DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02594
title: Soviet Emigre Organized Crime Networks in the United States, 1992-1995
title: Archival Version

description: The goal of this study was to assess the nature and scope
of Soviet emigre crime in the United States, with a special focus on
the question of whether and how well this crime was organized. The
research project was designed to overcome the lack of reliable and
valid knowledge on Soviet emigre crime networks through the systematic
collection, evaluation, and analysis of information. In Part 1, the
researchers conducted a national survey of 750 law enforcement
specialists and prosecutors to get a general overview of Soviet emigre
crime in the United States. For Parts 2-14, the researchers wanted to
look particularly at the character, operations, and structure, as well
as the criminal ventures and enterprises, of Soviet emigre crime
networks in the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania region. They were
also interested in any international criminal connections to these
networks, especially with the former Soviet Union. The investigators
focused particularly on identifying whether these particular networks
met the following criteria commonly used to define organized crime:
(1) some degree of hierarchical structure within the network, (2)
continuity of that structure over time, (3) use of corruption and
violence to facilitate and protect criminal activities, (4) internal
discipline within the network structure, (5) involvement in multiple
criminal enterprises that are carried out with a degree of criminal
sophistication, (6) involvement in legitimate businesses, and (7)
bonding among participants based upon shared ethnicity. Data for Parts
2-14 were collected from a collaborative effort with the Tri-State
Joint Project on Soviet Emigre Organized Crime. From 1992 through 1995
every investigative report or other document produced by the project
was entered into a computer file that became the database for the
network analysis. Documents included undercover observation and
surveillance reports, informant interviews, newspaper articles,
telephone records, intelligence files from other law enforcement
agencies, indictments, and various materials from the former Soviet
Union. Every individual, organization, and other entity mentioned in a
document was considered an actor, given a code number, and entered
into the database. The investigators then used network analysis to
measure ties among individuals and organizations and to examine the
structure of the relationships among the entries in the database. In
Part 1, National Survey of Law Enforcement and Prosecutors Data, law
enforcement officials and prosecutors were asked if their agency had
any contact with criminals from the former Soviet Union, the types of
criminal activity these people were involved in, whether they thought
these suspects were part of a criminal organization, whether this type
of crime was a problem for the agency, whether the agency had any
contact with governmental agencies in the former Soviet Union, and
whether anyone on the staff spoke Russian. Part 2, Actor
Identification Data, contains the network identification of each actor
coded from the documents in Part 3 and identified in the network data
in Parts 4-14. An actor could be an individual, organization, concept,
or location. Information in Part 2 includes the unique actor
identification number, the type of actor, and whether the actor was a
"big player." Part 3, Sources of Data, contains data on the documents
that were the sources of the network data in Parts 4-14. Variables
include the title and date of document, the type of document, and
whether the following dimensions of organized crime were mentioned:
sources of capital, locational decisions, advertising, price setting,
financial arrangements, recruitment, internal structure, corruption,
or overlapping partnerships. Parts 4-14 contain the coding of the ties
among actors in particular types of documents, and are named for them:
indictments, tips, investigative reports, incident reports, search
reports, interview reports, arrest reports, intelligence reports,
criminal acts reports, confidential informant reports, newspaper
reports, social surveillance reports, other surveillance reports, and
company reports.
description: Questions and concerns about whether there is
 Soviet emigre organized crime in the United States have been prevalent
 since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Reliable and valid
 knowledge to answer these questions has, however, been severely
 limited. This research project was designed to overcome this
 limitation through the systematic collection, evaluation, and analysis
 of information on Soviet emigre crime in the United States. The goal
 of the study was to assess the nature and scope of Soviet emigre
 crime, with a special focus on the question of whether and how well
 this crime was organized. In Part 1, the researchers conducted a
 national survey of law enforcement specialists and prosecutors to get
 a general overview of Soviet emigre crime in the United States. For
 Parts 2-14, the researchers wanted to look particularly at the
 character, operations, and structure, as well as the criminal ventures
 and enterprises, of Soviet emigre crime networks in the New York-New
 Jersey-Pennsylvania region. They were also interested in any
 international criminal connections to these networks, especially with
 the former Soviet Union. The investigators focused particularly on
 identifying whether these particular networks met the following
 criteria commonly used to define organized crime: (1) some degree of
 hierarchical structure within the network, (2) continuity of that
 structure over time, (3) use of corruption and violence to facilitate
 and protect criminal activities, (4) internal discipline within the
 network structure, (5) involvement in multiple criminal enterprises
 that are carried out with a degree of criminal sophistication, (6)
 involvement in legitimate businesses, and (7) bonding among
participants based upon shared ethnicity.
