Search results

1 – 10 of over 2000
Article
Publication date: 31 May 2011

Stuart Kirby and Sue Penna

The purpose of this paper is to consider how the national intelligence model (NIM) of policing in Britain has been affected by changing patterns of mobility, since its inception…

2286

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to consider how the national intelligence model (NIM) of policing in Britain has been affected by changing patterns of mobility, since its inception in 2004.

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptually, the paper draws on the “new mobilities paradigm”. Empirically, it is based on a small, exploratory study, comprising analysis of investigations carried out over a three‐month period in 2007 and 2008, by a serious and organised crime unit in a police force in England, and 11 interviews carried out in three police forces in England. The data are used for illustrative purposes only.

Findings

It is argued that increased levels of mobile criminality are impacting significantly on British police forces, placing considerable strain on the practical structures which underpin the NIM, and posing serious challenges to operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Originality/value

This paper makes a contribution by linking the social changes documented in the emergent social science field of “mobilities study” with changes in the organisation of criminality, particularly evident in the organisation of mobile criminality, which have presented routine opportunities for organised, transnational as well as “lower level” crime. Examining this phenomenon enables us to see that despite the attention paid to transnational policing in the organised crime literature, the burden of policing both organised and opportunistic crime continues to fall upon local police forces.

Details

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2006

Roderic Broadhurst

Addresses the rapid expansion of computer connectivity and the opportunities provided for criminals to exploit security vulnerabilities in the online environment.

20710

Abstract

Purpose

Addresses the rapid expansion of computer connectivity and the opportunities provided for criminals to exploit security vulnerabilities in the online environment.

Design/methodology/approach

International efforts to combat cyber‐crime are reviewed by evaluating the forms of mutual legal assistance (MLA) now in place.

Findings

Cyber‐crime is often traditional crime (e.g. fraud, identify theft, child pornography) albeit executed swiftly and to vast numbers of potential victims, as well as unauthorised access, damage and interference to computer systems. Most detrimental are malicious and exploit codes that interrupt computer operations on a global scale and along with other cyber‐crimes threaten e‐commerce. The cross‐national nature of most computer‐related crimes have rendered many time‐honoured methods of policing both domestically and in cross‐border situations ineffective even in advanced nations, while the “digital divide” provides “safe havens” for cyber‐criminals. In response to the threat of cyber‐crime there is an urgent need to reform methods of MLA and to develop trans‐national policing capability.

Practical implications

The international response is briefly outlined in the context of the United Nations (UN) Transnational Organised Crime Convention (in force from September 2003) and the Council of Europe's innovative Cyber‐crime Convention (in force from July 2004). In addition, the role of the UN, Interpol, other institutions and bi‐lateral, regional and other efforts aimed a creating a seamless web of enforcement against cyber‐criminals are described.

Originality/value

The potential for potent global enforcement mechanisms are discussed.

Details

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 February 2021

Elisa Norio

The relationships between tourist resorts and transnational crime are rarely analyzed systematically. This paper begins to fill this gap by examining how organized crime groups…

5896

Abstract

Purpose

The relationships between tourist resorts and transnational crime are rarely analyzed systematically. This paper begins to fill this gap by examining how organized crime groups and individuals linked to them can take advantage of tourist resorts to commit crimes.

Details

Tourism Critiques: Practice and Theory, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2633-1225

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2008

Bojan Dobovšek

The purpose of this paper is to highlight both the ways in which transnational organized crime has developed and will develop, and also some problems in relation to financing…

1685

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to highlight both the ways in which transnational organized crime has developed and will develop, and also some problems in relation to financing economic organized crime networks. These are related to the problem of state capture problem in emerging democracies.

Design/methodology/approach

The literature and other sources have been reviewed to analyse trends relating to transnational crime organisations.

Findings

It was found that criminal organisations have moved in the last few years to strengthen their economic power, putting pressure on to states' politics through their networks. In some cases (such as tycoons in transitional countries) it seems that they have already entered a third phase – movement into politics. This form of elite organized crime could be characterised as a fifth branch of state authority, because it is influences, through the means of a great amount of money, corruption, networking and extortion, both the state economy and policy.

