E.R. Kleemans

Organized Crime, Transit Crime, and Racketeering

When organized crime reached the political agenda in the early 1990s, it was framed in terms of “Mafia‐type” organizations and infiltration in (local) governments, geographical areas, and economic sectors (racketeering). This conception contradicted the phenomenon: the primary business of organized crime is more fittingly described as “transit crime,” as opposed to the control of economic sectors or regions. Criminal groups should be viewed as “criminal networks” (instead of as pyramidal structures), as can be seen in several illegal activities: drug trafficking, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, smuggling of illegal immigrants, arms trafficking, and trafficking in stolen vehicles. The misconception of the nature of organized crime put criminal investigation strategies on the wrong track, but the changing view of organized crime is mirrored by a change in criminal investigation strategies. Flexible “prompt intervention” strategies are more common, as an alternative to the large‐scale and lengthy “long‐haul” strategies of the past. Both covert policing and infiltration and uncontrolled deliveries (of drugs) were regulated or forbidden and displaced by increasing reliance on “unobtrusive” methods of gathering evidence such as wiretapping and bugging. These methods may be effective in cases of transit crime. The innovative administrative approach may be more effective against racketeering than against transit crime.

Exploring Long-Term and Short-Term Risk Factors for Serious Delinquency

Scholars in the field of developmental criminology traditionally assign a major role to long-term risk factors such as inadequate parental supervision or poor school performance. Only recently has attention been paid to the effects of situational risk factors such as the presence of co-offenders and being drunk. Hardly any empirical research, however, integrates both long-term and short-term risk factors. We formulated hypotheses derived from the Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential theory (Farrington 2005) with regard to long-term and short-term risk factors for serious delinquency, and tested these hypotheses using data from the WODC Youth Delinquency Survey (data sweep 2005) of 292 juvenile delinquents. The findings indicate that serious delinquency is related not only to (an accumulation of) long-term risk factors, but also to situational factors, such as lack of tangible guardians and having used substances (alcohol or drugs) prior to the offence.

Organised crime, occupations and opportunity

This paper elaborates upon occupations, work relations, work settings, and their connection with organised crime activities. The analysis is based upon data from 120 case studies from the Dutch Organised Crime Monitor, involving 1623 suspects. The paper describes the different kinds of occupations encountered in cases of organised crime and the main characteristics of these occupations. Furthermore, the paper describes in more detail four cases of organised crime that illustrate the embeddedness of certain organised crime activities in work relations and work settings. Following Mars,1 the paper analyses both the grid dimension and the group dimension of certain occupations and work settings. The paper concludes that social relations as well as settings and opportunity structures provide structure to the organisation of many forms of crime, including organised crime.  1. Gerald Mars, Cheats at Work: An Anthropology of Workplace Crime (London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1982).

The Social Organisation of Human Trafficking

The public perception of human trafficking in Western Europe is heavily influenced by shocking events such as the Dover incident in 2000, when 58 Chinese immigrants suffocated in a lorry while trying to reach the United Kingdom. Tragic incidents likes this attract a lot of media attention and human trafficking is often associated with ruthless criminals and helpless victims. The media and the scientific literature frequently refer to Chinese ‘snakehead-organisations’, which are often depicted as strictly organised transnational criminal organisations. During the police investigation and the criminal trial much more information about the ‘Dover drama’ came to light. The unfortunate Chinese were undoubtedly victims. During their journey through many countries, they had endured protracted hardships. However, the social organisation of the smuggling ring turned out to be much more complex than first assumed. Although there was definitely a Chinese connection, the lorry driver was a Dutch national and several Turkish offenders were closely involved as well. The Dover incident made it clear that there is very little systematic insight into the social organisation of human trafficking in Western Europe.

Situational crime prevention and cross-border crime

This chapter explores the consequences of cross-border crime for situational crime prevention. Many types of organised crime involve international smuggling activities – such as drug trafficking, money laundering, smuggling illegal immigrants, and other transnational illegal activities. Based on research in the Netherlands, this chapter explores cross-border crime from three different angles (export, import and transit) with regard to four different areas of organised crime: Ecstasy (production and export), cocaine (import and transit), money laundering (export), and human smuggling (transit). It highlights the opportunities for situational crime prevention, as well as its limitations and the attendant caveats when it comes to dealing with cross-border crime.

