Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

62
Urban crime and violence
Table 3.3
Regional mean scores
and ranks on the
Organized Crime
Perception Index
(OCPI) (rank numbers
of regions)
Source: van Dijk and van
Vollenhoven, 2006, p5
Average of the OCPI (rank) Informal sector Unsolved High-level Money
OCPI and rank (rank) homicides corruption laundering
(rank) (rank) (rank)
Oceania/Australia 33 (1) 1 1 1 2 1
West and Central Europe 35 (2) 2 2 2 4 3
North America 44 (3) 4 4 4 6 4
East and Southeast Asia 45 (4) 5 3 7 3 6
Central America 50 (5) 4 13 3 8 13
Near and Middle East 50 (6) 7 6 11 1 2
World 54
South Asia 54 (7) 14 8 8 7 11
North Africa 55 (8) 6 5 6 5
East Africa 55 (9) 12 9 11 9
Southern Africa 56 (10) 10 12 5 12 10
South America 58 (11) 11 14 10 13 12
Southeast Europe 58 (12) 15 10 12 9 14
West and Central Africa 60 (13) 13 11 15 5 8
East Europe 70 (14) 17 16 14 14 16
Central Asia and Transcaucasian 70 (15) 16 13 15
Caribbean 70 (16) 9 15 16 15
Figure 3.16
Organized Crime
Perception Index
Source: van Dijk and van
Vollenhoven, 2006, p6
completely understood because of the dynamic and inherently
secretive nature of these groups and transactions.
Other aspects of organized crime – arms and human trafficking
– are discussed below.
■ Arms trafficking
Easy access to illegal weapons is a major risk factor driving
crime and violence rates. Like drug trafficking, arms trafficking
is often the focus of organized crime. Access is facilitated
by the trafficking of small arms and light weapons, characterized
as the weapons of choice of youth gangs, organized
criminal groups, paramilitary groups, rebel forces and terrorists.
Defined as weapons that ‘one or two people can carry,
can be mounted on a vehicle, or loaded onto a pack animal’,
they are easy to obtain as pilfered or legally sold remnants of
stockpiles left behind after wars and civil unrest. 83 They are
also relatively cheap, lethal, portable, concealable and
durable, and their use can be disguised under many legal
pretences. Probably most important from a control standpoint
is that they are in high demand as the means and
motivations for personal security, especially in the absence
of effective policing or public protection. For these reasons,
small arms are widely trafficked and they are prime facilitators
of common crime and violence around the globe.
Research suggests that, overall, weapons tend to move
from unregulated jurisdictions to regulated ones. 84 This has
become more of an issue as trade of all goods increasingly
globalizes. The illegal trade in small arms is much harder to
document than the legal trade, but it is thought to be worth
about US$1 billion a year. 85 According to the Small Arms
Survey, the latter sales account for an estimated 60 to 90 per
cent of the 100,000 combat deaths that occur each year and
thousands more that take place outside of war zones. It is
estimated that there are more than 640 million small arms