Offenders or Offenses

Transnational crime rates rose dramatically in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Market-based activities such as trafficking dominate transnational criminal activity, providing illegal or illegally obtained goods and services to meet market demands. Drug trafficking is among the largest and most prosecuted of these crimes. Many transnational crimes are interrelated, with criminal organizations participating in a variety of criminal enterprises. The common flow of such crimes is from the developing to the developed world and often involves intermediary nations. Estimated annual profits from transnational criminal enterprise range in the billions of dollars. Transnational criminal organizations and terrorists utilize government corruption, lack of coordinated international prosecution, public complicity based on the demand for illicit goods and services, and the lack of economic opportunity in many ...