This regional assessment is broadly focused on transnational organized crime (including drug trafficking) issues and the linkages with development, governance and security in Central America and the Caribbean. This Report is intended to provide a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of contraband flows, criminal markets and their political, social and economic impacts on the regions in question. It will be a means to convene strategic dialogue on emerging transnational organized crime threats, and the recommendation it yields will be built back into policy analysis and programme development throughout the United Nations System, including at the regional and country levels.
This report is one of several studies conducted by UNODC on organized crime threats around the world. These studies describe what is known about the mechanics of contraband trafficking - the what, who, how, and how much of illicit flows - and discuss their potential impact on governance and development. Their primary role is diagnostic, but they also explore the implications of these findings for policy. Publisher's note.
This regional assessment is broadly focused on transnational organized crime (including drug trafficking) issues and the linkages with development, governance and security in West Africa. This Report is intended to provide a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of contraband flows, criminal markets and their political, social and economic impacts on the regions in question. It will be a means to convene strategic dialogue on emerging transnational organized crime threats, and the recommendation it yields will be built back into policy analysis and programme development throughout the United Nations System, including at the regional and country levels.
In The globalization of crime: a transnational organized crime threat assessment, UNODC analyses a range of key transnational crime threats, including human trafficking, migrant smuggling, the illicit heroin and cocaine trades, cybercrime, maritime piracy and trafficking in environmental resources, firearms and counterfeit goods. The report also examines a number of cases where transnational organized crime and instability amplify each other to create vicious circles in which countries or even subregions may become locked. Thus, the report offers a striking view of the global dimensions of organized crime today.
Human trafficking and smuggling of migrants: Four of the 12 illicit flows reviewed in this report involve human beings. The first two concern movement between the countries of the region, one for general labour and one for sexual exploitation. The third concerns the smuggling of migrants from the region to the rich countries of the West, and the last focuses on migrants smuggled through the region from the poor and conflicted countries of South and Southwest Asia. Drug trafficking: The production and use of opiates has a long history in the region, but the main opiate problem in the 21st century involves the more refined form of the drug: heroin. In addition, methamphetamine has been a threat in parts of East Asia for decades (in the form of yaba tablets), but crystal methamphetamine has recently grown greatly in popularity. Virtually every country in the region has some crystal methamphetamine users, and some populations consume at very high levels.Resources: Resource-related crimes include those related to both extractive industries, such as the illegal harvesting of wildlife and timber, and other crimes that have a negative impact on the environment, such as the dumping of e-waste and the trade in ozone-depleting substances. In all cases, the threat goes beyond borders, jeopardizing the global environmental heritage. These are therefore crimes of inherent international significance, though they are frequently dealt with lightly under local legislation.Counterfeit goods: The trade in counterfeit goods is often perceived as a "soft" form of crime, but can have dangerous consequences for public health and safety. Fraudulent medicines in particular pose a threat to public health, and their use can foster the growth of treatment resistant pathogens.
Transnational organized crime interferes with the everyday lives of more and more people - and represents a serious threat to democracy. By now, organized crime has become an inherent feature of economic globalization, and the fine line between the legal and illegal operation of business networks is blurred. Additionally, few experts could claim to have comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the laws and regulations governing the international flow of trade, and hence of the borderline towards criminal transactions. This book offers contributions from 12 countries around the world authored by 25 experts from a wide range of academic disciplines, representatives from civil society organizations and private industry, journalists, as well as activists. Recognizing the complexity of the issue, this publication provides a cross cultural and multi-disciplinary analysis of transnational organized crime including a historical approach from different regional and cultural contexts. Conception: Regine Schönenberg and Annette von Schönfeld.
Transnational Organized Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean: From Evolving Threats and Responses to Integrated, Adaptive Solutions provides a comprehensive overview of and introduction to transnational organized crime in Latin America for the student and practitioner. It addresses the geography of illicit activities, including relationships between source, transit, and consumption zones, as well as illicit activities beyond narcotrafficking, such as illegal mining, contraband, human smuggling, and money laundering. It applies a typology of cartels, intermediate groups, gangs, and ideological groups to examine specific criminal organizations and the relationships between them. It makes a comparative assessment of government approaches to combatting transnational organized crime in the region, including discussions of interagency coordination, interdiction, targeting of criminal group leaders, the use of the military in law enforcement, law enforcement reform efforts, prison control, and international cooperation. It concludes by applying these thorough analyses to make concrete recommendations for both Latin American and United States policymakers.
Organized crime for the European market is a multi-billion dollar business that feeds on, as well as sustains, poverty and poor governmental control. As factors like the economic crisis and the emergence and growth of urban slums will sustain organized crime, this threat is likely to stay with us in the foreseeable future. Against this background, the HCSS report Detecting Elusive Criminals answers the following question: what research strands need to be explored further in order to find solutions for the threat posed to Europe by transnational organized crime?
In April 2008 the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) developed a strategy to combat international organized crime. Within its strategies, the DOJ identified eight criminal activities, including--but not limited to--the trafficking of humans, contraband, and illicit narcotics, to be among the greatest threats emanating from transnational organized criminals. Besides identifying these threats, the DOJ sought an assessment of the criminal organizations engaged in these activities for resource allocation. To date, only a traditional organized crime threat assessment has been conducted by federal law enforcement agencies. This threat assessment focused exclusively on evaluating known criminal organizations believed to pose the greatest threat--defined by their characteristics. Few, if any, assessments have considered the actual or estimated harm caused by criminal organizations, yet an untested hypothesis in the organized crime literature suggests the degree of a criminal organization's structure, sophistication, self-identification, stability, size, and reputation impacts the organization's capacity for harm--the so-called "harm capacity thesis." This exploratory study was the first known assessment of the harm capacity thesis. To assess the hypothesis, the content of 14 closed criminal cases, consisting of thousands of pages of interviews, surveillance logs, administrative updates and other investigative documents, derived from FBI criminal investigations of transnational crimes were analyzed. Through the content analysis, the harm capacity and harm variables were assigned values ranging from one (minimum) to three (maximum). These were used to calculate harm capacity and harm indices. A cross-comparison of these indices suggests criminal organizations commit a level of harm commensurate with their harm capacity. Nine of the fourteen criminal organizations were found to have committed a level of harm commensurate with its harm capacity. However, the research was limited on identifying which particular harm capacity characteristics contributed to an organizations overall level of harm. The findings from this study have implications for future research to include comparative studies of criminal organizations operating in the same criminal market to more accurately assess which characteristics are contributing to an organizations level of harm and longitudinal studies to evaluate the factors most important in the structural development of criminal organizations.
This strategic report is Europol's flagship product providing information to Europe's law enforcement community and decision-makers about the threat of serious and organised crime to the EU. The SOCTA is the cornerstone of the multiannual policy cycle established by the EU in 2010. This cycle ensures effective cooperation between national law enforcement agencies, EU institutions, EU agencies and other relevant partners in the fight against serious and organised crime. Building on the work of successive EU organised crime threat assessments (OCTA), produced between 2006 and 2011, and in line with a new methodology developed in 2011 and 2012, this is the inaugural edition of the SOCTA.
