A network of violence

The study applies second-generation social network analysis to a court case involving 'The Americans' gang in Cape Town, identifying a network of 46 nodes and 179 interactions. It finds that the network is characterized by high levels of violence and a low level of resilience, as a small number of key actors control a majority of the interactions and information flows. The authors argue that law enforcement often has an oversimplified view of such structures by focusing on violent 'dark nodes' while overlooking the 'grey nodes' that provide economic and political support.

• The analyzed criminal network consists of 46 nodes and 179 interactions, with 'violence/coercion' being the most prevalent type of interaction at 39%, followed by 'gang' interactions at 24% and 'criminal' interactions at 15%.
• The network exhibits low resilience because a small number of actors concentrate a high percentage of direct interactions; specifically, four nodes account for 34.40% of all direct interactions.
• Information flow and geodesic routes are even more concentrated than direct interactions, with only three nodes—Lucian Lackay, Ismail Ceaser, and Junaid Mitchells—intervening in 50.3% of the network's geodesic routes.
• The 'Americans' gang operates as a 'supergang' with an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 members, functioning more like a 'franchise' with autonomous cells than a rigid hierarchy.
• The study identifies a significant gap in law enforcement's understanding of criminal networks, noting that agencies typically focus on 'dark nodes' (full-time criminals) and overlook 'grey nodes' (professionals like lawyers or bankers) who provide essential economic and political support.
• The 'Americans' gang is characterized by extreme internal and external violence, with the Western Cape police estimating that gang violence accounts for one-third of all attempted murders in the province.

APA

Goga, K., Salcedo-Albaran, E., & Goredema, C. (2014). A network of violence. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper271V2.pdf

Chicago

Goga, Khalil, Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran, and Charles Goredema. A network of violence. Institute for Security Studies, 2014. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper271V2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Goga |first1=Khalil |last2=Salcedo-Albaran |first2=Eduardo |last3=Goredema |first3=Charles |title=A network of violence |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=November 2014 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper271V2.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{goga2014network, author = {Goga, Khalil and Salcedo-Albaran, Eduardo and Goredema, Charles}, title = {{A network of violence}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2014}, month = nov, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper271V2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }