What is Organized Crime?
Before we delve into what this blog is about, we need to define organized crime:
“Organized crime is the large-scale and complex criminal activity carried out by groups of persons, however loosely or tightly organized, for the enrichment of those participating and at the expense of the community and its members. Such operations are generally carried out with a ruthless disregard of the law, and often involves offences against the person including threats, intimidation, and physical violence.” (United Nations, 1990, 5).
This definition of organized crime highlights organized crime as a widescale set of illegal activities that have been blended into our society so well that we might be unaware of organized crime in our communities.
Organized crime may be in the form of:
Penetration of Legitimate Business – This is where members of organized crime syndicates infiltrate legitimate businesses for their profit, for example, using the cover of a garbage disposal truck to transport illegal goods such as drugs and/or weapons.
Extortion – This is where members of organized crime syndicates use the power they have and the fear people have for them to force people to either give them money to keep themselves safe from these syndicates or to even give up their family members for the pleasure of these people.
Provision of Illicit Services – This form of organized crime is done to satisfy some urges that society deems as inappropriate or illegal in many cases because of their nature, such as gambling, prostitution, and even loansharking.
Provision of Illicit Goods – This trade includes the provision of ‘goods’ that are illegal to be provided or goods that should not even be handled as property, such as human trafficking, drug trade, weapons trafficking, making and distributing counterfeit or fraudulent pieces and even most aspects of cybercrime.
Business and Financial Crimes – These are crimes that are committed in seemingly legitimate businesses and usually has to do with stealing money money and includes check fraud, money laundering, scamming, tax evasion.
Political Crimes and Corruption – These include white collar crimes such as accepting bribes and misusing state funds.
Do you know of a presence of organized crime in your community?