Organised Crime & Crime Prevention - what works? - Scandinavian ...

NSfK’s 40. forskerseminar, Espoo, Finland 1998
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trafficking and other forms of organized crime or other acts of violence against the life,
physical integrity or liberty of a person, or creating a collective danger for persons, punishable
by deprivation of liberty or a detention order of a maximum of at least 12 months,
even where that person does not take part in the actual execution of the offense or offenses
concerned; such contribution shall be intentional and made having knowledge either of the
purpose and the general criminal activity of the group or of the intention of the group to
commit the offense or offenses concerned” (Convention, 1996: article 3, paragraph 4).
In this and similar documents concerning police and legal cooperation within the EU, it is
always an explicit assumption that the overall goal is to combat “international organized
crime,” which is a standard formula that is often repeated in the preambles to legal documents
in this area. But the language is inconsistent. Sometimes reference is made to “international
crime,” in other cases it is “organized crime” or “transnational crimes”. Even though these
terms are not synonymous, they are used as such, without being defined in greater detail. It is
assumed that their meaning is known and there is an implicit assumption that the concrete
forms of criminality that the EDU and Europol are to be involved in, such as the smuggling of
drugs, automobiles, people, and radioactive materials, are by their very nature organized or
international.
That these terms alone figure in the preambles of EU documents clearly indicates their
function. They are nonbinding and imprecise designations that primarily serve ideological
and justificatory functions.
The Political Definition of Organized Crime
A first attempt at a more precise and binding definition comes from the European Parliament.
The European Parliament has been working for a long time to place organized crime on the
EU agenda. It was, in particular, those countries that have long and extensive experience with
serious organized crime that took the initiative in this area. Most of the numerous documents
on criminality that the European Parliament has approved contain direct references to the
danger represented by organized crime. The parliament’s Resolution on Criminal Activities in
Europe points to organized crime as the most serious crime problem in Europe and it states
that “organized crime, with its strong destabilizing and corrupting influence, is a political,
social and cultural problem which undermines public institutions and democracy itself”
(European Parliament’s resolution, 1994: preamble). In close accord with this concern, the
European Parliament defines organized crime as follows:
“(The European Parliament) defines organized crime as an organized criminal association
operating at international level, the activities of which range form actual criminal offenses
to the direct or indirect control of economic activities, public works concessions, licenses,
contracts and services” (European Parliament’s resolution, 1994: article 1)
Thus, this definition is based on three primary qualifications—the type of organization, the
geographic field of operation, and the extent of the criminal activities, whereby particular
emphasis is placed on corruption of the business sector and, consequently, those elements of
organized crime that threaten the principles of societies based on market economy. However,
this broad, politically oriented definition of organized crime has had neither practical nor
legislative significance and the parliament itself later abandoned the use of this definition
(e.g. in Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs, 1997).