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1 © Shutterstock TOWARDS A NEW DEFINITION OF ORGANISED CRIME? 10 EUROPOL / Exploring tomorrow’s organised crime / 2015
Europe’s changing criminal landscape Organised crime continues to challenge the law enforcement authorities charged with protecting the citizens of the European Union. OCGs are as varied as the markets they service and the activities they engage in. In many cases, OCGs reflect the societies, cultures and value systems they originate from. As societies across Europe become more interconnected and international in outlook, organised crime is now also more connected and internationally active than ever before. The group structures that dominate fictional representations of organised crime are disintegrating and will increasingly give way to an organised crime landscape dominated by loose networks made up of individual criminal entrepreneurs who interact and conduct their business in a shared, and often digital, criminal underworld. This introductory chapter sets out a picture of future developments in the organised crime landscape in the EU, providing a context to the key factors driving change discussed in later chapters. Economic and social change prompted by migration, more diverse and multicultural societies, demographic change as well as technological innovation impact on the nature of OCGs and individual criminals. Unprecedented socio-economic transformations across Europe over the past 70 years have called into question traditional value systems and fundamentally changed social structures. This is particularly apparent in the decline of collectivist attitudes among Europeans and the emergence of greater and more pronounced individualism. These changing norms and expectations also impact on organised crime. Since the year 2000, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime has provided an internationally shared definition of an organised criminal group as a group of three or more persons existing over a period of time acting in concert with the aim of committing crimes for financial or material benefit. This definition continues to reflect law enforcement authorities’ conceptualisation of organised crime across the world, but does not adequately describe the complex and flexible nature of modern organised crime networks. OCGs operate in a criminal economy dictated by the laws of supply and demand and are favoured by social tolerance for certain types of crime such as the trade in counterfeit goods and specific frauds against public authorities or large companies. These factors will continue to shape the organised crime landscape. The boundaries between legal and illegal activities are becoming more blurred and defining organised crime is increasingly difficult. Individual criminals and criminal groups are flexible and quickly adapt to exploit new victims, to evade countermeasures or identify new criminal opportunities. Political and legislative changes such as the introduction of new free trade agreements and a further enlargement of the EU are certain to impact on the activities of criminal groups in the EU. However, the accession of additional Member States to the EU also provides law enforcement authorities with new opportunities for cooperation and the exchange of knowledge. 11 EUROPOL / Exploring tomorrow’s organised crime / 2015
Page 1 and 2: EXPLORING TOMORROW’S ORGANISED CR
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Exploring tomorro
Page 5 and 6: I am pleased to present Europol’s
Page 7 and 8: © Shutterstock Serious and Organis
Page 9: Transportation and logistics Demogr
Page 13 and 14: Towards a new definition of organis
Page 15 and 16: CHANGE SERIOUS AND Transportation a
Page 17 and 18: Key drivers for change and their im
Page 35 and 36: MARKETS Cannabis Fraud Facilitation
Page 37 and 38: The evolution of criminal markets C
Page 39 and 40: The evolution of criminal markets S
Page 41 and 42: The evolution of criminal markets
Page 43 and 44: Delivering law enforcement - challe
Page 45 and 46: The future of law enforcement and p
Page 47 and 48: activities. Over the last five year
Page 49 and 50: Contributions from leaders in law e
Page 61 and 62:
Contributions from leaders in law e
Page 63 and 64:
34. Eurosur is an information-excha
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