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

NSfK’s 40. forskerseminar, Espoo, Finland 1998
direct extension of the above-mentioned characteristic concerning the use of commercial or
business-like structures - one can hardly imagine money laundering without the use of such
legal structures.
10. Exerting influence on politics, on the media, public administration, judicial authorities, or
the economy. Corruption in the form of bribery, attempted bribery of public officials and
politicians, or the use (or threatened use) of force toward persons involved in the judicial
system is an important feature of organized crime in the criminological literature. To some
criminologists it is the most important criterion (Cressey, 1969: 319). Corruption enables
organized crime to achieve a certain form of immunity against being reported to the police,
investigated, arrested, charged, and tried and bribery can be an attempt to gain a competitive
advantage, for example in obtaining orders (Maltz, 1985: 25).
However, instead of the well-defined term corruption the EU criteria uses a broader
term—the exercise of influence. The crucial difference between these two terms is that
corruption is of necessity an illegal form of influence or attempted influence, while the
language that was chosen also includes legal forms of influence, which raises a number of
questions. Can legal political activity or lobbying be the “exercise of influence at the political
level?” Is participation in the political or cultural publicity “influence on the media?” Is the
use of attorneys, for example, to defend one’s interests the “exercise of influence on public
administration or justice authorities?” Are business activities the “exercise of influence on
socioeconomic conditions?”
This characteristic can be interpreted quite broadly and comprehensively, so that
practically any form of participation in society can be included, but it can also be interpreted
narrowly, so that the “exercise of influence” is identical to corruption, i.e. either bribery or the
use of power as a means of influencing public officials.
11. Determined by the pursuit of profit and/or power. Criminological research often stresses
the nonideological nature of organized crime. The objectives of organized crime are power
and profit—not political or ideological goals. Thus, this feature distinguishes those in
organized crime from political extremists groups that may be organized in the same manner
and commit the same types of crime, but are driven by political motivation (Abadinsky, 1994:
6; Kenney & Finckenauer, 1995: 3). Since this criterion is one of the three obligatory ones in
the EU list of characteristics, politically motivated crimes in the form of terrorism are not
normally classified as organized crime.
The Legal Definition of Organized Crime
The joint legal definition of organized crime is a result of the action plan for combating
organized crime that was approved at a Council meeting in April 1997 (Action plan, 1997).
The action plan was developed by a so-called High Level Group comprising representatives
of the prosecutory authorities of the member states. This plan of action consists of 15
political guidelines and 30 specific recommendations, as well as a timetable and
implementation plan for each of the recommendations. The desire for a joint legal
comprehension of organized crime and joint criminalization of participation in criminal
organizations has a high priority in the action plan. It is the first of the political guidelines:
“The Council is requested rapidly to adopt a joint action aiming at making it an offense under
the laws of each Member State for a person, present in its territory, to participate in a
criminal organization, irrespective of the location in the Union where the organization is
concentrated or is carrying out its criminal activity” (Action plan, 1997: 4)
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