Dustin K MacDonald

Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Economic and Community Development
    • Notary in Sigourney Iowa
  • Nonprofit Management
    • Counselling and Service Delivery
    • Suicide Prevention / Crisis Intervention
  • Politics and Governance
  • Math and Statistics
Menu

Association Analysis

Posted on July 16, 2017November 23, 2019 by Dustin

Creating an association matrix forms the basis for many other techniques covered in this course, including link charting. Association matrix, as the name may suggest, involves plotting out the associations or connections between entities. These entities can be individuals, organizations, loose-knit groups (such as Anonymous, or ISIS) or other communities.

The purpose of the association matrix is to allow you to see connections between individuals that may not be immediately obvious. For instance, if you know that 3 individuals who attend Legitimate Businessman’s Social Club are known members of the New Jersey mob, you may begin to suspect (rightly) that the 2 individuals you know who also attend but whom you have no other information on may be connected as well.

The steps to performing an association matrix are as follows:

  1. Identify what entities you would like to examine
  2. Choose symbols for the connections
  3. Plot them on the table
  4. Examine the table for potential connections

We’ll work through these steps step by one.

Identify entities for examination

In this first step, you choose what you want to examine. One simple way to begin this step is to begin with someone known to be involved in the activity under investigation and branch out from their contacts. For instance, if you know that John has been convicted of drug dealing and operates out of a gun shop, you might examine John’s contacts and those of other known drug dealers or buyers.

This a simple association chart from the UNODC. The matrix shows 5 individuals and 3 organizations. Based on notations made in this chart you can identify associations between these individuals.

 

 

 

 

 

Choose symbols for the connections

The simplest notation is one given in FM 34-60 Counterintelligence (pg. 110), where a filled in circle represents a known association and an open circle represents a suspected association.

A more complex association chart is used by UNODC Analysts,

If you think back to our lesson on the Intelligence Cycle, with the reliability and validity charts (reproduced below), you can use these to consistently determine whether a link is confirmed or suspected.

Reliability Rating Validity Rating
Reliable – Source’s reliability is unquestioned or has been well-tested in the past A

 

Facual 1
Usually reliable – Source’s reliability can usually be relied upon as factual. The majority of past information has proven to be reliable B Probably true 2
Unreliable – Source’s reliability has been sporadic C Possibly true 3
Unknown – Source’s reliability cannot be judged. Authenticity or trustworthiness has not been determined by either experience or investigation. D Factually unknown 4

The UNODC recommendation is that you consider a link confirmed when it is A1, A2, B1 or B2 and unconfirmed when it is evaluated differently.

Plot them on the table

Now it’s time to actually plot the information you’ve gathered. Two examples are provided below:

Example 1

Example 2

The numbers at the bottom include numbers. These are the number of links. The higher the number, the more connections these individuals have to each other.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Privacy Policy

See here for our privacy policy. This site uses affiliate links and Adsense ads to provide targeted advertising.

Tags

analytical technique assessment city council communication community development counselling crisis chat crisis intervention economic development empathy evaluation forecasting fundraising governance humint inpatient intelligence intelligence analysis keokuk county language learning legal local government management peer support personal development politics professional development protective factors psychosocial risk factors safety planning sexual violence sigourney social media statistics suicide suicide assessment suicide myths suicide risk assessment technology terrorism training violence violence risk assessment youth

Recommended Posts

  • Conducting Psychosocial Assessments
  • DCIB Model of Suicide Risk Assessment
  • ABC Model of Crisis Intervention
  • My Friend is Suicidal - What do I do?

Recent Posts

  • Jarad Klein ignores the science on COVID-19
  • Certificate for the Study of Capitalism
  • Review of UpLevel Data Science 2020
  • Quantic Master of Business Administration (MBA)
  • 2020 Election Results, Keokuk County Iowa

Archives

  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • November 2020 (4)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • March 2020 (4)
  • February 2020 (7)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • October 2019 (2)
  • September 2019 (4)
  • August 2019 (2)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (4)
  • November 2018 (3)
  • October 2018 (3)
  • September 2018 (19)
  • October 2017 (2)
  • September 2017 (2)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (39)
  • May 2017 (3)
  • April 2017 (4)
  • March 2017 (4)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (5)
  • December 2016 (4)
  • November 2016 (4)
  • October 2016 (5)
  • September 2016 (4)
  • August 2016 (5)
  • July 2016 (5)
  • June 2016 (5)
  • May 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (2)
  • March 2016 (2)
  • February 2016 (2)
  • January 2016 (4)
  • December 2015 (2)
  • November 2015 (2)
  • October 2015 (2)
  • September 2015 (2)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (2)
  • May 2015 (5)
  • April 2015 (3)
  • March 2015 (8)
  • February 2015 (12)
  • January 2015 (28)

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Comments

  • Dustin on Quantic Master of Business Administration (MBA)
  • Dustin on Certificate for the Study of Capitalism
  • Tricia Fox on Quantic Master of Business Administration (MBA)
  • Steve Foerster on Certificate for the Study of Capitalism
  • Dustin on Spousal Assault Risk Assessment (SARA)

Tags

analytical technique assessment city council communication community development counselling crisis chat crisis intervention economic development empathy evaluation forecasting fundraising governance humint inpatient intelligence intelligence analysis keokuk county language learning legal local government management peer support personal development politics professional development protective factors psychosocial risk factors safety planning sexual violence sigourney social media statistics suicide suicide assessment suicide myths suicide risk assessment technology terrorism training violence violence risk assessment youth
© 2021 Dustin K MacDonald | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme