results in the literature (Bright and
Delaney, 2013; Morselli and Roy, 2008). In doing so we aim to increase our understand-
ing of the possible recurrent patterns of criminal activities in the specific sector of coun-
terfeit goods, and to facilitate the task of guardianship in intervening and disrupting such
criminal activities. Our argument is that it is more analytically useful to shift the narra-
tive from a focus on organized crime groups to the identification of the tasks and oppor-
tunities that drive criminal activities and the efficiency and resilience of the networks
involved in the crime commission process. This in turn enables a more valid comparison
of ‘scripts’ across criminal categories as well as the identification of the procedural steps
where preventive intervention might take place.
In order to achieve our goal, the first section discusses the state of the art of the litera-
ture on transit crimes and counterfeit goods; on the legitimacy and non-legitimacy of the
contexts in which such criminal activities operate; on the application of crime script
analysis to identify the stages of the crime commission process and the actors, resources
and decisions involved in each stage; and on the analytical advantages of combining
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