Brandon A. Sullivan

The nexus between terrorism and product counterfeiting in the United States

Terrorists use a wide variety of methods to fund their operations, obtain profits and carry out ideologically driven goals. Terrorist organisations have increasingly been linked to product counterfeiting crimes, but evidence for this connection is mostly anecdotal and speculative, lacking systematic empirical evaluation. This study mines open-source data to capture known product counterfeiting schemes linked to known extremists in the United States since 1990. We utilise the Extremist Financial Crime Database (EFCDB) and the Michigan State University Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protections (A-CAPP) Incident Database to provide an overview of both the schemes and the individual suspects involved in these crimes. We uncovered ten product counterfeiting schemes linked to terrorism, while the vast majority of suspects involved are non-extremist collaborators motivated by profit, not extremist ideology. These findings indicate the need for policies focusing on criminal networks broadly, expanding beyond restrictive efforts only targeting terrorists.

Intelligence-led policing and transnational environmental crime: A process evaluation

Transnational environmental crime (TEC) threatens human health and the natural environment. Its complexity also poses a challenge for regulation and enforcement. In the current paper, we present a process evaluation of one attempt to use innovations in policing to improve TEC enforcement. Specifically, we assess the implementation of intelligence-led policing (ILP) in the Environment Agency’s Securing Compliant Waste Exports Project. We find that the team was able to fully implement the UK National Intelligence Model to address illegal exports of hazardous waste, including combining regulatory and enforcement data to generate actionable intelligence. Future research should examine the implementation of ILP in other contexts and to address other forms of TEC to evaluate the generalizability of these results.

Product counterfeiting and the media: examining news sources used in the construction of product counterfeiting as a social problem

Product counterfeiting has received increased attention due to its economic and public health impact. Media framing of product counterfeiting shapes how the public and policymakers understand the problem. While there is a large body of literature examining crime and the media generally, empirical studies have yet to focus on the media construction of product counterfeiting. This study presents the results of a content analysis using a random sample of newspaper articles referencing product counterfeiting in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal from 2000 to 2009. Articles were coded for common patterns in sources of information. While the results indicate the presence of a wide variety of themes, product types, and industries, government and business sources are overrepresented among the sources cited, leading to some level of consistency in the presentation of the impact of and appropriate responses to product counterfeiting. Implications for understanding how the public and policymakers understand product counterfeiting are discussed.

Measuring the “Unmeasurable” Approaches to Assessing the Nature and Extent of Product Counterfeiting

Due to its considerable negative consequences, product counterfeiting is a global problem that is a growing concern for consumers, government entities, law enforcement, and businesses. Unfortunately, current assessments of the nature and extent of the problem are largely unreliable and based on methodologies with significant limitations. This article examines the current approaches to measuring product counterfeiting, complementing those with a review of methods used to examine other crimes. It concludes by discussing the applicability of both commonly used and novel research methodologies, as they might apply to the study of product counterfeiting.

The media's portrayal of product counterfeiting and financial crimes

Although there is a large body of research examining how crime and criminal justice issues are presented in the news, there is no research examining the media construction of product counterfeiting and little research on financial crimes in the media. The current study fills this gap by comparing the representation of financial crimes and product counterfeiting in the news media. This study consists of a news media content analysis of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal from 2000 to 2009. Data were analyzed to identify common patterns across three types of fraud: product counterfeiting, corporate fraud, and tax fraud. The results indicate differences across the three crime types in the types of sources and how these sources are used in the articles. The paper concludes with implications for better understanding how product counterfeiting and financial crimes are portrayed as a social problem.

Illicit trade in counterfeit products: an examination of the opportunity–risk connection

Product counterfeiting represents a growing, global risk that poses many negative consequences for consumers, businesses, governments, national security, the economy, and society. Research suggests that the first step in formulating effective strategies to combat such crime is to understand what shapes the nature of the criminal opportunity. The chapter begins with a general overview of the scope of the illicit trade in counterfeit goods, including connections to transnational organized criminal enterprises and terrorist organizations. The consequences of product counterfeiting are then discussed, followed by the factors shaping opportunities for this crime, including global consumerism, cultural awareness, profit potential, technological advances, low-risk crime, supply chain complexity, and lack of awareness. The chapter concludes with a review of the need for further research to better understand the risk of and opportunity for product counterfeiting.

Illicit Market for Counterfeit Products at Small Businesses in Michigan

Research on small businesses facilitating illicit markets and the efforts of nonfederal law enforcement agencies to identify these small business offenders has been scant. This exploratory study examines the illicit market for counterfeit products sold through small businesses in the State of Michigan. We used police incident reports of counterfeit products identified during administrative tobacco inspections of small businesses to provide a unique look at this crime problem and the efforts of law enforcement to curtail it. We analyzed the content of these incident reports to explore characteristics of the incidents, businesses and suspects selling counterfeit products, how the counterfeit products were identified and verified, and the origin of the counterfeits. Implications for law enforcement efforts to address counterfeit criminal enterprises and directions for future research are discussed.

Book Review: E.M. Axelrod: Violence Goes to the Internet: Avoiding the Snare of the Net New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009. pp. xii, 394.

according to the authors, is the day-to-day activities of the police, carried out by general duty police and criminal investigators. It is the actions of these officers, trained in core policing techniques, which if conducted fairly, consistently, and respectfully, will bring legitimacy to the government that created them and provide security for its citizens. As the citizens feel more secure, they will be more likely to support and/or cooperate with the government, which will deny insurgents and terrorists the popular support that they need to succeed. This is done through a change in the organizational culture of the police, who are often viewed with suspicion or even outright hostility by the citizens that they are supposed to protect. Overcoming various cultural, religious, ethnic, and tribal customs is a daunting task but one that must be done for the police to be seen as benefiting as opposed to oppressing their citizens; the result of which is to legitimize the government. This is the role of training, which encompasses not only the practical skills required for the job but also the people skills (cultural awareness, empathy, etc.) that is a large portion of the police function. The police should provide a defensive response to fighting insurgents and terrorists, although the creation of limited police units with the capacity to gather intelligence and preemptively disrupt violence is also acknowledged. The police must work within the rule of law and use arrest, evidence, prosecution, and conviction as their tools, not just weaponry. One thing that Bayley and Perito emphasize is that the police should not be viewed as ‘‘little soldiers,’’ because the training, mission, and mindset for police is and should be different from that of soldiers. Using ill-equipped and ill-trained police as soldiers will end in the disproportionate casualties suffered by the police in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reforming the security sector agencies besides the police has been given short shrift according to the authors. Very little of the funding, training, and other resources has gone to the judiciary and the correctional aspects of the system. Without concurrent and fundamental changes to these institutions, as well as the government agencies that oversee them, any improvements in the police are almost for naught, since the other sectors must be able to handle what the police send to them. If not, confidence in the government is diminished. In addition, Bayley and Perito note that in the current interventions in which the United States is involved, the justice systems resemble more European than American ideas, since they tend to have national justice organizations, while in the United States, this power is more local in nature. Bayley and Perito provide detailed descriptions and examples for the points that they raise, as well as proposed solutions in the final chapter. In fact, the only downside of this book is the sheer number of acronyms that are used by the various entities involved, which could be somewhat confusing, at least to this reviewer. However, that is not the fault of the authors, who did provide a glossary of the acronyms used. That being said, The Police in War: Fighting Insurgency, Terrorism and Violent Crime by David H. Bayley and Robert M. Perito, should be required reading for any government officials contemplating intervention in a failed state or using military intervention to force a regime change.