TACKLING ORGANIZED CRIME: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
TACKLING ORGANIZED CRIME: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Summary/Abstract: The notion of organized crime provides a central reference point for the criminal policy debate around the globe. For at least two decades, since the drafting of the 2000 UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, there is broad agreement at national and international levels on the seriousness of the problem, and there is an increasing willingness to cooperate across institutional and jurisdictional boundaries in efforts to curb organized crime. Yet, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the nature of the threat; and when it comes to concrete steps, like the ranking and prioritizing of threats, the selection of targets, and the choice of appropriate tools, there appears to be ample room for talking at cross purposes. In fact, there appears to be a conceptual vacuum underneath the surface of a concept that is well established in political, professional and public terminologies but only vaguely ties together myriad, often mythically distorted imageries. These imageries are by several degrees removed from the nitty-gritty crime phenomena that in their relative simplicity are self-explanatory, like the selling of drugs, the stealing of cars or the collection of protection payments. There is little in the way of categorizing these phenomena and, through an overarching, systematic and comprehensive conceptual framework, to link them back to the lofty concept of organized crime.

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