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62Urban crime and violenceTable 3.3Regional mean scoresand ranks on theOrganized CrimePerception Index(OCPI) (rank numbersof regions)Source: van Dijk and vanVollenhoven, 2006, p5Average of the OCPI (rank) Informal sector Unsolved High-level MoneyOCPI and rank (rank) homicides corruption laundering(rank) (rank) (rank)Oceania/Australia 33 (1) 1 1 1 2 1West and Central Europe 35 (2) 2 2 2 4 3North America 44 (3) 4 4 4 6 4East and Southeast Asia 45 (4) 5 3 7 3 6Central America 50 (5) 4 13 3 8 13Near and Middle East 50 (6) 7 6 11 1 2World 54South Asia 54 (7) 14 8 8 7 11North Africa 55 (8) 6 5 6 5East Africa 55 (9) 12 9 11 9Southern Africa 56 (10) 10 12 5 12 10South America 58 (11) 11 14 10 13 12Southeast Europe 58 (12) 15 10 12 9 14West and Central Africa 60 (13) 13 11 15 5 8East Europe 70 (14) 17 16 14 14 16Central Asia and Transcaucasian 70 (15) 16 13 15Caribbean 70 (16) 9 15 16 15Figure 3.16Organized CrimePerception IndexSource: van Dijk and vanVollenhoven, 2006, p6completely understood because of the dynamic and inherentlysecretive nature of these groups and transactions.Other aspects of organized crime – arms and human trafficking– are discussed below.■ Arms traffickingEasy access to illegal weapons is a major risk factor drivingcrime and violence rates. Like drug trafficking, arms traffickingis often the focus of organized crime. Access is facilitatedby the trafficking of small arms and light weapons, characterizedas the weapons of choice of youth gangs, organizedcriminal 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 ofstockpiles left behind after wars and civil unrest. 83 They arealso relatively cheap, lethal, portable, concealable anddurable, and their use can be disguised under many legalpretences. Probably most important from a control standpointis that they are in high demand as the means andmotivations for personal security, especially in the absenceof effective policing or public protection. For these reasons,small arms are widely trafficked and they are prime facilitatorsof common crime and violence around the globe.Research suggests that, overall, weapons tend to movefrom unregulated jurisdictions to regulated ones. 84 This hasbecome more of an issue as trade of all goods increasinglyglobalizes. The illegal trade in small arms is much harder todocument than the legal trade, but it is thought to be worthabout US$1 billion a year. 85 According to the Small ArmsSurvey, the latter sales account for an estimated 60 to 90 percent of the 100,000 combat deaths that occur each year andthousands more that take place outside of war zones. It isestimated that there are more than 640 million small arms