Organized Crime

Correction to: Accounting for turbulence in the Colombian underworld The original version of this article contained a typesetting mistake. Map 1 image was incorrect. The original article has been corrected.

Violence and electoral competition: criminal organizations and municipal candidates in Mexico Abstract This article evaluates the effects of violence related to the operations of drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs) on electoral competition, defined by the number of electoral alternatives or candidates in Mexico's municipal elections. I find that the killing and threatening of politicians, which are effective tools to influence politics, jeopardizes competition in violent Mexican municipalities by reducing the number of candidates. This result is not only probabilistically robust but also meaningful. The number of candidates can fall to one in the more violent municipalities. However, DTOs can also provide (illegal) funding to politicians to facilitate their candidacies. I find that as confrontation intensifies among DTOs, the negative effect of violence on electoral competition moderates. This finding suggests that DTOs finance candidates to capture municipal governments when facing intense competition and attacks from other DTOs. In addition, DTOs in this context may also provide protection to their preferred candidates from other competing organizations. These factors temper the negative effect of violence on electoral competition.

Brazilian criminal organizations as transnational violent non-state actors: a case study of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) Abstract This article aims to analyze the evolution of Brazilian criminal organization Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC—First Command of the Capital), especially its transformation from a group advocating human rights to a transnational violent non-state actor. Created in the late 1990s by inmates at Taubate Prison, PCC is currently a key trigger of violence in South America. Since a massive attack performed in 2006 against security forces, the group continues to be highly operative, also coordinating drugs and arms smuggling in Brazil and abroad. A combination of sources supported this analysis of PCC's evolution, mainly Brazilian official judicial minutes, NGOs reports, and news released from reputable sources. The article shows that PCC has gained strength in the 2010s, expanding illicit business operations in cooperation with other criminal groups. The results suggest that PCC's expansion has changed significantly since their beginnings, into an actor that poses a challenge for the building of peaceful society in all of South America.

Mexican cartel negotiative interactions with the state Abstract This research applies pure sociology to the negotiation activity of Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). By operationalizing status along several social dimensions, the author employs crisp set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (cs QCA) to identify unique status configurations associated with negotiative interactions with the state. The results indicate that high status configurations are unique to groups that utilize negotiations in a particular territory. These findings provide further insight into the different positions of strength from which DTOs will pursue non-violent activity.

Organized crime, violence, and territorial dispute in Mexico (2007–2011) Abstract In the wake of so-called "hardline policies" against criminal groups (persecution, militarization, strengthening of security apparatuses), we take a comprehensive approach to the study of violent territorial disputes. We offer features for studying the violence attributed to organized crime, particularly in Mexico from 2007 to 2011, a time known as the "War on Drugs"; we identify characteristics of the drug-related criminal organizations in Mexico; further we show different strategies for the use of and dispute for territory. We propose four components that give us a better understanding of organized-crime groups: economic activities, ability to negotiate with other cartels, relations with state authorities, and strength of local roots.

Accounting for turbulence in the Colombian underworld Abstract Organized crime groups (OCGs) fight against each other even if it harms their businesses and exposes them to law enforcement authorities. Why do some groups refrain from fighting, while others operate in the incessantly violent underworld? To explain this puzzle, we propose that the underworld conflict is related to the strategies of extra-legal governance adopted by OCGs. We suggest that such strategies have origins in the availability of resources within the groups reach at their entrance into the underworld. More specifically, OCGs with access to easily extractable resources develop limited governance, which leaves them vulnerable to internal and external challenges. OCGs without access to easily extractable resources invest in extended governance, reducing their risk of underworld conflict. This article illustrates this hypothesis in the comparative case study of the Colombian organized crime, supported by new quantitative data.

Organised crime in Latin America: an introduction to the special issue Abstract This article provides an introduction to the articles submitted to the special issue of Trends in Organised Crime on 'Organised Crime in Latin America'. The aim of the special issue is to draw together novel empirical research findings and theoretical accounts on various aspects of organised crime in the particular geographic context.

Policing labor trafficking in the United States Abstract Despite new mandates to identify and respond to labor trafficking crimes, US law enforcement struggles to integrate labor trafficking enforcement with traditional policing routines and roles. As a result, human trafficking enforcement has primarily focused on sex trafficking and few labor trafficking cases have been identified and prosecuted. This study utilizes data from 86 qualitative interviews with municipal, state, county and federal law enforcement, victim service providers and labor trafficking victims in four US communities to inform our understanding of police responses to labor trafficking in local communities. Through the coding of these interviews across a series of themes, we identify three major challenges that impact police identification and response to labor trafficking crimes. These include lack of clarity about the definition of labor trafficking, lack of institutional readiness to address labor trafficking, and routines of police work that undermine police responsiveness to labor trafficking in local communities. Considering these challenges, we explore strategies law enforcement can take to improve identification, including developing non-traditional partnerships with labor inspection and local regulatory agencies. Additionally, interview data suggest a role for the police in ensuring labor trafficking victims are safe and their needs are met, regardless of the outcomes of the criminal justice process. This is the first study to examine police responses to labor trafficking from the perspective of police, service providers and victims.

Criminal networks in a digitised world: on the nexus of borderless opportunities and local embeddedness Abstract This article presents the results of empirical analyses of the use of information technology (IT) by organized crime groups. In particular, it explores how the use of IT affects the processes of origin and growth of criminal networks. The empirical data presented in this article consist of 30 large scale criminal investigations into organized crime, including traditional organized crime, traditional organized crime in which IT is an innovative element, low tech cybercrimes and high tech cybercrimes. Networks involved in cybercrimes or traditional crimes with an innovative IT element can be characterized as a mixture of old school criminals that have a long criminal career, and a limited number of technically skilled members. Furthermore, almost all cases have a local dimension. Also the cybercrime cases. Dutch sellers of drugs on online marketplace, for example, mainly work for customers in the Netherlands and surrounding countries.

Criminal markets: the dark web, money laundering and counterstrategies - An overview of the 10th Research Conference on Organized Crime Abstract On 10–11 October 2018, the 10th Research Conference on Organized Crime took place in The Hague. This year's theme was Criminal Markets: The Dark Web, Money Laundering and Counterstrategies. Researchers, practitioners and policy makers gathered to discuss research results, trends and policy issues. This article looks into recent developments on the topics mentioned and gives an overview of the conference.

Alexandros Sfakianakis
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