Members of the department have recently been awarded funding from the European Commission's Framework Programme 7, to investigate the global dynamics of extortion racket systems.  The GLODERS research project is directed towards development of an ICT model for understanding Extortion Racket Systems (ERSs). ERSs, of which the Mafia is but one example, are spreading globally from a small number of seed locations, causing massive disruption to economies. Yet there is no good understanding of their dynamics and thus how they may be countered. ERSs are not only powerful criminal organizations, operating at several hierarchical levels, but also prosperous economic enterprises and highly dynamic systems, likely to reinvest in new markets.  If stakeholders - legislators and law enforcers - are to be successful in attacking ERSs, they need the much better understanding of the evolution of ERSs that computational models and ICT tools can give them.

http://cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk/web/projects/72-gloders