Organised Crime Revision notes. CRIM102 Lancaster

Organised Crime

• Definition

• Traditional → Contemporary

• Effects of Globalisation

• Effects of technology

• Diversification of organised crime

• Tackling organised crime

Organised Crime

• Understand organised crime in 2 main ways

  • As a type of criminal behaviour

    • Characterised by

      • Sophistication

      • Continuity

      • Rationality

    • Carried out for monetary gain

  • In relation to the organised nature of the relationship between the offenders involved

    • Criminal organisations, groups, networks

• Who or What?

  • Is organised crime considered the activities or the actors

• How organised crime is understood at the policy level affects:

  • Perception of organised crime at the social level

  • Responses by law enforcement

  • Police consider the types of crime over the networks of people involved

    • Each offence that the group may be charged for has its own evidence requirements

      • Guilt for one crime doesn’t entail guilt for another (Sergei, 2016)

• Organised crime can often add to the economy so isn’t necessarily bad for state business as it may seem at first (Sassan, 2007)

• Empirical investigations into organised crime focus on the makeup of who is committing the crime rather than the amount of crime that is committed globally (Levi, 2004)

Examples

• Drug trafficking

• Human trafficking

• Cigarette smuggling

• Counterfeit Goods

• Cybercrime

• Fraud

  • Contemporary types of organised crime facilitated by technological advancement

• Arms trafficking

• Organised wildlife crime

  • Ivory trade

  • Whaling

  • Poaching

  • Smuggling of exotic pets

• The debate over whether corporate crime should be considered organised crime

  • Sutherland (1983) recognized corporate crime as organised crime

  • Most conspiracies in corporate crime do have a level of organisation and sophistication

  • Offenders must have skills in order to succeed and not be caught

• Piracy

  • Could account for up to a fifth of global gross domestic product (Glenny, 2008)

• Terrorism

  • Has its own category but usually is a form of organised crime (Wilkinson, 2001)

• Crimes against the environment

  • Occasionally are performed through organisations

    • Waste management fraud

      • Cheaper ways to dispose of waste

      • Done improperly and so toxic waste can cause dangerous pollution

    • Building maintenance and construction

    • Pollution (OHOC)

Definitions

• First definitions in the UK were inherently racist

  • Transnational criminals were not considered able to come from the UK

  • Seen as a practice of foreigners

  • This understanding has had to change (Hobbs, 2013)

• “‘Organised criminal group’…