Organized Crime
Organized Crime
Coming up with an agreeable definition of organized crime is crucial in determining how legislations are made and targeted as well as how the investigations, prosecutions, researches are carried out in individual countries, and the cross border assistance or collaboration between governments in combating the vice.The existence of differences as to the understanding and seriousness of organized crime between countries or even within countries, between authorities and researchers among others, work to undermine policies as well as public support for possible policies and available resources for fighting against it.
Vagueness in the legal definitions of organized crime on the other hand, hinders the efforts to successfully arrest, investigate, prosecute and convict perpetrators within a country and most crucially, cripples attempts to fight organized crime internationally.
Conventional criminal laws define and specifically target certain crimes as punishable whether committed by individuals acting on their own or as part of an organized ring. In the United States for instance, criminals can only be prosecuted for committing certain specific crimes and not for belonging to an organized crime ring. In fact the only definition of organized crime in the constitution terms it as illegal activities by members of a disciplined and organized group that deals in illegal services and or goods such as prostitution as well as other illicit activities by members of the association.
The council of Europe defines organized crime as a collaboration of persons for a long or an indefinite duration, convicted of grave crimes committed with the objective of obtaining power or economic advantage.
Other countries are more strident in defining and dealing with the organized crime menace, Italy illegalizes membership to a mafia or a mafia style organization whose members engage in intimidation and other forms of threats or actual use of force to gain control of business activities, commit crimes or obtain other illegal advantages. This approach of criminalizing involvement in an organized crime ring has as well been adopted by the United Nations in its convention against transnational criminal rings.
The definition of organized crime lies in the understanding of organized, rather than the word crime acts such as murder and theft are said to be wrong of as well as in themselves while others like prostitution are deemed prohibited and thusly wrong too just as is loan shacking, match fixing and smuggling. These are ordinary crimes which are equally associated with organized crime. Thus, while it is difficult to define or describe what precisely is organized, it is possible to get a helpful understanding from the description of the characteristics of organized crime. More often than not, organized crime gangs hardly have ideologies or political agendas to pursue but are solely interested in militating against the effects of the law by neutralizing governments through bribes and other forms of corruption which they commonly resort to, to duck investigations, arrest, conviction or imprisonment. Corruption is also an important avenue that organized criminal gangs use in order to infiltrate and exercise control over legitimate business through a system of bribes, kick backs that prove irresistible to poorly paid civil servants, trade union officials among other officials.
More recent developments have seen growing ties or involvement of organized crime and terrorism which has lend it an ideological perspective. Gangs may have a hierarchy or be comprised of loose groups but most tend to be self perpetuating, persisting over a period of time and over a number of crimes.
Use of actual or threatened use of force such as killings burnings, kidnappings among others, against other gangs or regular victims who fall foul of them as well as generally restricted membership due to race, unique circumstance, nationality, trade or simply adoption of exclusivity which may result from initiations, symbols as well as bonding rituals. Other common characteristics of organized crime include most crucially the profit motive of these organizations in that they all intend to profit by every means possible which comprises crimes of all sorts as well as investing in legitimate business ventures which serve to give them a measure of respectability as well as acting as important conduits for money laundering, illicit gambling among others. In addition, most organized criminal gangs do exist to avail goods or services that are illegal, short in supply or heavily regulated and thusly can hardly be provided through legitimate means.
More recent definitions of organized crime include one by peter Reuter which termed it as crimes by organizations that have acquired and maintained an ability for violence, while other definitions have tended to emphasize the monopolization tendencies of organized criminal gangs and their ability to seize and exercise quasi government roles where governments fail or are unable to effectively play that role. Indeed in places such as Sicily, Eastern European countries as well as large parties of Russia, the government roles are almost entirely run by the mafia style groups.
Thus organized crime can be defined as continuing association of people that seek to monopolize illicit business and enterprises through the use of or threatened use of force and enjoy protection from the law by corruption.
It is however important to draw a distinction between criminal organizations as such, and organized crime. Crimes could be committed by individuals acting together but if those criminals do not go a step beyond a single crime and organize, view themselves, carve a reputation and perpetuate themselves and their crimes over a period of time, they would not qualify to be called criminal organizations. It is of equal importance to draw a distinction at organized crime and crimes that are organized.
The face of organized crime has constantly been changing to suit the ever changing times, not least the challenge as well as opportunity presented by globalization. Globalization has led to the greater and faster movement of goods, services and most crucially, there is greater, freer movement and contact in people than was the case before.This greater movement and interaction has hugely been aided by improvements in the transport and communication that has brought legal, as well illegal migrants across international borders either of their own free will or smuggled by criminal gangs. Communication technology has made communication and organization of crimes, identity thefts among others a chip easier and faster.
