Jay S. Albanese

The Causes of Organized Crime Do Criminals Organize Around Opportunities for Crime or Do Criminal Opportunities Create New Offenders

This study examines the assumption that crime-prone individuals or organizations move to exploit changing criminal opportunities. A competing explanation holds that new criminal opportunities (e.g., Internet access, money laundering, political upheaval, etc.) provide motivation for individuals who formerly were not connected with criminal activity. Detailed case studies of organized crime groups and activities are used to examine the nexus between criminal opportunities and criminal groups. A model that employs both opportunity and offender-availability factors is proposed to predict the incidence of organized crime activity. Such a model also has implications for the extent to which law enforcement agencies and public policy should focus on surveillance of known criminal groups versus proactive strategies to reduce criminal opportunities that emerge from social and technological changes.

Risk Assessment in Organized Crime Developing a Market and Product-Based Model to Determine Threat Levels

The risk posed by organized crime is a central concern of governments around the world. The infiltration and control of legal and illegal markets and products is a major concern in nearly every country. New agencies and initiatives are under way in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Belgium, and elsewhere, with the specific purpose to better predict and detect organized crime activity. This article proposes a model to assess the risk of organized crime. It employs a different unit of analysis from most current models, focusing on illicit markets rather than groups, and it offers a practical alternative for determining the presence of organized crime in areas that may or may not have a history of organized crime involvement.

Do Casinos Attract Criminals? A Study at the Canadian-U.S. Border

This study examines trends in the number of criminally inadmissible persons who seek admission to Canada because of the opening of Casino Niagara. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the presence of a new Canadian casino increases the rate at which criminally inadmissible persons seek entry to Canada. The impact of the casino is assessed by examination of trends in total bridge crossings before and after the opening of the casino, trends in the total number of criminals denied entry to Canada, and trends in the proportion of criminals who have convictions for offenses related to organized crime. The rate of denials of entry to Canada on grounds of criminal inadmissibility rose faster than did the border traffic in general, but there was a decline in the proportion of those with prior records for organized crime-related offenses. The implications of these findings are presented.

A Criminal Network Approach to Understanding & Measuring Trafficking in Human Beings

Developing a rational and transparent method to estimate the extent of trafficking in human beings is fundamental to understanding the scope of the problem, changes in its occurrence, and its appropriate place on the agenda for law and policy attention. The problems of existing estimates of trafficking are examined, and reasons for the disjunction between these estimates and known cases reviewed. Three methods for understanding and measuring trafficking in human beings are assessed: (1) extrapolating the risk of trafficking from other known risks, (2) using known cases to estimate the universe, and (3) using a network model of human trafficking as an illicit enterprise which reacts to known and measurable pressures. The network approach focuses on understanding the criminal networks that organize to exploit victims, rather than on solely predicting victim counts. Examples of each of these methods are presented in terms of their strengths and limits, and a combined approach is proposed to produce the most accurate picture of human trafficking. It is shown that a good estimation model can be used to document the risk and extent of human trafficking as an illicit enterprise, trends in its occurrence, and the effectiveness of measures design to\break reduce it.

Choosing a Micro or Macro Perspective for Understanding Organized Crime: The Contributions of Ernesto Savona

An important issue in social science is the perspective taken. In criminology, we endeavor to explain criminal conduct from one of two perspectives: micro and macro. The macro-level approach views the world and its problems from above in that broader social context is seen to produce social problems. The micro-level approach views individual-level experience producing many individual outcomes, which might have larger social implications. The perspective taken makes all the difference in knowing where to begin looking for causation: to the individual or to the larger social context? The contributions of Ernesto Savona in assessing organized crime is examined through these two perspectives.

The Cosa Nostra in the U.S. Adapting to Changes in the Social, Economic, and Political Environment After a 25-Year Prosecution Effort

Multiple mass arrests of Cosa Nostra suspects in recent years continue a 25-year surge the most significant organized crime prosecution effort in U.S. history. The reasons behind this effort, the impact of terrorism on this initiative after September 11, 2001, and the impact of the major social, political, and economic changes occurring over the same period are considered. Three keys to the short-term prospects for the Cosa Nostra in the U.S. are examined: their linkages with non-Cosa Nostra groups, shifts to fraud and other non-traditional organized crime activities, and their willingness to settle for a piece of the criminal activities of other groups. Long-term prospects for the Cosa Nostra in the U.S. are also examined, involving the entrenched challenge of corruption, generational shift, and international connections with other organized crime networks.

Controlling Organized Crime: Looking for Evidence-Based Approaches

Abstract Serious policy-relevant research on organized crime has been thwarted by ideological views, the failure to generate systematic data, and a single-minded law enforcement approach to its control. Correspondingly, there has been a failure to generate needed data for analysis and evaluation of anti–organized crime initiatives. This article summarizes the current situation, evaluates emerging work which is challenging past assumptions, and describes a data and research approach to develop more useful policy-relevant research on organized crime, based on evidence rather than ideology.

Distinguishing Corruption in Law and Practice: Empirically Separating Conviction Charges from Underlying Behaviors

This analysis examines the precise laws under which corruption cases are brought and trends over time in order to assess how the underlying corruption behaviors can be grouped into types. Corruption is operationalized into several distinct types of misconduct under law for purposes of prosecution. Federal defendants were most often charged with offenses charging bribery, fraudulent statements/entries, theft of public funds, conspiracy, and fraudulent claims (in that order). Whereas state and local defendants were more likely to be charged with a different ordering of offenses (extortion, theft from government programs, mail fraud, and conspiracy for state defendants, and theft from government programs, extortion, mail fraud, and bribery for local defendants). These differences in the corruption choices by public officials at different levels of government have rarely been considered. Preliminary explanations are offered for these differences, which provide insights into the way in which corruption occurs in different jurisdictions.

Focusing Anti-Corruption Efforts More Effectively: An Empirical Look at Offender Motivation—Positive, Classical, Structural and Ethical Approaches

The level of public corruption cases remains high. Interviews with 72 former investigators, prosecutors, community stakeholders and individuals with first-hand experience in corrupt activities, together with analysis of court documents, offer insight into the motivations behind the corrupt conduct in hundreds of known corruption cases. Corrupt motivations are classified into four categories: positive, classical, structural, and ethical. Empirical examples from interviews and court cases are used to show how the identified causes and correlates of corruption can be grouped and use to develop more effective anti-corruption prevention strategies. Recommendations are offered to reduce the extent of corruption by applying the principles of positive, classical, structural, and ethical explanations of corruption to reduce opportunities for corruption and improve the integrity levels of those in public service.