Assessing the Effectiveness of Organized Crime Control Strategies ...

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Assessing the Effectiveness of Organized Crime Control Strategies: A Review of the Literature other countries (President’s Commission on Organized Crime, 1986: 331). Thus, some of the major cartels would continue to operate. The major downside of legalization is that consumption might increase with the greater acceptability and accessibility of various substances. Increasing consumption may be viewed as inherently undesirable and may create a variety of social, health, and economic costs (Abadinsky, 1994:512-513; President’s Commission on Organized Crime, 1986:330-331). Also, there is no guarantee that legalization necessarily cuts into the profits of OC. For example, the proliferation of state-run lotteries in the US during the 1970s was said to produce no threat to the revenues of illegal gambling operators (Reuter, 1984). This may be the case because the level of gambling and other behaviours that have been subject to prohibition is not fixed. State-run operations may simply increase participation in such activities. Furthermore, the regulation and taxation of drug markets may prove to be an insurmountable challenge. For example, there are so many foreign and domestic sources of marijuana, that much of its production and distribution would remain beyond the reach of regulators (Lyman and Potter, 1991:324). 54 | Research and Statistics Division / Department of Justice Canada
5.0 Summary and Conclusions M uch of the evidence pertaining to the efficacy of OC control strategies is descriptive and anecdotal. Studies adopting sophisticated research designs are virtually non-existent. In fact, very few studies are explicitly referred to by their authors as evaluative studies. The multistage process used to identify relevant research reflects the paucity of efforts, in the OC literature, assessing the implementation and impact of OC control strategies. The search for materials began with a search of several major electronic databases. The bibliographies of materials identified through this search were then scanned for additional documents that might contain some additional evidence. This process was repeated as bibliographies were once again examined to complete a third round in the search for relevant materials. Several issues stand out as impediments to arriving at generalizations regarding the effectiveness of measures to control OC. A definitional morass exists, as both scholarly and legal definitions vary substantially in their scope. Some definitions emphasize the enterprise aspect of OC, while others relate to activities frequently attributed to criminal organizations. Another impediment to research and evaluation in this area is the fact that not one country routinely collects and publishes data on OC activity, however it is defined. Finally, a variety of measures have been used to gauge OC control efforts, hindering the ability to draw overall conclusions about the value of these efforts. Furthermore, many of these measures have serious shortcomings. Notwithstanding these concerns, the evidence that does exist provides some clues as to the efficacy of the various approaches to controlling OC. Table 2 displays the 18 control measures or strategies that have been reviewed in this report. These measures range from regulation and legalization to tools available to prosecutors, law enforcement, and other public and private sector agencies. The strategies are listed in the first column of the table. The second column contains an evaluation of the volume of evidence, both quantitative and qualitative, assessing the impact of each strategy or measure. The focus was on the volume rather than the quality of the evidence, as most of the evidence is descriptive in nature; hence there is little variation in the quality of studies. While the evaluation of the research is somewhat subjective, it is based on the evidence presented in the previous chapter. Furthermore, other scholars often provided their evaluations of the evidence in relation to the different control measures (refer to Chapter 4). Three ratings of the evidence were adopted: 1. A “nil” rating was provided when there was virtually no evidence, other than the anecdotal, provided in relation to a measure; 2. A “limited” rating meant that just a small number of studies had been undertaken and the evidence was confined to just one country (usually the US); 3. A “significant” rating meant that the studies were quite numerous and were found in several countries. Research and Statistics Division / Department of Justice Canada | 55
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S E R V I N G C A N A D I A N S RES
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Table of Contents Acknowledgements.
Page 9 and 10:
1.0 Introduction O ver the past thr
Page 11 and 12: 2.0 Methodology L iterature reviews
Page 13 and 14: 2.1 The Search Strategy Time Frame
Page 15 and 16: 3.0 Definitional Issues, Measuremen
Page 17 and 18: The diverse definitions of OC provi
Page 19 and 20: Beare (1996:26) notes that insiders
Page 21 and 22: charges, arrests, or convictions ar
Page 23 and 24: police thought they were investigat
Page 25: as the surrounding neighbourhood. A
Page 28 and 29: Assessing the Effectiveness of Orga
Page 71 and 72: 6.0 References Abadinsky, H. (2003)
Page 73 and 74: Giuliani, R. (1986) “Legal remedi
Page 75 and 76: Mathews, J. (1990) “One witness
Page 77 and 78: Schlegel, K. (1988) “Life imitati
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