Transnational Organized crime similarly has defied attempts to define it, especially owing to the fact some of the crimes associated with transnational organized crime are as well committed by individual or groups of individuals who will not meet the definition for organized crime. The United Nations approaches the definition of the transnational organized crime by separately describing organized crime group from transnational crime and subsequently defines the former as a structured association of more than one person, acting in tandem with each other and for a period of time to commit serious crimes for the purpose of gaining directly or other wisely a material or monetary advantage. While transnational organized crime is defined as one committed in one state but with substantial planning, direction and control undertaken in another or if committed in two or more States or countries, or committed in a single country or state by an organized criminal organization that conducts its operations in more that one country or state, or a crime committed in one state or country but with considerable effects in another.
The crimes committed by these organizations cause hurt, people have been assaulted, lost property, psychologically traumatized or victimized in some other way and more so for this essay is the hurt from the heightened rate of people trafficking and smuggling. People trafficking always existed across the world in varying degrees but have only become more global bringing under its net large areas of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Increased movement of illegal immigrants has prompted increasing concern among governments both in the developing world who act as source countries as well as the richer worlds like Australia who must content with detecting perpetrators and bringing them to justice as well as protecting the victims. The United States State department estimates that anything between 700,000 and four million people are moved across borders illegally each year.While the International migration organization estimates that over half a million women have been trafficked into the European Union from the East and Central European countries.
In Asia alone, over 200,000 women and children from South East Asia are trafficked annually, mostly to various destinations in Asia with Japans booming commercial sex industry being a key destination while Australia has experienced a rise in illegal boat people hitting its shores. In 1998 there were 926 illegal people arriving by boat in Australia while 2406 landed by air compared to 1999 when the respective numbers were estimated at 4174 and 1628.
People trafficking is whereby people are deceived, tempted, threatened or other wisely taken away from their home, state or country and forced to work under exploitative terms, without or with poor pay. Organized illicit smuggling as well as trafficking of human beings has grown into 28 billion dollar industry across the world with annual revenues of just under 9 billion, making it one of the fastest rising criminal industries enough to rival drug and arms smuggling, fuelled by rising sophistication in the ways of committing the crimes, globalization as well as the innovations in financing the crimes but also by the poor, uncoordinated efforts by governments to reign it in.
People trafficking is defined by the Australian Department of immigration as the illegal movement of people either individually or in groups across state or national borders on payment of a fee on service terms, or gaining entry into a country without permission which includes stowing people away, or use of false documents whether for profit purposes or not. Further, the department deems human trafficking as the recruitment, moving or aiding, or receiving persons at any stage of the migration process by using threats or deception for the purposes of sexually exploitation of any form, or other forms of forced labor.
While people smuggling and trafficking are closely related, the former differs in that it only involves arranging and aiding illegal crossing into or out of a country for a fee or other wise, while trafficking involves coercion or use of actual force as well as making fraudulent promises to victims who once smuggled are continually exploited.
Increased international mobility has made criminals able to evade strict national jurisdictions whose efforts to fight crime have been militated against by the rising leisure travels and the easing immigration policies across the world, diversification in citizenships, increased air transport among other reasons.
People traffickers often provide the illegal immigrants with advice, guidance, false documentation, and accommodation among others in facilitating illegal migration from which they make huge profits. A common method employed by human traffickers has been the use of photo substituted passports which can easily evade detection by migration officials and systems, this is augmented by the sophisticated systems and capacity of forgery which these groups posses.
Other ways involve exploiting international conventions requiring refugees to be protected. As such illegal migrants simply turn up at the Australian immigration desks stating that they have no documents but would like to put in for asylum or refugee status.
Another important tool utilized by transnational people traffickers is corruption which is absolutely helpful in infiltrating public servants who in turn help the traffickers access valid traveling documents for their purposes.
In recruiting victims, often blackmail, and financial coercion are used where the criminals have access to information or any other stake that they threaten to make public should their victims failed to toe their line. Blackmail is commonly linked to corruption especially among high public servants who fall foul who once infiltrated by the criminal rings, they are held on the leash by blackmail and intimidation.
Trafficking in human beings can assume varied forms including but hardly limited to trafficking in women who are sexually exploited. Trafficking in women is common and highly prevalent in all countries in the world who are affected either as sources, transit countries or destination countries and mainly preys upon vulnerable women who are lured with promises of employment, issued with false travel documents and taken away from their homes only to be forced into slavish sexual exploitation and kept under inhuman conditions.
