Academic Archers co-founder, Dr Nicola Headlam, has some thoughts on the issue of Matt Crawford and just who was behind the wheel...read the introduction to the blog below and download it here.
Can you catch the perpetrator of a hit-and-run in an ego-net?
Dr Nicola Headlam
This blog argues that Social Network Analysis (SNA) can be deployed as an investigative tool –using the hit and run of Matt Crawford in The Archers on 29th October 2017 as a worked example. It explains the context for the incident, proposes that SNA, using graph analysis package YeD, can help in narrowing the field of those who may have deliberately or accidentally run over Matt and that these tools have more in common with the careful approaches of classic detective fiction as espoused by Miss Marple created by Agatha Christie. It suggests that only a few of the tropes of classic detective fiction apply to village law enforcer Harrison Burns and that he may need some help drawing on the methods of Miss Marple but further that a network approach might aid his investigations. Using the SNA method of an ego-net focussed on Matt Crawford it explores those with network centrality by both motivation and circumstance and explores four further dimensions for the core characters which may rule them in or out of involvement considering (1) their strength of their connection with matt, (2) whether they are able to drive and with access to a car. (3) Whether they were in the vicinity at the time, and whether through prior behaviours they have demonstrated either (4)untruthfulness or a flexible moral compass.
It concludes that Matt Crawford’s ego-net contains 55 people, from which there is a long list of 29 possibilities and that perpetrator must be from within a defined shortlist of 5 of whom 3 have centrality, motive and opportunity (suggesting intention by the perpetrator) and 2 have only centrality and opportunity (leading to the conclusion that the collision was more genuinely accidental.)