Transnational Organized Crime Lectures Notes
31 Augustus – 19 September
Inhoudsopgave
Hoorcollege 1 Prof. Dr. Dina Siegler ........................................................................... 4
Definition of organized crime .............................................................................. 4
Internation and transnational organized crime.......................................................... 4
Structure (criminal groups) ................................................................................ 5
Criminological theories on organized crime: ............................................................ 5
Three models of ink between ethnicity and organized crime: ........................................ 5
Various forms and example s of local or transnational organized crime:............................ 6
Principles of organized crime: secrecy, trust and violence: .......................................... 6
Traditional world-wide activities of organized crime: ................................................. 7
Modern activities of Organized Crime: ................................................................... 7
Hoorcollege 2 Italian Mafia: specificities and anti-mafia strategies | Dina Sigel ...................... 8
Italian Mafia: .................................................................................................... 8
Arguments: ................................................................................................... 8
Mafia: Historical background ............................................................................... 8
Principles of mafia: ......................................................................................... 8
Mafia in 1980: ................................................................................................ 8
Mafia groups are organizations ............................................................................ 9
Mafia groups .................................................................................................. 9
Initiation rituals .............................................................................................. 9
Mafiosi usually take mafia initiation ceremony seriously .............................................. 9
Mafia groups are brotherhoods (Letizia Paoli, 2005) ................................................... 9
Mafia groups are multifunctional entities: ............................................................... 9
Mafia groups exercise political dominion .............................................................. 10
Mafia on the move ......................................................................................... 10
5 families in the US: ....................................................................................... 10
Civil protest ................................................................................................ 11
Mafia groups Sharply Hit by state Repression since 1992 ............................................ 11
Mafia are imprisoned and impoverished ................................................................ 11
Pentiti ....................................................................................................... 12
Mafia reaction to repression ............................................................................. 12
Woman in the Mafia: ......................................................................................... 12
Donna e mafia: ............................................................................................. 12
Crisis ............................................................................................................ 12
Mafia in crisis ............................................................................................... 12
New criminal groups: competition? ..................................................................... 13
Mafia and Covid-19 ........................................................................................ 13
Conclusions .................................................................................................... 13
Hoorcollege 3 Russian Mafia and Organized crime in Eastern Europe ................................ 13
Background on Russian mafia ............................................................................... 13
Much research on Russian Mafia ......................................................................... 13
Different approaches: ..................................................................................... 14
Russian mafia: old image ................................................................................. 14
Russian mafia: new image ................................................................................ 14
Krysha (‘roof, protection) ................................................................................ 14
, Social conditions favorable to organized crime ....................................................... 14
Russian mafia in the Netherlands .......................................................................... 15
Dina het research in the Netherlands ................................................................... 15
Traditional crime in the modern world ................................................................. 15
Some results of Dina’s research: ........................................................................ 15
Criminal import into Western Europe ................................................................... 16
The future of Russian mafia .............................................................................. 16
East European Organized Crime ............................................................................ 16
Fall of communism and transition ....................................................................... 16
Organized crime ........................................................................................... 16
EU expansion – policy and consequences ............................................................... 17
Definition: .................................................................................................. 17
First category .............................................................................................. 17
Second category ........................................................................................... 17
Third category ............................................................................................. 17
Where do they come from? ............................................................................... 18
Where are the stolen goods? Criminal markets ........................................................ 18
Stolen from Dutch shops and house ..................................................................... 18
Where are the stolen goods? ............................................................................. 18
Hoorcollege 4 Drugs ............................................................................................ 19
Today: .......................................................................................................... 19
The globalization of cocaine use ........................................................................... 19
New cultivation/production areas ...................................................................... 19
New production areas and trafficking / smuggling routes ............................................. 20
Dispersion and fragmentation of organized crime networks ........................................... 21
Legal actors: ............................................................................................... 21
Mexico: fragmentation and violence .................................................................... 22
Effects of the war on drugs ................................................................................. 23
The war on drugs: effects ................................................................................ 23
Implications for NL ........................................................................................... 23
Hoorcollege 5 Organized crime and wildlife trade The organization behind the criminal
networks | Dr. Daan van Uhm ................................................................................ 24
Trade in wildlife .............................................................................................. 24
CITES and criminalization ................................................................................... 24
Criminalization................................................................................................ 24
Globalization and criminogenic asymmetries ............................................................ 25
Scope of the black market .................................................................................. 25
Definition: ..................................................................................................... 25
Research method ............................................................................................. 25
Eu confiscations in 2001-2010 ............................................................................... 26
Areas of origin illegal wildlife .............................................................................. 26
Who’s involved? ............................................................................................... 26
Tiger bones .................................................................................................... 26
Criminalization of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) .............................................. 27
Role of tiger farms ........................................................................................ 27
Conservation or tiger bone wine? ....................................................................... 27
Thino Horn thefts ............................................................................................. 27
2
, The interconnection between legal and illegal wildlife trade ......................................... 27
Crime to cure.................................................................................................. 28
Concluding remarks .......................................................................................... 28
Hoorcollege 6 Crime at the edge: interrelations between legal and illegal networks | Dr.