Originality/value

The analyses and conclusions help us to understand the transformation of organized crime and its influence on modern society, especially in emerging democracies. This may allow politicians and others to predict how economic organized crime will act in the future and how to avoid the current pressure being exerted by these groups.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 35 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 July 2010

Marco Arnone and Leonardo Borlini

The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical assessment and outline issues in criminal regulation relating to international anti‐money laundering (AML) programs.

3933

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical assessment and outline issues in criminal regulation relating to international anti‐money laundering (AML) programs.

Design/methodology/approach

In the first part, this paper outlines the serious threats posed by transnational laundering operations in the context of economic globalization, and calls for highly co‐ordinated international responses to such a crime. The second part of the paper centres on elements of international criminal regulation of ML.

Findings

The focus is on the phenomenological aspect of ML and highlights that to a large extent it is an economic issue. Economic analysis calls for an accurate legal response, with typical trade‐offs: it should deter criminals from laundering by increasing the costs for such illicit operations, calling for enhanced regulatory and enforcement activities; however, stronger enforcement yields increased costs and reduces privacy. These features have lately inspired the recent paradigm shift from a rule‐based regulatory framework to a risk‐based approach which still represents an extremely delicate regulatory. Both at the international level and within the single domestic legal system, AML law is typically characterised by a multidisciplinary approach combining the repressive profile with preventive mechanisms: an empirical evaluation of the International Monetary Fund‐World Bank AML program is presented, where these two aspects are assessed. The non‐criminal measures recently implemented under the auspices of the main inter‐governmental public organisations with competence in these fields seem to be consistent with the insights of economic analysis. However, some key criminal issues need to be better addressed.

Originality/value

The paper offers insights into international AML programs, focusing on criminal regulation.

Details

Journal of Money Laundering Control, vol. 13 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1368-5201

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2006

Frank J. Marine

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development and nature of organized crime in the USA over the past 50 years, emphasizing organized crime's corruption and victimization…

2979

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development and nature of organized crime in the USA over the past 50 years, emphasizing organized crime's corruption and victimization of legitimate businesses and describing law enforcement's efforts to combat organized crime through specific case studies.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the paper analyzes the control over and corruption of legitimate businesses in the USA by the La Cosa Nostra (“LCN,” or the American Mafia), including the following industries: Las Vegas gaming; moving and storage; garment; waste – hauling; and, construction, and the following unions: the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Laborers International Union of North America; and, the International Longshoreman's Association. The paper also describes law enforcement's successful efforts to combat such corruption through the use of criminal and civil racketeering laws and specific prosecutions. The paper then discusses the emergence in the mid‐1980s of non‐traditional organized crime groups in the USA, including various Asian ethnic groups and large‐scale human trafficking organizations that impact Europe and Asia as well as the USA.

Findings

The non‐traditional criminal groups not only prey on the legitimate businesses in ethnic Asian communities in the USA, but they also engage in complex crimes, alien smuggling, drug trafficking, credit‐card frauds, money laundering, and other financial crimes. There has emerged a new era for organized crime that began in the 1990s with the fall of the former Soviet Union and the emergence of transnational organized crime groups emanating from the nations comprising the former Soviet Bloc. These organized crime groups engage in a wide variety of economic crimes including extortion, fraud, illicit appropriation of natural resources, and public corruption. Such extensive corruption threatens the stability of some of these emerging nations.

Originality/value

This paper will be valuable to law enforcement offices and policy makers to assist them to understand the scope and nature of organized crime's adverse effects upon businesses and economic interests and to develop tools to combat such criminal activities.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2018

Thomas Ren

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a meaningful difference, viewed from a financial perspective, in distinguishing between organised crime and terrorist…

1302

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a meaningful difference, viewed from a financial perspective, in distinguishing between organised crime and terrorist organisations, with regard to the control and mitigation of the threats that they pose to society.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses conceptual models obtained from enterprise theory and economics, as well as criminology, and makes use of case studies through the application of these models.

