Trends in Organized Crime最新文献

In recent years, the Mediterranean crossings have reconfirmed their status as the most perilous routes for migrants attempting to reach European shores, with a significantly high number of deaths. In response, the Italian government has implemented various strategies aimed at reducing the number of landings and controlling irregular migration. This research evaluates the impact of these measures on the dynamics of migrant smuggling, both qualitatively and quantitatively. It examines the effectiveness of these measures and their influence on the adaptation of routes, methods, and organization of criminal groups involved in smuggling. The study emphasizes that while the measures to curb irregular immigration have had a limited direct impact on overall migratory flows and primary routes, they have indirectly influenced smugglers’ strategies. The study is grounded in empirical data sourced from interviews with expert witnesses and judicial investigations conducted by Italian prosecutors, with a comprehensive analysis of quantitative data. The findings aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted nature of irregular migration in the Mediterranean and the impacts of policy interventions.

Illicit data markets have emerged on Telegram, a popular online instant messaging application, bringing together thousands of users worldwide in an unregulated exchange of sensitive data. These markets operate through vendors who offer enormous quantities of such data, from personally identifiable information to financial data, while potential customers bid for these valuable assets. This study describes how Telegram data markets operate and discusses what interventions could be used to disrupt them. Using crime script analysis, we observed 16 Telegram meeting places encompassing public and private channels and groups. We obtained information about how the different meeting places function, what are their inside rules, and what tactics are employed by users to advertise and trade data. Based on the crime script, we suggest four feasible situational crime prevention measures to help disrupt these markets. These include taking down the marketplaces, reporting them, spamming and flooding techniques, and using warning banners.

Militias are irregular armed groups that emerge from anti-drug trafficking discourses, seeking legitimacy by providing services to the population and through the police positions held by many of their members. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, where militia groups have taken control of specific regions, essentially replacing the authority of the state and exerting a comprehensive influence over the local order. This article presents a case study that delves into the intricate relationship between militias and the state in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The objectives include discussing informal institutions, violent non-state actors, organized crime, and hybrid governance; examining the composition and performance of militias in Rio de Janeiro; and elucidating the informal institutional framework that guides their conduct, allowing them to gain urban social legitimacy without necessarily supplanting public power. The central question addressed by this article revolves around how militias challenge state power in Rio de Janeiro. The choice of this case study is underscored by the fact that militias have already extended their control over approximately 60% of the city’s territory and more than 250 square kilometers of area in the metropolitan region. The article’s findings indicate that militias challenge the state’s authority not only through their provision of public services but also by infiltrating formal governance structures.

This paper explores the structure of organised crime movement across local communities and the drivers underpinning such movement. Firstly, it builds on network analysis to offer a novel methodological approach to empirically and quantitatively study the movement of organised crime offenders across geographical areas. The paper then applies this approach to evidence from Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. It reconstructs the movement of organised crime members across local areas based on a large-scale police dataset that includes 41 months of recorded crime events. It identifies organised crime “turf” and “target” areas and then explores the drivers of movement from the former to the latter using Exponential Random Graph Models. Findings confirm that geographical distance matters; however, socio-demographic, urban, economic and crime-related characteristics of communities play a key role. Organised crime group members target urban communities with higher than average illegal market opportunities (proxied by drug-related activity). The work also finds the effect of socio-demographic homophily between turf and target communities, suggesting that organised crime group members might target territories that are similar to their own. While a high level of deprivation makes a community more likely to send organised crime members, its impact on a community’s probability of being a receiver is less clear. Finally, the paper offers a way to identify communities (local areas) at risk of being targeted by criminal organisations, thus providing practitioners with a tool for early interventions.

