Alberto Nieto

Bio

Alberto joined UCL as a PhD student in 2018. His research focuses on using network science tools to understand the behaviour and evolution of co-offending networks. To this end, he is using an extensive data set of criminal investigations in Colombia that were handled by the Prosecution Office between 2005 and 2018. Apart from his research, Alberto has cooperated with multiple projects related to security and policing both in Latin America and the UK. He has also collaborated as a postgraduate teaching assistant on modules related to organised crime, conducting research, and intelligence analysis. Before coming to UCL, Alberto served as a policy advisor for Colombia's Prosecution Service. Before that, he consulted for the World Bank on multiple projects related to judicial reforms in Latin America. Alberto holds a law degree from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) and a Master in the Science of Law from Stanford University (USA).

Research project

My research focuses on understanding the structure and characteristics of criminal networks, and how we can prevent them from spreading using networks theory and crime script analysis

Publications

• Nieto, A., Davies, T., & Borrion, H. (2022). “Offending with the accomplices of my accomplices”: Evidence and implications regarding triadic closure in co-offending networks. Social Networks, 70, 325–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SOCNET.2022.02.013