Findings

The paper finds that when viewed from a financial perspective, there is no meaningful difference in distinguishing between the groups because many have undergone processes of convergence and transformation, such that they assume each other’s operational and motivational characteristics. However, the answer also depends on how precisely one defines each type of illicit group as well as the transitions they undergo.

Originality/value

The value of this paper is that it applies two separate models on interactions between organised crime and terrorist organisations, the terror–crime continuum and interaction spectrum, to real life situations. After assessing their validity for more recent examples of such illicit groups, it then provides a balanced argument as to distinguishing between organised crime and terrorism. One limitation towards the paper’s originality, however, is that it draws mainly from pre-existing literature.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 25 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 August 2023

Cosmas Emeziem

Trafficking1 in human beings is gross.2 It constitutes one of the most egregious violations of human rights.3 The vile nature of human trafficking is also hinged on the fact that…

Abstract

Trafficking1 in human beings is gross.2 It constitutes one of the most egregious violations of human rights.3 The vile nature of human trafficking is also hinged on the fact that it commodifies human beings. Hence its categorisation is modern slavery.4 So much of trafficking activities follow the pathways5 of other transnational forms of organised crimes and irregular cross-border movement of people.6 In response to this egregious crime, several international, regional and country laws and instruments have been used or proposed for combatting human trafficking.7 These instruments forbid trafficking in human persons and provide several preventive measures, prosecution of perpetrators and protection of victims of human trafficking.8 The number of state parties to the United Nations Protocol to prevent suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Protocol), demonstrates the global commitment to combatting human trafficking. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on legal systems, and the capacity of both state and private institutions to combat human trafficking, has added a knotty twist to the global problem of human trafficking. This essay looks at the trends of human trafficking in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also highlights international law and policy approaches that state parties and civil society organisations should adopt to counteract the changes and sustain the fight against human trafficking. Thus, the essay contributes to updating the legal and policy approaches to combat human trafficking in this era.

Details

International Migration, COVID-19, and Environmental Sustainability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-536-3

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2001

Winston P. Nagan

The Palermo Conference represents an important paradigm of civic responsibility that holds important global lessons for the kind of solidarity and cooperation necessary to…

Abstract

The Palermo Conference represents an important paradigm of civic responsibility that holds important global lessons for the kind of solidarity and cooperation necessary to transform the harsh reality of private and even public tyranny into the higher ideals of civic decency. It is the predicate that defends the rule of law precept as a stabilising and transformative component of a world order that honours and respects the dignity of all the people. The theme of the symposium where this paper was first presented was, of course, the rule of law in the global village. More specifically, the title here is ‘The Rule of Law: Lofty Ideal or Harsh Reality?’ How then does the UN convention against Transnational Organized Crime, in general, impact on the major themes just specified? What does the convention have to do with the rule of law and the earth‐space community, visualised as a global village?

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Article
Publication date: 4 January 2011

Frank S. Perri and Richard G. Brody

The purpose of this paper is to recognize that organized crime and terrorism do not always operate independently from each other but, at times, rely on each other to create…

5745

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to recognize that organized crime and terrorism do not always operate independently from each other but, at times, rely on each other to create synergistic outcomes and use the same tactics and methods to advance their goals such as the use of fraud.

Design/methodology/approach

Sources of information consisted of scholarly articles and articles retrieved from the web.

Findings

Findings suggest that over time the crime‐terror nexus has increased its collaborative nature and terrorists have adopted the use of fraud schemes that were initially believed to be methods used only by organized crime to finance their organizations and goals.

Originality/value

This paper serves as a useful guide to alert and educate anti‐fraud professionals, law enforcement and policy makers of the nexus between organized crime, terrorism and fraud and that fraud should not be viewed as a peripheral issue in the crime‐terror nexus.

Details

Journal of Money Laundering Control, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1368-5201

Keywords

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