There is a growing recognition that organized crime is increasingly operating through fluid network structures rather than more-formal hierarchies. The traditional paradigm for studying organized crime emphasized identifying the hierarchical or pyramidal structures of criminal organizations.

Donald Cressey’s famous analysis was based on the example provided by La Cosa Nostra in the United States. It emphasized the existence of a “nationwide illicit cartel and confederation,” the governing role of a national commission, hierarchical structure, and the clear division of labor between local branches”.

Cressey’s analysis, that organized crime was much more fluid than portrayed by the conventional wisdom, but also that stated that relations and network structures played a pivotal role.

Networks are one of the most common forms of social organization. They are simultaneously pervasive and intangible, ubiquitous and invisible, everywhere and nowhere. Networks are not an exclusive organizational form and often exist within more traditional hierarchical structures, cutting through divisions based on specialization or rank. It is also possible to have networks in which hierarchical organizations are key participants. Networks are also an important complement to markets, making them more efficient, reducing transaction costs, and providing increased opportunities for both buyers and sellers.
These characteristics their pervasiveness, their capacity to coexist both within and outside hierarchies, their ability to make markets more efficient by facilitating directed flows of information and commodities give networks an elusive quality. In some respects, they appear little more than plastic organizations that can be molded in many different ways.
Networks vary in size, shape, membership, cohesion, and purpose.
Networks can be large or small, local or global, domestic or transnational, cohesive or diffuse, centrally directed or highly decentralized, purposeful or directionless. A specific network can be narrowly and tightly focused on one goal or broadly oriented toward many goals, and it can be either exclusive or encompassing in its membership. Networks facilitate flows of information, knowledge, and communication as well as more-tangible commodities. As communications have become cheaper and easier networks have been able to expand a lot easier.