Prediction and Control of Organized Crime: A Risk Assessment Instrument for Targeting Law Enforcement Efforts (From Prediction and Control of Organized Crime: The Experience of Post-Soviet Ukraine, P 11-41, 2004, James O. Finckenauer, Jennifer L. Schrock, eds., -- See NCJ-204368)

• NCJ Number: 204370
• Author(s): Jay S. Albanese
• Date Published: 2004
• Length: 31 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Measurement/Evaluation Device
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter introduces a risk assessment instrument designed to rank the relative seriousness of an incident of organized crime for law enforcement targeting purposes.

Abstract

Developed through a research partnership on Ukrainian organized crime between the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and its Ukrainian counterpart, the Ukrainian Academy of Law Sciences, the risk assessment instrument introduced here assists law enforcement efforts in connecting one crime to an organized crime network. Information about most crimes is derived from the accounts of offenders, victims, or police agencies. When these three sources of information are combined, connections between crimes become clear and patterns of organized criminal activities are able to be connected to crime networks. The author discusses the type of crime information possessed by the offender, the victim, and the police agency in an effort to improve data collection methods on crimes. Next, the three main types of organized crime groups are described. Crime groups can be delineated based on the type of illegal activities they are involved with: the provision of illicit goods, the provision of illicit services, or the infiltration or abuse of legitimate businesses. The development of the risk assessment instrument is described; the instrument focuses on identifying three factors that may indicate the existence of organized crime: opportunity factors, the criminal environment, and special access or skills. Identifying these factors will enable the identification of high-risk activities and businesses that are at high-risk of organized crime involvement. The assessment instrument provides a practical method of applying criminological prediction models to organized crime. The assessment instrument is comprised of 17 variables in 6 categories: economic factors, government, law enforcement, social/technological change, criminal environment/special skills, and potential harm. The assessment instrument has the most utility when applied to specific illicit activities in a particular locality because most organized crime is local in nature. Exacerbating factors that contribute to the risk of the presence of organized crime are explored and the practical use of the risk assessment instrument by law enforcement personnel is illustrated through a case study. Tables, figures, references