description: To get a general idea of how familiar United
 States law enforcement agents and prosecutors were with Soviet emigre
 crime, the researchers administered a mail-back survey to over 750 law
 enforcement officials and prosecutors in the United States for Part
 1. Data for Parts 2-14 were collected from a collaborative effort with
 the Tri-State Joint Project on Soviet Emigre Organized Crime. This
 project was created in 1992 to mount a joint intelligence,
 investigative, and prosecutorial effort against this particular type
 of organized crime. In exchange for access to the investigative
 materials collected by the project, the principal investigators
 developed and managed a computerized database and assumed
 responsibility for preparing reports for the project. From 1992
 through 1995 every investigative report or other document produced by
 the project was entered into a computer file that became the database
 for the network analysis. Documents included undercover observation
 and surveillance reports, informant interviews, newspaper articles,
 telephone records, intelligence files from other law enforcement
 agencies, indictments, and various materials from the former Soviet
 Union. Every individual, organization, and other entity mentioned in a
 document was given a code number and entered into the database. The
 investigators then used network analysis to measure ties among
 individuals and organizations and to examine the structure of the
relationships among the entries in the database.
description: In Part 1, National Survey of Law Enforcement and
 Prosecutors Data, law enforcement officials and prosecutors were asked
 if their agency had any contact with criminals from the former Soviet
 Union, the types of criminal activity these people were involved in,
 whether they thought these suspects were part of a criminal
 organization, whether this type of crime was a problem for the agency,
 whether the agency had any contact with governmental agencies in the
 former Soviet Union, and whether anyone on the staff spoke
 Russian. Part 2, Actor Identification Data, contains the network
 identification of each actor coded from the documents in Part 3 and
 identified in the network data in Parts 4-14. An actor could be an
 individual, organization, concept, or location. Information in Part 2
 includes the unique actor identification number, the type of actor,
 and whether the actor was a "big player." Part 3, Sources of Data,
 contains data on the documents that were the sources of the network
 data in Parts 4-14. Variables include the title and date of document,
 the type of document, and whether the following dimensions of
 organized crime were mentioned: sources of capital, locational
 decisions, advertising, price setting, financial arrangements,
 recruitment, internal structure, corruption, or overlapping
 partnerships. Parts 4-14 contain the coding of the ties among actors
 in particular types of documents, and are named for them: indictments,
 tips, investigative reports, incident reports, search reports,
 interview reports, arrest reports, intelligence reports, criminal acts
 reports, confidential informant reports, newspaper reports, social
 surveillance reports, other surveillance reports, and company
reports.
description: Response Rates: Part 1: The individual response rate was 64.5
percent and the agency response rate was 77.8 percent.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: Part 1: Convenience sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: National Survey of Law Enforcement and Prosecutors Data
DS2: Actor Identification Data
DS3: Sources of Data
DS4: Indictments Data
DS5: Tips Data
DS6: Reports Data
DS7: Criminal Acts Data
DS8: Confidential Informants Data
DS9: Newspaper Data
DS10: Social Surveillance Data
DS11: Other Surveillance Data
DS12: Company Reports Data
DS13: Phone Calls Data
DS14: Phone Books Data
description: Part 1: Law enforcement agencies and prosecutor's offices
in the United States. Parts 2-14: Actors, defined as individuals,
organizations, or other entities, mentioned in documentation for the
Tri-State Joint Project on Soviet Emigre Organized Crime.
description: The user guide and the codebook and data collection
instruments are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF)
files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated
and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat
Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.