Organized crime and the visible hand: A theoretical critique on the economic analysis of organized crime

The illegal enterprise-model has become very popular in the research of organized crime. However, the theoretical foundations of the economic analysis of organized crime can be criticized in a fundamental way, since two key explanatory principles, the model of ‘homo economicus’ and ‘efficient markets’, do not seem to fit the empirical phenomena to be explained. The shortcomings of the economic approach are demonstrated by presenting findings from the Dutch Organized Crime Monitor, an ongoing research project based upon systematic analysis of closed, extensive police investigations into 120 cases of organized crime. These findings highlight social embeddedness (also in cases of transnational organized crime), social relations, work relations, leisure activities and sidelines and life events shaping involvement in organized crime and developments in criminal careers, and manipulation and violence embedded in social relations. The latter demonstrate that offender behaviour is not so much driven by market mechanisms (or the ‘invisible hand’), but rather by the ‘visible hand’ of social relations, and the ‘visible hand’ of manipulation and violence.

Crossing Borders: Organised Crime in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands the problem of organised crime was largely ignored until the early 1990s, despite the fact that in the previous two decades the nature of serious crime had substantially changed due to the emergence of the drug trade. It took quite a long time, however, before practitioners and policy makers became fully aware of this gradual transformation of the problem of serious crime caused by the huge quantities of drugs being bought and sold through the Netherlands. The same holds true for academics. For a long time, many criminologists considered organised crime as a predominantly foreign phenomenon (see e.g. Fijnaut, 1984, 1985). Empirical research was largely non-existent, except for some pioneering work by the Central Criminal Intelligence Service and the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Ministry of Justice (Van Duyne et al., 1990). Widespread confusion prevailed about the definition of organised crime, corporate crime, professional crime and/or group crime (for an extensive overview of the public, academic and professional debate, see Fijnaut et al., 1998: 7-23). In this contribution, the next section concentrates on the development of debate and research on organised crime in the Netherlands. The following section relates to the nature of the organised crime problem in the country – what form does it take, and how does it compare with the situation in other countries? The fourth and fifth sections look at the role of organised crime in illegal markets, and its connection with the legitimate economy. Finally, the interactions between the public authorities and organised crime are discussed, particularly in the context of policing.

Drug Policy: The “Dutch Model”

Dutch drug policy, once considered pragmatic and lenient and rooted in a generally tolerant attitude toward drug use, has slowly but surely shifted from a primarily public health focus to an increasing focus on law enforcement. The “coffee shop” policy and the policy toward MDMA/ecstasy are illustrations. Both were initiated from a public health perspective but were attacked because of unintended side effects relating to supply markets, crime, and nuisance. Coffee shops became the subject of increasing restrictions and MDMA/ecstasy production became the target of a comprehensive enforcement program. It took some time before the tougher strategies were applied. The health-oriented approach and the conviction that drug problems can be contained, but not eradicated, are deeply rooted. This led to acknowledgment of the adverse consequences of increased law enforcement and tempered its application. Research showed effectiveness in some regards but also unintended consequences. The expansion of illegal cannabis consumer markets after restrictions on coffee shops is one example. The use of alternative chemical ingredients for ecstasy production is another. Changes in drug policy have an effect on supply markets, but drug use seems largely unaffected.

Strategic versus emergent crime groups: the case of Vietnamese cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands

This article addresses the nature and development of the Vietnamese involvement in cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands. The findings are based on empirical data collected from national police registrations, case studies and in-depth interviews with over 30 Dutch and international respondents. The authors describe the background characteristics of Vietnamese cannabis farmers, the structure of the predominantly mono-ethnic Vietnamese criminal groups and the international context. A situational approach to organised crime is applied to illustrate the ‘emergent’ character of the Vietnamese crime groups as opposed to a ‘strategic’ context of organised crime. The Vietnamese supervisors in the Netherlands have legal citizenship and often have ‘careers’ in cannabis-related crimes. It would appear that for a Vietnamese gardener or farmer, the path into cannabis cultivation is linked to financial debt. Besides situational factors, group characteristics, such as the migrant community, seem important in understanding the Vietnamese involvement in the Dutch cannabis market.

Explaining attrition: Investigating and confiscating the profits of organized crime

In this article, we provide insight into a common but scarcely researched problem in the process of confiscating criminal earnings: attrition, that is, the gap between estimated criminal profits on the one hand and the actually recovered amount of money on the other. We investigate the practice and results of financial investigation and asset recovery in organized crime cases in the Netherlands by using empirical data from the Dutch Organized Crime Monitor, confiscation order court files, and the Central Fine Collection Agency. The data shed light on financial investigation in practice and give a complete picture of the confiscation order court procedures as well as the execution of those orders for 102 convicted offenders – from public prosecutors’ claims and rulings of the initial, appeal and the Supreme Court, to what offenders actually pay. The phenomenon of attrition can be explained by several factors, but an important factor turns out to be how ‘criminal profit’ is defined (determined) in law and practice.