What is organized crime? Definiton issues and international cooperation

Translated by Silvia Toro

Between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, the studies on security underwent a deep transformation. With the progressive abandonment of a bipolar logic, the attention passed from menaces that were completely military to non conventional phenomenon. This was the background when organized crime was inserted in the international security's agenda. But what exactly does it mean to talk about "organized crime"?

Finding a definition for organized crime is not an easy task. It is a concealed phenomenon by nature, which operates behind the shadows. It does not show itself evidently, unlike traditional menaces. Activities like racket, which consists in imposing payments in exchange for protection with the implicit threat of retaliation, are difficult to be seen from the outside. Limited empirical accessibility complicated the construction of a shared definition.

The adjective "organized" unveil the existence of a structure and some sort of affiliation between members. In some cases, this affiliation takes the form of rituals or oaths that bind the individual to a specific clan. Most of the knowledge of the phenomenon at the beginning developed from the Italian case, where the structural and symbolic size is key. For a long time, the model was considered universally valid. but with time, it was shown that not all criminal organizations reflect this configuration. In fact, if in Italy and Japan rituals are a distinctive element, in other contexts, as in the Nigerian groups, affiliation can take different of less formalized shapes. Signs of belongings are also varied. In Russia, for example, tattoos have historically played an identifying role, while in Italy testimonies of justice collaborators were a key element.

The term "crime" contains a broad and heterogeneous set of activities. In addition to racket, it includes human and drugs trafficking, money laundering, document forgery, kidnapping for extortion, illicit wildlife trafficking, deforestation and mining, computer frauds such as hacking credit cards, smuggling tobacco, alcohol, and fuel, trafficking in subsidized goods, and illegal fishing.

Particularly relevant is money laundering, the process of insert again in the legal circuit profits of illicit origins through restaurants, construction sector, shell companies, tax havens or even newer instruments such as cryptocurrencies. Often the lower-ranked members are those who are prosecuted criminally. In order to be certain of the responsibilities of top managements, it is necessary to follow financial flows, rebuilding the profit chain.

Among the most notorious organizations are Mexican and Colombian cartels, the Japanese Yakuza, Italian mafia organizations such as the Cosa Nostra, Camorra, 'Ndrangheta, and Sacra Corona Unita, the Russian mafia, Chinese triads, and emerging groups in the Balkans, as well as networks operating in Nigeria, Ghana, the Netherlands, and certain areas of Asia and the Middle East linked to heroin trafficking.

The study of this phenomenon encounters significant obstacles. Firstly, there is a political or cultural reluctance to produce transparent statistics. In other cases, there is a genuine inability to collect data, as many activities take place in remote regions or areas where the state has limited presence, such as certain Brazilian favelas or border areas in Africa and South Asia. Moreover, media attention focuses mainly on spectacular events, such as seizures of enormous quantity of weapons or drugs, episodes of violence, generating a selective perception of the situation. Finally, there are crimes that in certain social contexts are perceived as victimless, since they are based on an exchange between consenting subjects.

What does International law say?

The international response to this complex concept took shape in 2000 with the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, known as the Palermo Convention. Article 2 provides a definition of an organized criminal group as a structured group of three or more people, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes to obtain a material benefit. A serious crime is defined as conduct punishable by a maximum prison sentence of at least four years. The notion of structured group does not require formally defined roles not a complex hierarchical structure.

The definition is deliberately broad. The aim is to provide a legal basis that allows not only for the prosecution of individual crimes, but also for membership of the organization. This breadth reflects the variety of forms that organized crime can take and the need for cooperation between states, given the transnational nature of the phenomenon.

The Convention is accompanied by specific protocols on trafficking in arms, trafficking in drugs, trafficking in human beings, and the facilitation of unauthorized immigration. In the case of migrant smuggling, in order to classify the offense as organized crime, it is necessary to prove the involvement of at least three people and the existence of material gain. In this context, the migrant can be considered part of the illegal agreement, while the victim is the state. In contrast, in human trafficking, the person being transported is the victim of exploitation.

The term “transnational” refers to a logistical dimension, i.e., the occurrence of behavior across multiple jurisdictions, while national laws remain applicable. This distinguishes such phenomena from international crimes such as genocide or crimes against humanity, which fall under international criminal law. Organizations can take on hierarchical, networked, or ad hoc coalition configurations focused on specific activities.

Conclusion

Essentially, the question is not only how to combat organized crime, but how to define it. The choice of a broad definition, such as the one adopted internationally, is both an operational necessity and a sign of the complexity of the phenomenon. Organized crime is not a single model, but a set of structures that vary in time and space. Understanding its nature therefore requires a constant balance between the need for legal precision and awareness of its inherent changeability.

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