In discussing criminal businesses and networks, this report produced by the Royal Canadian Police, is divided into three parts consisting of three elements: (1) criminal organizations are both networks and businesses with a focus on criminal networks; (2) criminal organizations, when viewed as networks have characteristics common to other social networks, as well as specific characteristics related to the fact that these organizations are criminal businesses; and (3) the self-protection measures undertaken by criminal networks and the limiting of knowledge which makes combating the networks difficult. Highlights of the main points raised in this report include: (1) criminal organizations can be seen as businesses targeting their external environment and as networks that connect their members internally; (2) the larger the network, the lower the density, with density being measured by the ratio of the number of actual ties in the network to the possible number of ties if there were a direct connection between each pair of actors; (3) the main strong ties within criminal networks are family ties, ties within an age group, ties of neighborhood or previous membership in the same organizations, as well as some ethnic ties; (4) seven roles can be identified in criminal networks: organizer, insulator, communicator, guardian, extender, monitor, and crossover with a single actor having the ability to assume more than one of these roles; and (5) the fight against criminal networks is made difficult by the self-protection measures used by the networks and the limited knowledge of specialists regarding the networks. For strategies in the fight against criminal networks to be effective, the organizations fighting criminal networks must adopt a network format. References