Serious And Organised Crime

This book uncovers the reality of organised crime, considering what is meant by the term 'organised', and discussing the different forms of activities organised crime engages in, from human trafficking to extortion. Offering a global perspective, from the Mafia to the Yakuza, it considers efforts to combat organised crime today.

Organised crime is now a major threat to all industrial and non-industrial countries. Using an inter-disciplinary and comparative approach this book examines the existing, official institutional discourse on organised crime to examine whether, or not, it has an impact on perceptions of the threat and on the reality of organized crime.

This edited volume explores recent research and developments in the study of organized crime. It covers six key areas: drug-related issues; human trafficking and prostitution; sports and crime; procurement and corruption; and enforcement and prevention. The contributors provide timely research for understanding various aspects of organized crime, as well as the responses that have been developed worldwide to prevent and contain them. These contributions were presented at seminars of the Centre for Information and Research on Organized Crime (CIROC). It will be of interest to researchers in Criminology and Criminal Justice, particularly with an interest in organized crime and criminal networks, as well as related fields such as Comparative Law, and Political Science. This collection represents the most current thinking on entrenched problems of organized crime....This book is an important contribution in developing new approaches to organized crime and its control. — Jay S. Albanese, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Criminal Justice Programs, Virginia Commonwealth University The book is very well organised and written and deals with a diversity of topics and approaches. — Ernesto U.Savona, Director of Transcrime, Professor of Criminology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan

Abadinsky provides a detailed, comprehensive analysis of the origins, history, theoretical explanations, and structure of domestic andinternational organized crime, including drug trafficking, gambling, and loan sharking. The author also explains the methods employed by lawenforcement agencies to combat organized crime, and the policy decisions reached by various investigating committees and commissions,including the President's Commission on Organized Crime.

This book contains a collection of essays in honor of Alan A. Block including his now classic study on the origins of IRAN-CONTRA. It brings together important contributions from Block's students and contemporaries to show the impact of his work on the field of global organized crime. Professor Alan A. Block of Penn State University has proven to be one of the most inspiring criminologists in the field.

Organized crime is now a major threat to all industrial and non-industrial countries. Using an inter-disciplinary and comparative approach this book examines the nature of this threat. By analysing the existing, official institutional discourse on organized crime it examines whether or not it has an impact on perceptions of the threat and on the reality of organized crime. The book first part of the book explores both the paradigm and the rationale of policy output in the fight against organized crime, and also exposes the often ‘hidden’ internal assumptions embedded in policy making. The second part examines the perceptions of organized crime as expressed by various actors, for example, the general public in the Balkans and in Japan, the criminal justice system in USA and circles within the international scientific community. Finally, the third part provides an overall investigation into the realities of organized crime with chapters that survey its empirical manifestations in various parts of the world. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, criminology, security studies and practitioners.

THE STATE OF ORGANIZED CRIME Report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights Dave MacKenzie, M. P. Chair MARCH 2012 41st PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION Published under the authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons SPEAKER'S PERMISSION Reproduction of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees, in whole or in part and in any medium, is hereby permitted provided that th [...] In addition to its organized crime study, the Committee has also heard related testimony on Bill C-14, an Act to amend the Criminal Code (organized crime and protection of justice system participants)2 and as part of a study on declaring certain groups to be criminal organizations.3 The Committee also benefited from testimony on the issue of "gangsterism" heard during the 1st Session of the 39th P [...] As a result, in 2002, Bill C-249 amended the definition of a "criminal organization" in three main ways by: 1) reducing the number of people required to constitute a criminal organization from five to three; 2) removing the requirement that at least one of the members be involved in committing crimes for the organization within the past five years; and 3) broadening the scope of the offences which [...] These additional measures included: the creation of specialized police task forces; the participation of different police agencies; lengthy police investigations that targeted whole criminal organizations; the use of civil infiltration agents; the creation of specialized teams of prosecutors, such as the Proceeds of Crime Bureau in 1996 and the Organized Crime Bureau in 2000; the const [...] As a result, policy makers, the media, the legal system and the public can be misled.55 The Committee was urged to look at the Statistics Canada report, Criminal Victimization in Canada,56 as a more accurate measure of the amount of criminal activity in Canada.