Damian Zatch .................................................................................................... 28
Three forms of crime: ....................................................................................... 28
Crimes of the powerful (Pearce, 1976) .................................................................... 28
Power crimes (Ruggiero, 2007) ............................................................................. 29
3 possible relations ........................................................................................ 29
Organized crime as relation .............................................................................. 29
Legal actors ................................................................................................ 30
Relation legality-illegality ................................................................................ 30
State organized crime: ....................................................................................... 31
State corporate crime:....................................................................................... 31
State initiated corporate crime ......................................................................... 32
State facilitated corporate crime ....................................................................... 32
Hoorcollege 7 Arms trafficking | Toine Spapens ......................................................... 32
Scope of the lecture .......................................................................................... 32
Most deaths are caused by small arms and light weapons: .......................................... 32
Variably (dual) legal markets ............................................................................ 32
Small arms deals ........................................................................................... 33
How terrorists acquire firearms ............................................................................ 33
Different pathways for different terrorists ............................................................ 33
Arms trafficking to conflict zones.......................................................................... 34
What is the average price of an AK47 (2001)? ......................................................... 34
Example: the conflict in Darfur .......................................................................... 34
Example of fake export: arms trafficking to Liberia (S/2001/1015) ............................... 34
Tackling the problem ........................................................................................ 35
Global instruments to tackle arms trafficking ......................................................... 35
Viktor Bout (the ‘merchant of death’) ................................................................. 35
Tackling illegal firearms .................................................................................. 35
Hoorcollege 8 State crime & terrorism...................................................................... 35
State Crime .................................................................................................... 35
State criminality (Rothe, 2009) .......................................................................... 35
Example’s ................................................................................................... 36
State crime (Green and Ward, 2004) ................................................................... 36
Also: ......................................................................................................... 36
State crime (Green and Ward, 2004) ................................................................... 36
Governmental Crimes (Friedrichs, 2004) .................................................................. 36
State crime typologies (Michalowski, 1985) ........................................................... 36
Forms of state crime (Friederichs, 2004) .............................................................. 37
Terrorism ...................................................................................................... 37
The changing context: .................................................................................... 37
Factors in the social construction ....................................................................... 38
Defining terrorism ......................................................................................... 38
In conclusion: .................................................................................................. 40
3
, Hoorcollege 1
Prof. Dr. Dina Siegler
Definition of organized crime
• It comes from the United states and is related to American
context
• Associations: with the Italian Mob/Mafia
• John Landesco: a psychologist who wrote a book in 1929 ‘organized crime in
Chicago’ → Conclusion: organized crime is Italian mafia
• Cressey (1966): organized crime is Italian mafia
• FBI: organized crime enterprise is a continuing criminal conspiracy with organized
structure, fed by fear and corruption and motivated by greed
• INTERPOL: organized crime is a systematically prepared and planned to commit of
serious criminal acts with a view to gain financial profits and power
o Political power
o Profit
• German police: organized crime can be any business- or business-like structure,
which tries to influence politics, media, public administration and economy
o Every business
• VB: a group stealing bikes
o Group & illegal activities
• VB: teenager is sitting and trying to penetrate the data from the pentagon
(cybercrime)
o No group & illegal activity
Internation and transnational organized crime
• International crimes: are acts prohibited by international criminal law on basis of
the 1994 draft code, multilateral treaties or customary practice by all nations
• Cross border crime is conduct, which jeopardizes the legally protected interests in
more than one national jurisdiction, and which is criminalized in at least one of the
stated/jurisdictions concerned (Passas, 2002)
o = Criminological definition
o Connecting to crossing borders
• Transnational organized crime: A structured group of three or more persons,
existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one
or more serious crimes or offenses in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a
financial or other material benefit.
