Organized Crime—Global

Definitions

A definition of TOC must be situated within the broader phenomenon of transnational crime, incorporating definitions and descriptions of organized crime, and accommodating the necessary distinction between transnational criminal activities and their sponsoring groups. Transnational crime is a broad concept covering different offenses that mainly fall, at times simultaneously, in the domain of organized crime, corporate crime, professional crime, and political crime. The United Nations (1995a: 59) has defined transnational crime in the most general terms as “offences, whose inception, perpetration and/or direct effect or indirect effects involve more than one country.”

Transnational crime has not necessarily involved the creation of new crimes; instead, it generally involves the same serious criminal activities that have long occurred at the local or national level. In transnational crime, some or most of the participants and elements of the offense are outside the nation where the target markets, clients, or victims are located. TOC is distinguished from the broader phenomenon of transnational crime primarily through the involvement of organized crime groups or networks. Louise Shelley advocates a description of TOC that focuses not on particular criminal activities, but rather on the way the crime group operates. Shelly says transnational crime groups are those that (a) are based in one state; (b) [Page 1113]commit their crimes in not one but usually several host countries; and (c) conduct illicit activities affording low risk of apprehension (1995: 464).

While this definition may apply to a range of different criminal groups operating at the international level, TOC groups usually constitute the highest level of organized criminality. In general, the largest and most powerful TOC organizations: (1) are located in a number of different jurisdictions worldwide; (2) operate multiple illegal enterprises; (3) can be extremely sophisticated in their operations; (4) have the capacity to smuggle and traffic in large volumes of illegal and legal commodities; (5) generate revenue and profits that rival multinational corporations; (6) utilize a division of labor among their members and associates; (7) insulate the upper echelons of the group from law enforcement; (8) infiltrate legitimate businesses and markets; and (9) rely on such tactical imperatives as corruption, internal conspiracies, money laundering, counter-surveillance, and intelligence gathering.

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