Abstract

Despite its prominence in public debate, scholars have given little attention to women’s roles in ‘clan crime’ in Germany. This article aims to bridge this gap through in-depth ethnographic fieldwork and 18 interviews conducted with women from various ‘clans’ throughout the country. These women are part of the al-Rashidiyya community with origins in Mardin, Turkey. Adopting an anthropological perspective, I seek to uncover the underlying historical, cultural, social, and contextual factors shaping women’s participation in ‘clan crime’, whether through indirect support or direct involvement. My findings reveal that women play a crucial, albeit often hidden, role in ‘clan’ dynamics and criminal activities, which frequently go unrecorded by the police. Although they are unlikely to hold leadership positions, women exert their influence through other means, such as shaping their children’s behavior, actively encouraging their sons to engage in criminal activities, or transmitting criminal norms and roles through socialization. Women themselves may also engage in crimes such as money laundering and financial fraud. By shedding light on these dynamics and emphasizing the importance of gender dynamics in the broader study of criminal groups, I expand our understanding of organized crime and similar clan-like mafia structures.

The judicial operation “mondo di mezzo” (middle-world) revealed in 2014 the existence of a criminal network in Rome, dubbed Mafia capitale. Its main function was the governance of a systemic corruption scheme that permeated many sectors of the public administration and the political process of the Italian capital city. Notwithstanding a convulsed judicial history, the network analytically manifests traits of a mafia-type group. Through a qualitative content analysis of intercepted materials, juridical files, and interviews, this paper argues that the peculiar systemic corruption scheme of Mafia capitale has indeed generated mafia-type behaviours. Mafia capitale interconnected corruption and collusion in public procurement, corruption in the bureaucratic and electoral processes (the upperword) together with enforcement of deals from the underworld. This mafia-type group was able to enforce extra-legal deals, through reputational assets and intimidation, inducing people into compliance and silence and gaining benefits for a period of almost three years.

Yarin Eski and Anna Sergi recently published an article in Trends in Organized Crime called ‘Ethnic profiling of organised crime? A tendency of mafia‑cation in the Netherlands’ Eski and Sergi (Trends Organ Crime, 1?20 2023). In their theoretical contribution, the authors claim that the policing of organised crime in the Netherlands amounts to ethnic profiling of minorities. However, the question of whether Dutch organised crime policies focus on ethnic minorities is in fact an empirical one. While Eski and Sergi claim the existence of an ‘ethnicised’ focus, the use of the phrase ‘theoretical’ is a rather ineffective attempt to cover up methodological weaknesses and a lack of empirical substantiation. Court records, records of the Public Prosecution Service, parliamentary documents, and academic research into organised crime provide not a shred of evidence of mafia-cation.

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the trade in human organs in Egypt and Bangladesh. The authors draw on extensive qualitative and ethnographic fieldwork in both countries to assess the efficacy of legal measures in response to the organ trade. Despite the introduction of tough criminal sanctions in Egypt and Bangladesh the buying and selling of organs (e.g., kidneys, liver lobes) has continued unabated. Although there have been some sporadic attempts from law enforcement to curb organ trading, political indifference to the bodies of the poor and vested commercial interests (of state and non-state actors) means that the organ trade remains a relatively low risk crime with high profits. Adopting the view that support not punishment is integral to reducing crime we argue that enhancing social support, e.g., increasing public expenditure on healthcare, would limit demand for illegal transplants and disrupt the symbiotic arrangements that underpin organ markets.

This is the introduction to the special issue on ‘human trafficking, sexual exploitation and digital technologies’. This special issue contributes to the knowledge base by bringing together four articles that focus on the use of online platforms by human traffickers for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. In doing so, this special issue explores the affordances of online platforms to human traffickers, the challenges faced by law enforcement and other actors seeking to intervene in human trafficking in the digital age, and perhaps pathways towards overcoming these challenges in the future.

Outlaw biker clubs have drawn considerable attention of law enforcement agencies across European countries. Despite law enforcement efforts, the popularity of the outlaw biker subculture has been on the rise recently. There is, however, still little understanding of how individuals become engaged in the outlaw biker subculture. Using unique data from interviews with current members of the Dutch Hells Angels (N = 24), this article addresses the entry mechanisms into the club and how individuals become full-patched members. The results show that active recruitment by the Hells Angels MC and gradually growing into the club’s membership are common entering mechanisms. Pre-existing social ties, both on the club and the individual level, play a significant role for involvement in Dutch Hells Angels membership. Moreover, the Dutch Hells Angels apply various mechanisms to establish the trustworthiness, loyalty, and suitability of a person before becoming a full-patched member of the club.