o A lot of questions because of the vagueness
o Transnational organized crime groups:
▪ Rigid hierarchy: single boss, strong, internal discipline, several
divisions
▪ Developed hierarchy: regional structures, own hierarchy and
autonomy
▪ Hierarchical conglomerate: umbrella association of separate criminal
groups
▪ Core criminal groups: a horizontal structure of core individuals who
work for the same organization
▪ Organized criminal network: individuals engage in criminal activity in
shifting alliances according to skills they possess to carry out the
illicit activity
4
31 Augustus – 19 September
Inhoudsopgave
Hoorcollege 1 Prof. Dr. Dina Siegler ........................................................................... 4
Definition of organized crime .............................................................................. 4
Internation and transnational organized crime.......................................................... 4
Structure (criminal groups) ................................................................................ 5
Criminological theories on organized crime: ............................................................ 5
Three models of ink between ethnicity and organized crime: ........................................ 5
Various forms and example s of local or transnational organized crime:............................ 6
Principles of organized crime: secrecy, trust and violence: .......................................... 6
Traditional world-wide activities of organized crime: ................................................. 7
Modern activities of Organized Crime: ................................................................... 7
Hoorcollege 2 Italian Mafia: specificities and anti-mafia strategies | Dina Sigel ...................... 8
Italian Mafia: .................................................................................................... 8
Arguments: ................................................................................................... 8
Mafia: Historical background ............................................................................... 8
Principles of mafia: ......................................................................................... 8
Mafia in 1980: ................................................................................................ 8
Mafia groups are organizations ............................................................................ 9
Mafia groups .................................................................................................. 9
Initiation rituals .............................................................................................. 9
Mafiosi usually take mafia initiation ceremony seriously .............................................. 9
Mafia groups are brotherhoods (Letizia Paoli, 2005) ................................................... 9
Mafia groups are multifunctional entities: ............................................................... 9
Mafia groups exercise political dominion .............................................................. 10
Mafia on the move ......................................................................................... 10
5 families in the US: ....................................................................................... 10
Civil protest ................................................................................................ 11
Mafia groups Sharply Hit by state Repression since 1992 ............................................ 11
Mafia are imprisoned and impoverished ................................................................ 11
Pentiti ....................................................................................................... 12
Mafia reaction to repression ............................................................................. 12
Woman in the Mafia: ......................................................................................... 12
Donna e mafia: ............................................................................................. 12
Crisis ............................................................................................................ 12
Mafia in crisis ............................................................................................... 12
New criminal groups: competition? ..................................................................... 13
Mafia and Covid-19 ........................................................................................ 13
Conclusions .................................................................................................... 13
Hoorcollege 3 Russian Mafia and Organized crime in Eastern Europe ................................ 13
Background on Russian mafia ............................................................................... 13
Much research on Russian Mafia ......................................................................... 13
Different approaches: ..................................................................................... 14
Russian mafia: old image ................................................................................. 14
Russian mafia: new image ................................................................................ 14
Krysha (‘roof, protection) ................................................................................ 14
, Social conditions favorable to organized crime ....................................................... 14
Russian mafia in the Netherlands .......................................................................... 15
Dina het research in the Netherlands ................................................................... 15
Traditional crime in the modern world ................................................................. 15
Some results of Dina’s research: ........................................................................ 15
Criminal import into Western Europe ................................................................... 16
The future of Russian mafia .............................................................................. 16
East European Organized Crime ............................................................................ 16
Fall of communism and transition ....................................................................... 16
Organized crime ........................................................................................... 16
EU expansion – policy and consequences ............................................................... 17
Definition: .................................................................................................. 17
First category .............................................................................................. 17
Second category ........................................................................................... 17
Third category ............................................................................................. 17
Where do they come from? ............................................................................... 18
Where are the stolen goods? Criminal markets ........................................................ 18
Stolen from Dutch shops and house ..................................................................... 18
Where are the stolen goods? ............................................................................. 18
Hoorcollege 4 Drugs ............................................................................................ 19
Today: .......................................................................................................... 19
The globalization of cocaine use ........................................................................... 19
New cultivation/production areas ...................................................................... 19
New production areas and trafficking / smuggling routes ............................................. 20
Dispersion and fragmentation of organized crime networks ........................................... 21
Legal actors: ............................................................................................... 21
Mexico: fragmentation and violence .................................................................... 22
Effects of the war on drugs ................................................................................. 23
The war on drugs: effects ................................................................................ 23
Implications for NL ........................................................................................... 23
Hoorcollege 5 Organized crime and wildlife trade The organization behind the criminal
networks | Dr. Daan van Uhm ................................................................................ 24
Trade in wildlife .............................................................................................. 24
CITES and criminalization ................................................................................... 24
Criminalization................................................................................................ 24
Globalization and criminogenic asymmetries ............................................................ 25
Scope of the black market .................................................................................. 25
Definition: ..................................................................................................... 25
Research method ............................................................................................. 25
Eu confiscations in 2001-2010 ............................................................................... 26
Areas of origin illegal wildlife .............................................................................. 26
Who’s involved? ............................................................................................... 26
Tiger bones .................................................................................................... 26
Criminalization of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) .............................................. 27
Role of tiger farms ........................................................................................ 27
Conservation or tiger bone wine? ....................................................................... 27
Thino Horn thefts ............................................................................................. 27
2
, The interconnection between legal and illegal wildlife trade ......................................... 27
Crime to cure.................................................................................................. 28
Concluding remarks .......................................................................................... 28
Hoorcollege 6 Crime at the edge: interrelations between legal and illegal networks | Dr.
