Paolo Campana’s work explores different forms of organised crime and their impact on countries, neighbourhoods, and individuals. He has examined issues related to gangs and organised crime groups, including their emergence and spatial movement – both locally and internationally. He has extensively studied migrant smuggling, human trafficking, and drug trafficking, and has explored the relational mechanisms that drive violence and victimisation among young people and at-risk populations. 

A central focus of his work is the application of network analysis to model criminal phenomena, from the internal dynamics of organised crime groups to the workings of illegal markets and violence. His work has appeared in leading international journals and has been translated into Chinese, French, and Italian. 

He has served as principal investigator on numerous grants funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Leverhulme Trust, Nuffield Foundation, and Youth Endowment Fund.

He is also the author of the Council of Europe’s official report on Online and Technology-facilitated Trafficking in Human Beings ( https://rm.coe.int/online-and-technology-facilitated-trafficking-in-human-beings-summary-/1680a5e10c). 

Narcotrafic : l’éclairage des chercheurs du Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée

Additional information

Member of the scientific committee of the UNODC International Conference on Governance, Crime and Justice Statistics.

Member of the Research and Ethics Committee of the London Metropolitan Police.

His work has received international media coverage, including reports from Reuters, AP, Washington Post, Guardian, Sky News, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, Focus (Germany), Society (France), Le Scienze, Times of Malta, Vanguard (Nigeria), and Wired. He has contributed as an invited expert to several media outlets, including BBC Radio 4 and BBC News. 

• Course convenor,  “Organised Forms of Crime”, MPhil in Criminology, University of Cambridge
• Course convenor, “Social Network Analysis”, MPhil in Criminology, University of Cambridge.
• Course co-convenor, “Social Order, Violence and Organized Crime”, Undergraduate programme in Human, Social and Political Science, University of Cambridge. 

Editor of the Clarendon Series in Criminology, Oxford University Press.

Editorial Board Member of Criminology, British Journal of Criminology, and Trends in Organised Crime. 

Member of the scientific committee of the UNODC International Conference on Governance, Crime and Justice Statistics