Universality of political corruption networks

Abstract

Corruption crimes demand highly coordinated actions among criminal agents to succeed. But research dedicated to corruption networks is still in its infancy and indeed little is known about the properties of these networks. Here we present a comprehensive investigation of corruption networks related to political scandals in Spain and Brazil over nearly three decades. We show that corruption networks of both countries share universal structural and dynamical properties, including similar degree distributions, clustering and assortativity coefficients, modular structure, and a growth process that is marked by the coalescence of network components due to a few recidivist criminals. We propose a simple model that not only reproduces these empirical properties but reveals also that corruption networks operate near a critical recidivism rate below which the network is entirely fragmented and above which it is overly connected. Our research thus indicates that actions focused on decreasing corruption recidivism may substantially mitigate this type of organized crime.

arXiv comment11 pages, 6 figures, supplementary information; accepted for publication in Scientific Reports

References in corpus (12)

• Community detection in graphs
• Maps of random walks on complex networks reveal community structure
• Statistical physics of social dynamics
• Community detection in networks: A user guide
• The map equation
• Social physics
• Statistical physics of crime: A review
• Polarization under rising inequality and economic decline
• Quantitative relations between corruption and economic factors
• A network approach to cartel detection in public auction markets
• The web of federal crimes in Brazil: topology, weaknesses, and control
• Complexity science approach to economic crime