Transnational Organised Crime
, Week 1
OHOC H1 Organized crime: a contested concept – p. 13-31
OHOC H2 Theoretical perspectives on organized crime – p. 32-
52
, OHOC
Chapter 1
Organized crime: a contested concept
The term is a vague umbrella concept that cannot be used, without specification,
as a basis for empirical analyses, theory-building, or policymaking
The shifts in meanings, territorial scope, and legitimacy
- The understanding of organized crime has shifted back and forth between
two rival notions
o A set of stable organizations illegal per se or whose members
systematically engage in crime
o A set of serious criminal activities mostly carried out for monetary
gain
- Distinction by Hagan
o Organized Crime: criminal organizations
o Organized crime: criminal activities that require a degree of
organization
- Summarized: in the past century there has been a shift from ‘what’ to
‘who’, and back from ‘who’ to ‘what’
- Since the 1990s, many researchers and government agencies and
international organizations have emphasized the transnational nature of
organized crime
- Since the 1990s, the majority of governments have adopted bills, decrees,
actions plans, or international treaties specifically targeting organized
crime
The American debate: from ‘what’ to ‘who’
- Most often organized crime was made synonymous with racketeering
o This usually referred to extortion, predatory activities, and the
provision of a variety of illegal goods and services
- Alien conspiracy theory: emphasis on foreign criminals
- By stressing the mafia’s control of US illegal markets, Kefauver
demonstrated the need for increased federal involvement in the
enforcement of the gambling and drug laws
- Racketeer Influenced and Corrupted Organizations (RICO) Act,
1970: embodied an extremely broad underlying concept of organized
crime
o They defined organized crime in much broader terms to include less
structured gangs and illicit enterprises
- New legislation gave federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies an
unprecedented array of powers
o Installing wiretapping
o Eavesdropping devices
, The American debate II: the merger of ‘who’ to ‘what’
- In the 1960s, the scientific attention was redirected from ‘who’ back to
‘what’ and upon the most visible and noncontroversial aspect of organized
crime: the supply of illegal products and services
- Thus, organized crime has become a synonym for illegal enterprise
o Involvement in criminal market activities has become nowadays the
basic requirement of virtually all definitions of organized crime
o Negative side effect: the term is intermittently used to refer to both
sets of criminal organizations and sets of activities
- 1986 report of the American government listed a host of other organized
crime entities in addition to CN
o Outlaw motorcycle gangs
o Prison gangs
o Colombian cartels
o Japanese Yakuza
o Russian groups
- 2011: Obama administration announced its new ‘Strategy to Combat
Transnational Organized Crime’
o Self-perpetuating associations of individuals who operate
internationally
o Purpose of obtaining power, influence, monetary and/or commercial
gainst
o Wholly or in party by illegal means
o Pattern of corruption and/or violence
- US policymakers now adopt a looser understanding of organized crime
o “There is no single structure under which transnational criminals
operate; they vary from hierarchies to clans, networks, cells, and
may evolve to other structures”
The debate in Europe: prevalent focus on ‘what’ with few exceptions
- Spain and Italy have remained faithful to an understanding of organized
crime in terms of criminal organizations
o In Italy, this primarily means Southern Italian mafia
o > criminal code: a mafia-type delinquent organization consists of
three or more persons
- The loose understanding of OC in terms of profit-making criminal activities
has allowed organized crime to become a successful policy term even in
European countries that had no mafia problems
- The official definitions of OC adopted in Europe draw from the illegal
enterprise paradigm
o EU 1990s: it is impossible to adopt a uniform definition of OC
- OC has to meet at least six of the following, 1, 3, 5 and 11 were
considered mandatory
1. Collaboration of more than two people
2. Each with their own appointed tasks
3. For a prolonged or indefinite period of time
4. Using some form of discipline and control
5. Serious criminal offenses
6. Operating on an international level