Damian Zatch .................................................................................................... 28
Three forms of crime: ....................................................................................... 28
Crimes of the powerful (Pearce, 1976) .................................................................... 28
Power crimes (Ruggiero, 2007) ............................................................................. 29
3 possible relations ........................................................................................ 29
Organized crime as relation .............................................................................. 29
Legal actors ................................................................................................ 30
Relation legality-illegality ................................................................................ 30
State organized crime: ....................................................................................... 31
State corporate crime:....................................................................................... 31
State initiated corporate crime ......................................................................... 32
State facilitated corporate crime ....................................................................... 32
Hoorcollege 7 Arms trafficking | Toine Spapens ......................................................... 32
Scope of the lecture .......................................................................................... 32
Most deaths are caused by small arms and light weapons: .......................................... 32
Variably (dual) legal markets ............................................................................ 32
Small arms deals ........................................................................................... 33
How terrorists acquire firearms ............................................................................ 33
Different pathways for different terrorists ............................................................ 33
Arms trafficking to conflict zones.......................................................................... 34
What is the average price of an AK47 (2001)? ......................................................... 34
Example: the conflict in Darfur .......................................................................... 34
Example of fake export: arms trafficking to Liberia (S/2001/1015) ............................... 34
Tackling the problem ........................................................................................ 35
Global instruments to tackle arms trafficking ......................................................... 35
Viktor Bout (the ‘merchant of death’) ................................................................. 35
Tackling illegal firearms .................................................................................. 35
Hoorcollege 8 State crime & terrorism...................................................................... 35
State Crime .................................................................................................... 35
State criminality (Rothe, 2009) .......................................................................... 35
Example’s ................................................................................................... 36
State crime (Green and Ward, 2004) ................................................................... 36
Also: ......................................................................................................... 36
State crime (Green and Ward, 2004) ................................................................... 36
Governmental Crimes (Friedrichs, 2004) .................................................................. 36
State crime typologies (Michalowski, 1985) ........................................................... 36
Forms of state crime (Friederichs, 2004) .............................................................. 37
Terrorism ...................................................................................................... 37
The changing context: .................................................................................... 37
Factors in the social construction ....................................................................... 38
Defining terrorism ......................................................................................... 38
In conclusion: .................................................................................................. 40
3
, Hoorcollege 1
Prof. Dr. Dina Siegler
Definition of organized crime
• It comes from the United states and is related to American
context
• Associations: with the Italian Mob/Mafia
• John Landesco: a psychologist who wrote a book in 1929 ‘organized crime in
Chicago’ → Conclusion: organized crime is Italian mafia
• Cressey (1966): organized crime is Italian mafia
• FBI: organized crime enterprise is a continuing criminal conspiracy with organized
structure, fed by fear and corruption and motivated by greed
• INTERPOL: organized crime is a systematically prepared and planned to commit of
serious criminal acts with a view to gain financial profits and power
o Political power
o Profit
• German police: organized crime can be any business- or business-like structure,
which tries to influence politics, media, public administration and economy
o Every business
• VB: a group stealing bikes
o Group & illegal activities
• VB: teenager is sitting and trying to penetrate the data from the pentagon
(cybercrime)
o No group & illegal activity
Internation and transnational organized crime
• International crimes: are acts prohibited by international criminal law on basis of
the 1994 draft code, multilateral treaties or customary practice by all nations
• Cross border crime is conduct, which jeopardizes the legally protected interests in
more than one national jurisdiction, and which is criminalized in at least one of the
stated/jurisdictions concerned (Passas, 2002)
o = Criminological definition
o Connecting to crossing borders
• Transnational organized crime: A structured group of three or more persons,
existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one
or more serious crimes or offenses in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a
financial or other material benefit.
o A lot of questions because of the vagueness
o Transnational organized crime groups:
▪ Rigid hierarchy: single boss, strong, internal discipline, several
divisions
▪ Developed hierarchy: regional structures, own hierarchy and
autonomy
▪ Hierarchical conglomerate: umbrella association of separate criminal
groups
▪ Core criminal groups: a horizontal structure of core individuals who
work for the same organization
▪ Organized criminal network: individuals engage in criminal activity in
shifting alliances according to skills they possess to carry out the
illicit activity
4
