Petr Kupka
What is organized
crime?
Definitions
Organized crime
Criminal organization Criminal activity
List of characteristics (1) totalitarian organization; (2) immunity and protection from the law
through professional advice or fear or corruption, or all, in order to insure continuance of their activities;
(3) permanency and form; (4) activities which are highly profitable,
relatively low in risk, and based on human weakness;
(5) use of fear against members of the organization, the victims, and, often, members of the public;
(6) continued attempt to subvert legitimate gov;
(7) insularity of leadership from criminal acts; and
(8) rigid discipline in a hierarchy of ranks. (Cressey 1969)
Formula definition
From this orientation comes a definition which highlights organized crime as a system of power and interaction, not as an invincible organization with mystical powers. (Homer 1974)
Definition
„Criminal enterprise involved in criminal activities“
Varese 2011
Contemporary context
Ancient antecedents vs. modern manifestations
The growth of OC industry (scholars in the hands of policymakers )
Legality vs. legitimacy Blurring the policing and military functions Overlap between national security
intelligence and criminal intelligence New phenomena related to OC (weak
states, war economy etc.)
Development of the concept
Structural model Kingship/patron-client model
Enterprise model Multiple-constituency theory Transaction-cost economics
Network perspective
Structural model
OC = authoritarian and bureaucratic system designed to maximalization of profit; ground with the code of conduct with specific rules and procedures
Modus operandi – functional roles in division the labour, sophisticatated management, bureaucratic atributes of precedents
Structure, not people, deepen the tradition and character of system
Structural model
Rationality = predominant determinant
Predictive level – law enforcement successes
OC viewed by the leneses of its internal form
OC = unified organized entity, not the set of variables
Structural model
Kefauver commission (1951) „There´s a natiowide crime syndicate known as
the Mafia, whose tentacles are found in many large cities. It has international ramifications which appear most clearly in connecton with the narcotics traffic. Its leaders are usually found in control in most lucrative rackets of
their cities. There are indicators of a centralized direction and control of these rackets, but leadership appears to be in a
group rather than in single individual“
Structural model
No evidence of supporting the view of a centralized Sicilian or other foreign organization dominating OC in the U.S.
Refers to outside threat „Who“ is more important then „what“ Focused on career criminals, exclude (or de-
emphasize) the part played by representatives of officicaldom and the „respectable“ classes (Woodiwiss 2005)
Connected with Italian immigration – arising of LCN
Kingship based/patron-client model Variation of structural model Provide the frame for the family-
brotherhood analysis System of social control; can help with
the understanding of relations within the clans or between them
Comes out from the point of view of ethnical diversity
Social systems completely in the opposition to modern bureaucratic institution
Kingship based/patron-client model No structure, except for internal
functional mechanisms – if culture values are decreasing, clans as units are decreasing as well and the system is dissappearing
Predictive level – relations will be weakening due to sequent assimilation of next generations to the „X“ society
Economic model
Market model – supply-demand Legitimity spectrum – „saint“ vs.
„sinfull“ Market is formed by rules, not by
conspiracy or strucutral conventions Core technologies (general business
procedures) – operational enviroment
Enterprise model
Organization = systems opened for overcoming the uncertainity; closed systems subordinated to rationality and necessity of certainity
Enterpreneurial uncertainity is located in operational environment (illegality = environemnt dangerous for classic business activities)
Core technology = effective fulfillment of defined certainity
Enterprise model
Interdependency of organization and operational environment
The illegal market is working through dissatisfaction of potential candidates for products or services
Enterpreneurial crimes – production and distribution of „new“ products and services via market relations between suppliers and consumers and enterpreneurials worth
Products and services refer to the risk of detection
Enterprise model
2 type of crimes1)Illegal markets2)the penetration of legal
spcetrum the penetration of legal of spectrum
is not the force that can shape the form of illegal markets
Multiple-constituency theory
Organization is legal fiction Organizations are the results, not
initiators of any activities Unification of interests within certain
areas Organization is not the structure but
center of incentive changes External actors, quazi-insiders, internal
elements Cooperation and competition = conflict
Multiple-constituency theory Structure is not determined by the
objectives Organization is not located on the
geographical map of its material assets; we can locate it on the base of dominant forces
Location and structure can change their forms
Satisfaction of the interest can be sequential– time-share proces
Stability has minor influence compare to uncertainity
Network perspective
Relational structures of the group (or widen social system) consisted of the relation matters between the sets of actors
Each of the units has relation to another units and these units have relation with another units etc.
Set of actors = interacting units Actors are no more independent, but
interdependent
Model of relation ties in the network, Schwartz-Rouselle 2008
Von Lampe, K. 2009– lecture in IASSOC Catania
on 29/06/2009
Network perspective
Relations or relation ties are used as chanells for transmitting material or nonmaterial sources
Network environment offer the opportunities, but also the limits
Kleerks, P., ISSOC lecture Catania 2009
Bruinsma – Bernasco 2004
Arsovska, J., ISSOC Ohrid lecture, 2011
Arsovska, J., ISSOC Ohrid lecture, 2011
Network perspective
Actors Relation; relational tie Dyads, triads Subgroups System Nodes ….
Roles in the criminal networks
Supplier (of raw materials, wholesale merchandise, machinery)
Customer (for goods or services) Broker (puts criminal entrepreneurs into
contact with potential business partners) Facilitator (supplier of support, such as
logistical orinstitutional facilities)
Financer (investor, supplier of money)
Source: Kleerks, P. (lecture in IASSOC Catania; July 2009)
Network perspective Network structure characteristics
(positions, density, the number of participants, cells and factions – cliques, brokers)
Upperworld + underworld = environment
OC as a mirror of political economy and civic society
Weak side: the reality of OC is not clear; just „usual suspects“
Zarkadoulas, N., lecture on IAASOC Ohrid 2011
Analytical model of OC
Von Lampe, K. (2011)
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