People smuggling is yet another form of trafficking where criminal organizations in order to gain a material or financial gain, arrange illegal entry of people into a state or country where they are neither citizens nor permanent residents. People smuggling is a transnational crime that more often than not involves organized criminals that involves grave violations of the victims basic rights. This prey upon people hankering after greener pastures abroad due economic and political instabilities in their home countries and their inability to travel through legal means drives them to illegal people smugglers. People smuggling mainly thrives owing to poor legislations, a relatively low risk of being detected or arrested and prosecuted besides the large profits that the criminals get. Developed countries are the key targets and these include Australia. Australia has been a key target for illegal immigrants from Asia and the Pacific who are smuggled via Malaysia, Indonesia among other transit countries.
Debt bondage which involves victims being forced to pay by prolonged direct labor rather than money, or debtors are deceived into working without commensurate pay, or when the value of their labor is far greater than the debt they are supposedly repairing is a common manifestation in transnational organized crime.
People are increasingly being trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and other forms of servitude and held under debt bondage. Victims from poor Nations are lured by promises of decent lives abroad, or threatened, coerced by any means into being illegally trafficked, but once at their destinations, they find themselves in forced employments. Australia has recently been receiving illegal migrants from countries such as Iraq, Indonesia and the Philippines who are illegally smuggled in by organized criminal at no cost, but once in Australia, they are forced to work for prolonged or indefinite durations to repay the fees incurred for their smuggling to Australia. As a result, the victims find themselves in construction, domestic servitude as well as other forms of menial jobs.
Many countries especially developed ones have waiting lists for organ transplants which are immensely expensive. Organized crime thrives on such scarcity and capitalizes in supplying such scarce goods or services illegally from which they make a fortune.Victims are deceived or misinformed about the medical procedures or financial prospects that could arise from their selling of organs, after which they are illegally smuggled away from their homes. Then they are subjected to illegal organ harvesting under poor medical conditions for which there is no follow up which jeopardizes their health as well as lives. These organs and kidneys make up the lions share of reported cases are then sold on to patients in dire need of them, from which criminals make a fortune.
Sexual exploitation children, is another form of people trafficking entirely different from women trafficking. Children are continually being used by organized criminals for prostitution or are forced to perform lewd sexual acts which are the filmed and sold as child pornography. The internet has played a crucial role in furthering this form of crime, not just by making it easier to sell and disseminate it but it also makes it hugely difficult to trace the perpetrators, much less arrest or prosecute them.
Transnational organized crime thrives and has largely defied legal channel to curb it, owing to its ability to adapt its operations to suit changing times, sophisticated forging ability, and an established infrastructure consisting of hideouts, accommodation and travel facilities at their disposal, its capacity to use violence, involvement in other forms of organized crimes as well as an economic muscle necessary for bribing officials to aid their operations.
While controlled migration is hugely beneficial for a country allowing qualified, labor as well as resources into a country and thusly boosting growth, transnational organized crime and more especially human trafficking has grave implications for a nations national security. Illegal entries into a country say terrorists or smuggling of weapons that could be used in committing crimes among other implications. People smuggling undermines government immigration policies and has led countries into spending lots of their money on technology and law enforcement to help curb the practice.
This must involve cooperation between countries which must start by adoption of common definition of what constitutes organized crime but also transnational organized crime. This important not only for public policy programs but will serve to focus research as well as legal efforts aimed at reigning in or at least mitigating against its pervasive effects. This cooperation should take the form of among others, information exchange to enable officials in various countries to establish whether people turning up at their borders bear genuine travel documents or whether they have been involved in trafficking activities as well as sharing information on the type of documents used by criminals to evade detection and most importantly perhaps, the dissemination of the latest ways and innovations in the methods employed by traffickers in recruiting, transportation, the routes and possible ways of detecting them.
Yet another innovative way especially as adopted by the Australian government is to make human trafficking risky and low profit undertaking which will in turn drive away organized criminal organization and brings down the vice.This has included legislations to reduce legal boat arrivals, extradite illegal immigrants as well as arresting and prosecuting people smugglers, setting up of Royal commissions to help investigate and combat organized crime.
Conclusion
Organized crime has always existed and transnational organized crime too. But the political instabilities and occasional lawlessness in some countries coupled the advances in both technology as well as the financial services has without intention, brought organized crimes to the shores of just about every country as well as every households doorstep. The growth of in organized crime poses a challenge not only to the individual businesses, national securities and the political establishments of countries but it also involves real human costs paid by lives, slave labor and sexual exploitation among others. All the more reason for efforts to be redoubled in combating organized crime as well as transnational organized crime by individual countries but also increased collaboration internationally.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment