ECPR SGOC NEWSLETTER

Standing Group Organised Crime

November 2010, Volume 9, Issue 2 ENewsletter

E d it o r ia l N o t e
The editors of the SGOC Newsletter are very happy to present you with this years second issue of the Newsletter. This year has been quite an active one for the Standing Group, which has been involved in research projects, publications, funding proposals, the organization of conferences and workshops and the coordination of the Standing Groups second and third Summer Schools. The second 2010 ECPR SGOC summer school took place at the University of Leuven, in Belgium, and managed to gather a large group of advanced students and researchers interested in the topic of organised crime. Although the Standing Group has come to diversify its activities, the summer school is still among one of its most important and visible contributions. The programme included a large number of wellknown scholars in this field, as well as practitioners stemming from key institutions dealing with organised crime. Although the topic of the summer school was particularly centered on the enlargement of the European Union and its effects at the level of the fight against organised crime, it also covered a wide range of more general subjects. This event will be followed by a third summer school in July 2011. We are now very happy to announce that the third ECPR SGOC summer school on organised crime is going to take place in OHRID, MACEDONIA (316 July 2011). This summer school is entitled Organised Crime and New Security Threats. You will be able to find more information on the summer school in the following pages. This issue has tried not only to present you with original research pieces but also to report on ongoing conferences, update you on future events and suggest relevant literature. The first article, by Fabiana di Lourenzo on The global network of Nigerian criminal groups, explores the cultural background, traditions and ethnicity elements present in Nigerian organised crime. By looking at how these factors guarantee the stability of these groups internal structures, the author proposes that, contrary to widespread belief, Nigerian groups are actually very well organised. The second piece was written by Panos Kostakos, Apostolis Maspero, Georgios A. Antonopoulos and George Grammatikakis on the topic of Women in organised crime in Greece. This article is not meant to be a conclusive article but a report on an ongoing collaborative project between academics and practicioners. Its aim was not only to develop a theme which has been largely ignored in organised crime literature, but also to contribute firsthand experience with law enforcement bureaucracies. The third article, written by Leonid Lantsman and Jana Arsovska, is on Transnational West African organised crime. In addition to presenting trafficking trends in West Africa, the authors argue that it is important to gain an understanding of culture-specific behaviors in a global context since such behaviors open up debates about whether culture can provide a defensible explanation for criminal behavior in a specific legal context. The authors study the extent to which voodoo rituals, black magic and other juju practices are used by West African organised crime groups, particularly human trafficking networks, to gain power, profits or control over their victims. This research will allow the authors to examine further the prevalence and strength of ritual practices among the West African diaspora in the New York area. In the fourth article, Bill Tupman raises a number of concerns about the role of Information Technology in criminal investigation and the dangers of assuming it is infallible. By arguing that technology is not neutral, the author proposes that further attention be paid both to the nature of the data produced through technology and to the underlying approach present in the development of information technology. Finally, Nina Chao provides an overview of some recent activities of the United Nations in the field of human trafficking. She wrote about about a recent press conference that was held in New York to inaugurate the United Nations Fund to aid human trafficking victims; The United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons. We hope that you enjoy the above-mentioned pieces, as well as the small practical information on books and conferences.

VOLUME 9, ISSUE 2
In This Issue
Editorial Note Page 1 October and November 2010 News Page 2- 3 The global network of Nigerian criminal groups: organised or disorganised crime? Page 2-4 Standing Group activities and projects Page 4 Women in Organized Crime in Greece: A Methodological Note and Some Preliminary Data Page 5- 7 Transnational West African Organized Crime Page 8-9 Computer algorithms: software in the dock Page 10- 12 Recent Books and Reports on Organised crime Page 12 Stepping up for Victims of Trafficking in Persons Page 13 Conference Report Page 14 Conferences and relevant Events on organised crime Page 15 Third ECPR SGOC Summer School on Organized Crime Page 16 Catania Workshop Page 17 Global Crimes latest Issue Page 18 Reykjavik Panel announcement Page 19 Mail the editors at: Helena.carrapico@eui.eu Visit the SGOC blog at: http://www.sgoc.blogspot.com The SGOC is a standing group of the European Consortium for Political Research. http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECPR

The Editors Helena Carrapio Jana Arsovska & Bill Tupman

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SGOC BLOG NEWS

October and November 2010

The Global Network of Nigerian Criminal Groups: Organised or Disorganised Crime?

Nigerian criminal groups origins and activities Contrary to common belief, Nigerian criminal groups are well organised and highly structured. Their power relies on the ability to bind together different groups spread throughout the world (Monzini, 2005) which run a number of activities such as fraud, illegal export of currency, falsification of documents, and theft, in addition to the traditional trafficking in drugs and women (PIAM, 2007). As Questura of Naples and Turin explained, the behavioural code constitutes the core strength of Nigerian global network and is determined by the common ethnic origins. Nigerian groups run their own activities in different countries and coordinate them thanks to the existing strong bound which results in a common behavioural code. On these grounds the Questura of Naples and Turin, which have pride in many years of experience working together with UNICRI supports and the Nigerian importance law of enforcement,

Drug gang leaders held following Garda "super raid" Article from the Irish Times gives some detail on biggest organised crime groups in Ireland. Devon company director jailed over 1 million in car 380,000 of the money linked to the 53 million Securitas robbery in Kent, February 2006. The benefits of popping into the pub and picking up the local paper! I wouldnt have spotted this otherwise. Al qaida and the fragmented global islamic militancy Thoughtful piece, reminding us once again that "terrorism" is not a Weberian bureaucratic pyramid. Nuclear Bomb Material found for sale on Georgian Black market 18 grams offered by two Armenians with promise of more to follow. Sting operation netted it. The world will sleep uneasily tonight... Italy: Police Strike at Crime Families The police seized assets worth $561 million and arrested 47 people, including Sicilian businessmen, politicians and public officials, in an overnight anti-Mafia raid on Wednesday in Sicily and in several other regions. Russia's heroin problem and ongoing battles over Afghan poppy fields Washington Post piece. Depressing statistic: Russia has 2 million addicts who consume 21 of the world supply. Even more depressing statistic: in 2001 when Taliban in control, production minute. After coalition invaded, in 2002 production rose to 3,000 tons By 2008, at 8,000 tons and was supposed to have dipped last year to 7,000 tons. Mostly grown in Kandahar and Helmand...It seems a long time since John Reid told us that the UK was sending troops to Helmand to eradicate opium poppy production.

Fabiana di Lorenzo fabiana.f.di_lorenzo@kcl.ac.uk Kings College, London

We often associate words such as mafia and organised crime with Italy, South American and East Europe, typically neglecting Africa. Few people are aware of the incredible power that criminal organisations are acquiring at an accelerated rate in Africa, where new and old criminal organisations collide to influence directly or indirectly the faith of the continent. When considering a continent ravaged by war and famine, we must not forget another plague: organised crime. The African continent currently hosts some of the strongest criminal groups which are every day gaining important positions on a global level and play key roles in the trafficking of people and goods (diamond, ivory, coltan, woods, etc..) Among all the affected countries Nigeria

ethnicity, family and common rules. These elements contribute to feelings of belonging on multiple levels. Firstly, a sense of internal cohesion within the single group is generated while at the macro level, Nigerians in different parts of the globe consider themselves connected. For instance as law enforcement officials in Naples report, a Nigerian group, settled in Thailand is able to organise a shipment of drugs to Italy getting in touch with members of the same community or ethnicity settled in Italy. They have not necessarily carried out business together before but they reciprocally trust each other. Nigerian criminal groups take pride in their ability to combine modernity (in terms of new technology and exploitation of the global market) and traditional elements (through recourse to magic, traditional and sectarian beliefs), exercising a strong power on the members of the in-groups and members of the community. The origins of the groups dispersed all over the world can be found back home in the University environment and the cultism phenomenon. Anti cult sign

deserves a close attention. With a population of more than 140 million it is one of the most highly populous countries in Africa and the one that after the decolonisation was expected to have the biggest economic development. Instead, the entire country has seen a complex and challenging history. Today Nigeria is among those developing countries where globalisation has helped criminal groups to cross the border and set up their activities abroad. Understanding Nigerian criminal groups, their nature, structure and way of operating is crucial in order to determine the mechanisms to fight it. In 2002, UNODC argued that Nigerians are only a conglomeration of criminal groups often labelled by the media as being organised crime for ease of reference. This is a simplistic definition and the case must be addressed with vigour considering the national and international roles of such groups. Are Nigerian criminal groups organised or disorganised? Answering to this question is no less important than exploring their illegal activities, since finding a final definition would make understanding in which category Nigerian criminal groups fall, their internal rules and ways of operating, easier.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3573588.stm

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The origin of the cults violence can be found in the Universities and dates back to mid-80s with the Carew's confraternity and the birth of the Buccaneers (Wellington, 2007 and The Midweek Telegraph). But it is with the birth of the Neo-Black Movement of Africa, also known under as the Black Axe, that voodoo rituals began to form part of the identity of cult groups (Wellington, 2007) and politicians started resorting to them as means to achieve their ends. According to the Think-Tank IRIN (2005), by mid-80s firearms came into the picture as cults started being co-opted by intelligence and security services and used as foils to the left-wing student unions and teachers who were still opponents of the military rule. In the 90s the number of confraternities multiplied with the birth of new groups such as the Eiye, the Vikings, the Amazons and Jezebels, that bought with them more rivalries and violence. When a new member is recruited, he/she is inculcated with respect for spiritual fortification and trained in common tactics of physical combat, such as hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms. Violent cult groups acquire their weapons from several sources, including wealthy patrons and politicians and chiefs who hire them for specific purposes. Other sources include friendly governments at the state and local levels, captured weapons from rival groups, attacks on security forces and exchanging stolen oil for arms (Wellington, 2007:4; CEHRD, Ogale-Nchia, 2006). Their involvement in illegal activities provides these cults with the necessary economic resources that enable them to become economically independent, ultimately contributing to their survival. The power of Nigerian criminal groups is the result of a particular omerta, which is not only a simple fear or connivance that prevents a fight against organised crime, but it encapsulates elements of the cultural background, traditions and ethnicity which guarantee stability of the internal structure and protection from being denounced by both victims and community in respect for common origins. Ciconte (2005) in describing similarities between Ndragheta and Nigerian criminal groups indicates voodoo, initiation rites and ethnicity, which most of the time coincide with the family, as guarantees of trust and solidarity within the group and by members of the Nigerian community. These elements enforce
The case of Castel Volturno

the omerta, the secrecy and efficacy of the criminal activities. Again an Italian example will be useful. The investigations carried out in Turin, which is considered to be the capital of this cult in Italy, showed Mafioso and Masonic aspects: voodoo, tribal and initiation rites (such as being marked with a hot iron) which guarantee internal cohesion and complete respect of the boss. Often new members are forced to pay a fee and to respect the bosss wishes. The recruitment of new members involves different forms of torture and the use of great quantities of drugs and alcohol, for instance it is reported that the new member must demonstrate the ability to overcome any kind of physical pain in order to join the criminal group (Ritimi, 2005). As it has been demonstrated, the Nigerian criminal groups internal rules are strictly influenced by their culture of origins, which determines a structure closed and inaccessible to foreigners, ultimately making police investigation more difficult (PIAM et al, 2007). Are Nigerian criminal groups organised or

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disorganised? A problematic definition. According to Prina (2003), who focused his attention on the structure of the Nigerian groups involved in trafficking in people, these are disorganized and fragmented; therefore they benefit from this disorganization. Recent investigations have shown new developments and the necessity of looking at Nigerian criminal groups from a different and broader perspective. If illegal activities are crossanalysed together it is possible to identify a strong network of local nodes, which are in contact with each other and involved in a number of illicit activities. The study undertaken by PIAM (2007) identified in Italy as well as in Nigeria a pyramidal structure within each node, where the top is occupied by national leaders; the control board is in the hands of either groups of elderly people or directors. At the lower level, there are the so-called butchers whose duty is to carry out punishments or to help the maman to control her women. Therefore the maman and pimps represent only a branch of a complex system.

Civilians Falling Victim to Mexico Drug War The changes in the discourse of the Mexican Government relating to the victims of drug war violence. Travelling to Canada risks four years in jail there must be many other countries where identifying your unit and the place where it is deployed are matters of national security. Woman arrested in Yemen Italian take on the devices discovered en route for cargo planes to US. Russians join US troops in Afghanistan drugs raid A Long March begins with the first step. Now lets cooperate with the Chinese too...

During a recent interview, law enforcement officials of Questura of Turin agreed that trafficking in women is an activity run mainly by women (the socalled maman), but they invite to broaden up the analytical perspective. The example offered was Castel Volturno, where the Casalesi family exercise a strong control on the territory and Nigerian have set the Italian headquarter. After the initial difficult relationships in the 80s, the Casalesi decided to use the Nigerian presence for personal gain (Becucci, 2006). According to recent investigations, the Camorra charges Nigerians to run a prostitution ring on a territory that still remains under the indigenous groups control. Becucci (2006) estimated the rent each woman is forced to pay amount to 5000! per month. This is the price for a Nigerian prostitute who wants to work on the Casalesis territory. However, as Questura of Naples added, the control of the territory, where Nigerians set their different illicit activities, is usually run by men who occupy a higher position in rank respect to the maman, who can only be in charge of controlling their women. Trafficking in people run by maman is only one of the activities run by Nigerian criminal groups and not one of the most remunerative, nevertheless it enables them to obtain the capital necessary to invest in a more remunerative sector, for example drugs trafficking.
1

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Conclusions Following the Nigerian criminal groups recent development in the illicit activities and structure, it is inaccurate to claim that Nigerian criminal groups are disorganised, since they present some of the characteristics that are typical of Mafia groups. Its impenetrability is similar to Italian Ndragheta, whose structure is based on kinship and family (Ciconte, 2005). The elements of secrecy, kinship, magic and their characteristics which make them similar to a sect system, whose strength is the common background and origins, its strong relationships with the upper classes of society (often these groups are protected by the military as already described) and their recourse to corruption as an instrument of persuasion (often used with members of embassies, consulates and law enforcement) are all elements which characterise mafia groups such as Triads, Camorra, Mafia and Ndragheta and many others. Furthermore, those who see these groups as interconnected clusters (UNODC 2002), should consider the previously identified network, which strengthens the relationship, thanks to the sense of kinship and the common language and despite the distance present between different nodes. The example of Castel Volturno described by the officials of Questura of Naples, shows what risks can be encountered in exploring Nigerian criminal activities focusing the attention only on one of their activities. If a broader approach is used, those groups which at a first glance look like single bands operating as loners, can be perceived as branches of a large and loose network of international criminal activity, where different Nigerian groups specialised in different activities and present in different countries represent nodal points with a rigid internal order. Its fluid structure (not strictly hierarchical at the international level, but absolutely so within each node) and vast presence may be indicative of their strength and explain their ability to rapidly adapt into new markets. Considering all these elements, Nigerian

References Becucci Stefano, (2006), Criminalit multietnica. I mercati illegali in Italia, Roma, Editori La Terza Ciconte E. (2008), Ndragheta, Soveria Mannelli, Rubettino Gambetta D (1993), The Sicilian mafia. The business of private protection, Harvard University Press, London

Standing Group activities and projects

This last year has been a particularly productive one for the Standing Group on Organised Crime, both in terms of activities developed and planned projects. Here are some of the activities in which the SGOC was involved:

GNOSIS (2005), N2, The Nigerian mafia between voodoo and the computer, source: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista3.nsf/ServNavi g/16 - SGOC workshop on A European approach to Organized Crime: the IRIS, Nigeria: Gangs sowing terror on campus, Development and Impact of EU source: policies against Organized Crime in http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId 2010, Anual Political Studies =79118 Association conference, University of Edinburgh, March 2010. Lyman and Potter (2004), Organised crime, Upper saddler River, NJ: Prentice Hall - Second Summer School of the Standing The Midweek Telegraph, August 10-16, 2005 Group on Organized Crime, on the topic of Understanding and fighting Mills C. Wright (1956), The power of elite, new organised crime in the new Europe, York: Oxford University Press University of Ghent, 28 June- 9 July 2010. Monzini P (2005), Sex trafficking. Prostitution, crime and exploitation, Rome, Globe issue - Successful funding application to the European Commission for 3 workshops Wellington B (2007), Nigeria's Cults and their on The EU policy on organised crime Role in the Niger Delta Insurgency, source between Stockholm and Lisbon, to http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/articl take place at the University of Catania. e.php?articleid=2373530 Wright A. (2006), Organised crime, William publishing, source: http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/country_fact _sheets/cty_fs_NGA.html Ogale-Nchia Eleme (2006), Rivers state, Nigeria, April 2006 Prina, F., (2003), Trafficking of Nigerian women to Italy, Department of social science, University of Turin Regione Piemonte e Piam (2007), Progetto interregionale Vie di uscita, Piemonte - Workshop on The new JHA policy process in the Lisbon Treaties, University of Catania, 29th- 30st of October 2010. Planned activities: - Workshop on Legitimacy and Protection of Human Rights in the JHA, University of Catania, 10th and 11th of December 2010. - Funding application for a new series of Summer Schools.

Ritimi A. (2005), Violence in the Citadel:The - Workshop on Fighting cros- border Menace of secret cukts in the Nigerian crime in the EU: theory, practice and Universities, Obafemi Awolowo University, llelfe, Nigeria, in Nordic Journal of African Studies, political implications, University of 14 (1): 79-98 Catania, March 2011. SISDE, source: http://www.aisi.gov.it - Application for the ECPR Research Sessions 2011 on the topic of The EU UNODC (2002), Results of a pilot survey of forty policy on organised crime between selected organized criminal groups in sixteen Stockholm and Lisbon. countries, Global programme against transnational organised crime - Organization of a Conference, 2012. SGOC General

criminal groups can without any doubt be defined using the terms Nigerian Mafia or Nigerian organised crime. Rather than merely an academic debate on definition, identifying the correct name means having understood Nigerian criminal groups inner nature which will therefore facilitate finding the way to fight their illegal activities.

- Application for the ECPR 2012 Joint Sessions

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Women in Organized Crime in Greece: A Methodological Note and Some Preliminary Data
Panos A. Kostakos University of Bath, UK p.kostakos@bath.ac.uk Apostolis Maspero Hellenic Police, Greece apomaspero@yahoo.gr

subordinate wives who do not interfere with their husbands criminal projects or decisions. In contrast, Camorra women have always been much more involved and aware of their mens activities. They are not passive onlookers, but are the active backbone of this criminal organization, and have become increasingly involved, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes because of a specific criminal intent (pp. 9-10). A critical variable that can explain this difference can be found, according to Allum (2007), in the internal structure of the criminal organization that gives women the space and the opportunity to

Georgios A. Antonopoulos University of Teeside, UK g.Antonopoulos@tees.ac.uk

become more active. George Grammatikakis Hellenic Police, Greece giorgosgramma@yahoo.gr As the Camorra has changed from a traditional criminal model of behavior into an efficient, modern, moneymaking machine with a exible structure, so too has womens behavior changed, shifting from traditional roles of support and loyalty to new active roles that include executive decision-making (Allum, 2007: 10) Research conducted on the role and/or involvement of female actors in organised crime draws empirical data and examples mainly from the well-known (traditional or new) mafia-type criminal organizations, and occasionally cases of women involved in international criminal networks such as Nigerian madams actively involved in trafficking of women (see Siegel, 2007) as well as case studies of drug entrepreneurs (see Bovenkerk, 1995). This research is conducted in countries that present a big volume of research on organised crime. But what about contexts that are largely neglected by the criminological enterprise? In order to further examine the role of endo-criminal variables, we have selected a number of criminal groups that engage in the following three empirical manifestations of organized crime: illegal protection/extortion, drug smuggling and human trafficking.1 Those three manifestations of organized crime were selected because of the differences they have in terms of their operational and task environments. The country we have selected to gather our empirical data from is Greece. There are various reasons that have informed this selection. First, research on organised crime in Greece in general is in an embryonic stage. Second, a number of recent cases that emerged in the public light involved women as critical actors in OC activities. Yet, information about women in organised crime in academic sources is limited only to a reference on the involvement of women in cigarette smuggling (Antonopoulos, 2008). Third, there is an ongoing effort for the Greek police to harmonize its practices in the fight against organised crime with the international standards. Therefore, in our view, it is a good timing to raise awareness on the significance of feminist perspectives that could lead to better judgment. We now move to discuss the practical aspects involved in establishing this project. Dealing with the red tape Motivated by theoretical (and empirical) considerations, as well as by recent political and legal developments, our primary objective has been to conduct an in-depth study on the involvement of women in organized crime in Greece. We approached the Hellenic police because as far as we know, it is the only law enforcement agency in the country with a capacity and specialism in the analysis of criminal networks. The police force in Greece is also the principal agency that gathers data and contributes to the European Organised Crime Threat

Overview The aim of this article is to provide a summary of an ongoing collaborative project - involving scholars and practitioners - focusing on the role of female actors in organised crime groups in Greece. Three dimensions of this research effort will be presented here. First, the theoretical considerations and rationale informing the project will be outlined. Second, we present an overview of the practical issues involved in establishing this collaboration in the first place. In pareported by scholars who have in the past organised similar research projects with law enforcement and other authorities. We hope that the behind-the-scenes details in this article will be helpful to scholars; especially those who do not have a firsthand experience with law enforcement bureaucracies. Third, we provide some preliminary empirical data collected. The final draft of the study will be presented in a panel organized by the Standing Group on Organised Crime in a forthcoming conference in Morocco this coming June. Theoretical background The role of women in organised crime, and especially its more lucrative dimensions, has been the subject of relatively little study despite the fact that the involvement of women in (entrepreneurial and predatory) manifestations of organised crime has been a historical phenomenon (see Mahan, 1998). Organised crime is broadly seen as an hedonistic and male dominated milieu that attracts and nurtures professional criminals willing to use violence, intimidation and muscle fexing. Popular perceptions, imagination and judgment have been centered around the idea that women in these environments play only the passive roles of mother and wife, substantially hidden from the criminal acts perpetrated by their men (Siebert, 2007: 19). The risk associated with this stereotype is that theory will largely explain the criminal behavior of men. So how can we study the role of women in illegal structures? Recent feminist perspectives have shown that the structure of criminal organizations seems to be a critical factor in explaining the role of women in (or absence from) illegal activities. It has been argued that we can better understand the female roles by looking at the endo-criminal factors of a given criminal organization (Fiandaca, 2007: 2). This approach, for instance, can help us explain the gender ratio gap by contrasting two different criminal organizations with different organizational cultures. Felia Allum (2007) elaborates on that point: Sicilian Maa women are perceived as loyal and

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Assessment (OCTA). Based on information available from open sources as well as from interviews with law enforcement officers, it was established that the Crime Analysis Department of the Public Security Division in the Security and Order Branch of the Hellenic Police Headquarters was staffed by research- oriented officers who have extensive investigative experience as data analysts in organised crime cases. Those practitioners have been trained and worked in international and European police organizations and are responsible in drafting the Annual Greek Reports on Organised Crime. Subsequent to this selection process that helped us explicitly identify potential partners, an official request for the contribution of two senior analysts for the completion of a project on the role of women in organized crime in Greece was made (on December 21, 2009) to the Office of the Minister of Citizen Protection by the two academics of the project (Kostakos and Antonopoulos). Within a month from the submission of the request, we were notified by the Crime Analysis Department that the newly appointed Chief of the Hellenic Police had authorized our request (Republic of Greece, Ministry of Citizen Protection, Hellenic Police Headquarters, Security and Order Branch, Public Security Division, Crime Analysis Department protocol number: 9009/12/40-a). A critical factor in drafting the official request letter was the selection of language and argumentation. The official request was organized in four parts. First we provided a detail synopsis of who is who emphasizing our links with scholarly networks, such as the Standing Group on Organised Crime, involved in OC-related research. Second, we provided an outline of the rationale of the study and the problems we seek to address. Third, a summary of national and international frameworks establishing the legal and normative framework for collaborative projects between scholars and practitioners was outlined. Such legal/normative provisions include among other: i) the Constitution of Greece, Article 16(1) and Law 2472/1997 on the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data (as amended by other Laws in 2000s), articles 6 & 7 and the ii) United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, Article 28(1). Finally, a list of expected outcomes and tasks was presented including the presentation of preliminary and final results to a specialized audience. Funding would be provided by the Hellenic police in order to cover travel and accommodation arrangements for the police analysts. The Database We have used various sources in order to compile an anonymized database from both primary and secondary empirical data on individuals charged with OC-related offences. Primary sources such as official documents produced by police forces and the courts were considered. Although pre-trial police reports provide some information on the criminal group, a major limitation of the particular source is that it presents only a partial picture of the issue. Given that some of our primary empirical evidence is not based on final court judgments (such research requires a greater effort and leverage, time and resources) we acknowledge that a significant part of our data will reflect the inevitable investigative and analytical biases of the police force. Additionally, a number of unstructured and unrecorded interviews with criminal informants were conducted by the analysts in order to obtain their perceptions on the role of women in criminal groups. Finally, newspaper articles were also used in some cases in order for our primary sources to be complimented. Journalistic investigations may expose aspects of

a story not captured by police and/or court files for various reasons (lack of time, human error, police tactic or corruption). The cases of criminal groups that were finally entered into the database satisfied two criteria: 1) Groups with at least one female offender; 2) Groups participating in one of the following offences: i) illegal protection/extortion, ii) drug smuggling and iii) human trafficking. For practical reasons our investigation focused on groups charged from 2002 to 2009. Data deemed irrelevant to our research questions were not added to the database. The clean data were sorted into three levels of analysis: activities, interpersonal/network attributes, and individual attributes. As is shown in table 1, the first level of analysis records data relevant to the activities and the task environment of a given group. In the second level we enter data regarding the interpersonal relations, connectivity and other network related characteristics. Finally, the third level of analysis focuses on personal attributes of the offenders. Overview of the preliminary data Overall, the database currently contains information on 58 different criminal groups and a total of 508 offenders. In terms of the sex distribution our preliminary analysis shows that 405 members are men and 103 are women. In table 2 we provide a more detail break down of the basic descriptive data from all three organized criminal activities. The number and visibility of women involved in the cases can be considered significant and warrants further analysis. Coming back to our theoretical considerations, we are confident that the method and analytical framework developed to assess a significant amount of police data will prove to be fruitful. Although here we have only presented a small amount of descriptive data, further investigation and comparison between the different organized criminal activities will probably expose interesting patterns about the involvement of women in organised crime. Additionally, further analysis of the data will allow us to tease out different categories of the role of women within the groups. Bibliography Allum, F. (2007) Doing it for Themselves or Standing in for Their Men? Women in the Neapolitan Camorra (1950-2003), in: Giovanni Fiandaca (ed.) Women and the mafia: female roles in organized crime structures, New York: Springer. Antonopoulos, G.A. (2008) The Cigarette Smuggling Business in Greece, in: Petrus van Duyne, Jackie Harvey, Almir Maljevic, Klaus von Lampe and Miroslav Scheinost (eds) European Crime at Crossroads: Extended and Extending Criminal Europe, Nijmegen: Wolf Legal Publishers Bovenkerk, F. (1995) La Bella Bettien, Amsterdam: Meulenhoff. Fiandaca, G. (2007) Introduction, in: Giovanni Fiandaca (ed) Women and the mafia: female roles in organized crime structures, New York: Springer. Kostakos, A. P. & Antonopoulos, G.A. (2010) The Good, the Bad and the Charlie The Business of Cocaine Smuggling in Greece, Global Crime, 11(1): 34-57. Mahan, S. (1998) Womens Place in Organized Crime. Paper presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences annual meeting, Albuquerke, New Mexico. Siebert, R. (2007) Mafia Women: The Affirmation of a Female Pseudo-Subject: The Case of the Ndrangheta in: Giovanni Fiandaca (ed) Women and the mafia: female roles in organized crime structures, New York: Springer. Siegel, D. (2007) Nigeriaanse Madams in de Mensenhandel in Nederland, Justitile Verkenning, 33(7): 39-49.

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Table 1. The structure of the database Level of Analysis (I) Activities (of group) Seeking variables 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Primary illegal activity Secondary illegal activity Involvement in legal activities (required to facilitate illegal activity) Geographical scope (local, regional, national, transnational) Time required to plan, execute and completed the illegal activity Technological skills Transportation skills Use of violence and/or intimidation (or any other characteristics necessary to achieve the goals of the group) Size of group Division of labour and structure of network Association between co-offenders Size of the clientele Scope of the clientele (doing business with friends, friends of friends relatives, random) Links to upper-world networks (politicians, police, lawyers, media) What was the weakness of the network and why were they arrested? Sex Age Ethnicity Functional role in the group Employment (legal) Motives for involvement (family, husband, love, money, addiction, survival etc.)

(II) Inter-personal/network attributes

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

(III) Individual attributes

Table 2. Scores per organised criminal activity Activity Drugs smuggling Total number of groups examined Total number of participants Number of male participants Number of female participants Human trafficking Total number of groups examined Total number of participants Number of male participants Number of female participants Protection/extortion Total number of groups examined Total number of participants Number of male participants Number of female participants 6 56 47 9 27 330 270 60 25 122 88 34 Scores

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Transnational West African Organized Crime

Leonid Lantsman Doctoral Student John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York leonid.lantsman@gmail.com

West African Human Trafficking Networks While the two forms of organized criminal activities highlighted above are notable in themselves, increasingly West African organized criminal groups are also turning to human trafficking as a steady source of profits (UNODOC 2007). Ethnographic research in Europe has noted that the conditions that West African girls are forced into the sex trade, particularly in the Netherlands and Italy, are far from developed under equitable agreements between traffickers and the women themselves (van Dijk 2001; Cole 2006). In addition, the methods of control employed by trafficking networks have served to confound Western law enforcement organizations in ways similar to how the law enforcement struggle against the Sicilian and Neapolitan mafia was and is undermined by cultural codes of silence (Catanzaro 1985). While research specifically on transnational West African human trafficking networks is sparse, ethnographic work by van Dijk (2001) and Cole (2007), in addition to surveys of law enforcements in West Africa (Arsovska and Lantsman 2010) show that their networks follow a similar pattern to other transnational West African organized of crime networks. The organization these trafficking networks

view, around each pole is a complex network of individuals and activities that overlap and phase into the activities of other nodes not necessarily clear groups but a complex and Also, meshing their they of different the term individuals activities. entrepreneurial argue

entrepreneur is useful in understanding the nature of organized crime in Africa since African criminal operators often describe themselves as businessmen and indeed this is what some of them genuinely consider themselves to be (Shaw and Wannenburg 2005).

Jana Arsovska Assistant Professor Sociology Department, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Introduction In the past decade increasingly complex organized criminal organizations emanating from the West African region have begun to interest scholars and law enforcement officials (Mazzitelli 2007; UNODOC 2007). A recent UNODOC (2007) report highlighted the growing trends in drug trafficking and fraud that are becoming endemic to the region and which have in the past decade begun to filter into Europe, North America, in addition to other parts of Africa (Shaw 2002). In the case of drug trafficking the West African region is generally used as a transit point for Latin American and, increasingly, Asian narcotics (UNODOC 2007); while fraud in the form of the well known 419 scam (named after the section of the Nigerian Penal Code that prohibits such practices) and other internet based schemes are locally developed types of organized criminal activity and generally targeted towards unwitting North Americans and Europeans (Glickman 2005; Tive 2005). In fact, illicit trafficking and fraud have become the hallmark of Nigerian criminal groups in particular. Importantly, the origins of criminal networks from West Africa directly parallel the economic crisis of the Nigerian state in the 1980s. In contrast, prior to this period the country was marked by its relative wealth, which allowed Nigerians to travel, study, and acquire interests abroad. Therefore, the extent of economic decline in Nigeria, the size of its population (the most populous state on the continent 1 in 5 sub-Saharans Africans is a Nigerian), and the degree to which oil wealth ensured an educated elite, well travelled and interconnected to the rest of the world, are some crime. among many contributing factors, leading to the rise in West African organized

Trafficking Trajectories Previous research focused on Italy and the Netherlands where substantial immigrants group of West African have settled, in the case of the Netherlands mainly Ghanaian and Nigerian immigrants while in Italy substantial numbers of Nigerians. Van Dijk (2001) examined the position of Nigerian prostitutes in the Netherlands and how the agents of the Dutch state (i.e. law enforcement officials, social workers and etc.) had to adapt their techniques to understand and encompass the voodoo methods of control employed by Nigerian trafficking networks to silence trafficked women. Cole (2007) on the other hand examines the plight of trafficked Nigerian women in Palermo and the efforts of antitrafficking organizations to ease the women, who many times vehemently disregard their efforts, out of the sex trade and into legal occupations. Both scholars perform a deep analysis of the trafficked Nigerian women and note the use of voodoo methods of control that are employed by trafficking organizations. In the cases examined in the literature young women or their families are generally approached by a trusted individual in West Africa who offers the families and girls the

follows a distinct pattern that is in some ways a parallel development of traditional West African merchant networks in the diaspora and a function of the opportunities available to the West African diaspora in their new home countries (Stoller 2002). The networks are generally loose rather than tight knit and are more often than not formed under alliances that enable traffickers to use certain individuals for particular tasks and pay them according to the utility of their role (Mazzitelli 2007; Arsovska and Lantsman 2010). Networks generally begin as project based associations and if the profits prove to be lucrative they may develop into longer functioning operations. Moreover, Shaw and Wannenburg (2005)

promise of work abroad and may be forthright about the kind of sex work the girls will perform1. While this kind of employment was at one time considered to be an undesirable form of labor, the difficult economic and social conditions in Benin City have made many families reconsider

suggested that organized crime in Africa should be understood like a large net pitched like a circus tent. The net is held up in various places by poles with the net stretched in between. The poles constitute the nodes of the network, key pillars of the criminal establishment. In their

[8]

their opinion, especially when women send home remittances that can support the entire direct and extended family. As one woman voices in Cole (2007) [N]o one in Nigeria asks questions when you are doing well. 2 After agreeing to sojourn abroad the woman is generally taken to a traditional priest who performs an oath taking ceremony to ensure that she will be faithful to the network that she signs a contract with and that she will repay her debt obligations under the threat of supernatural retribution. This has proven to be a powerful deterrent for trafficked women to turn their debtors to the authorities and strong impediment to prosecuting human trafficking networks (Chonoko 2010). After the women are trafficked to the host country they are put under the care of a madame, who herself may be a former sex worker who has repaid the debt and established her own node in the network (Cole 2007). The women then work for the madame and are kept under tight control through enforcers that the madames call when the women become difficult to handle as well as through the use of juju rituals designed to frighten the women into submission (Cole 2007). Ethnographic work

Future Directions Following on this research Arsovska and Lantsman (2010) examined the knowledge of law enforcement officials in West Africa to the prevalence of voodoo and traditional ritual practices in their own work combating organized crime in West Africa. Many officials expressed a deep understanding of the role ritual practices play in their own cultures and how they in fact hinder their own work, some of them proffering descriptions of events that would generally be considered unbelievable by most Western law enforcement agents. Following on this preliminary research, Jana Arsovska in conjunction with the author are examining the prevalence and strength of ritual practices in the West African diaspora in the United States, focusing on the New York area. This project will hopefully be developed into a more in-depth study of West African human trafficking networks in the Tri-state area and will examine the role of ritual practices and trust in West African human trafficking networks in New York City. Works Cited Arsovska, J. & Lantsman, L. (2010). Magic touch: West African Trafficking Networks, Janes Intelligence Review, 22(18), 38-41 Catanzaro, R (1985). Enforcers, entrepreneurs, and survivors: How the mafia has adapted to change., The British Journal of Sociology 36(1), 34-55 Chonoko, I. (2010, March 1). Juju hinder our work says British police, Daily Trust. Retrieved from [http://allafrica.com/stories/201003010233.htm l] Cole, J. (2006). Reducing the Damage: Dilemmas of Anti-Trafficking Efforts among Nigerian Prostitutes in Palermo, Anthropologica 48(2), 217-228 Ellis, S. & ter Harr, G (2004). Worlds of power:

religious thought and political practice in Africa. New York: Oxford University Press. Glickman, H. (2005). The Nigerian "419" advance fee scams: prank or peril?, Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des tudes Africaines, 39(3), 460-488 Kalu, O. (2007). The Andrew Syndrome: Models in Understanding the Nigerian Diaspora In Olupona J. K. & Gemignani, R (eds.) African Immigrant Religions in America. New York University Press: New York. 73-78 Sengupta, S. (2004, November 5). Oldest profession is still one of the oldest lures for young Nigerian women. New York Times. Shaw, M. (2002). West African criminal networks in South and Southern Africa, African Affairs 101(404) , 291-316 Shaw, M. & Wannenburg, G. (2005). Organized Crime in Africa. In Rechel, P. Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime & Justice (pp.367-387). London: Sage Publication. Stoller, P. (2002). Money has no smell: the Africanization of New York City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ter Haar, G (2009. How God became African. Philadelpia: University of Pennsylvania Press. van Dijk, R. (2001). Voodoo on the doorstep: young Nigerian prostitutes and magic policing in the Netherlands, Africa 7, 558-586 van Dijk, R. (2001). Voodoo on the doorstep: young Nigerian prostitutes and magic policing in the Netherlands, Africa 7, 558-586 Most of the networks examined in the literature are Nigerian and generally based out of Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. (van Dijk 2001; Okonofua et al. 2004; Cole 2007 2 This kind of attitude may explain the research by Okonofua et al. (2004) which notes that in a survey of 1500 women in Benin City one third were approached with offers of work abroad and nearly half of the young girls expressed positive opinions of sex work abroad. In fact, when the first Benin City sex workers returned from Italy with largesse gained from their illicit employment they were considered pillars of the community enough that popular songs were written of their exploits (Sengupta 2004).
1

has shown that the women do distinguish between so-called good and bad voodoo, in that rituals performed by traditional priests are assumed to be neutral and are generally performed to enforce obligations and are considered to be a good form of ritual practice, while those rituals carried out by the trafficking networks are considered to be a bad form of voodoo which is nonetheless powerful enough to silence trafficked women (Cole 2007).

BOX 1: Ritual Practices

The strength of ritual practices and the widespread belief in the parallel presence of the spiritual world in many African societies creates an existential disconnect for most Westerners including law enforcement agents in Europe and North America (Ellis and ter Haar 2004). Thus when transplanted trafficked women express a deep and abiding fear of the consequences of breaking the traditional oaths and rituals which they perform and which they are at times forced to partake in, the disconnect between law enforcement and trafficked women can cause frictions which contribute to continued misunderstanding by the police and further mistrust amongst the trafficked women (van Dijk 2001; Cole 2007).

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Computer Algorithms: Software in the Dock

police officers have identified individuals as being engaged in criminal activity, but are not certain what particular crime they are engaged in. They therefore look for their contacts and about to be committed, or being their movements in order to build up a picture of

threatening emergency or where foreign agents are at work, subverting the foundations of the state, on which the concept of the Security Services is based. The problem of introducing the security services to the organised crime area, which occurred after the collapse of Communism, when security services were searching for a justification for their very existence, is that a database that may have been accessible to only a few jealously protective officials and for a very specific purpose suddenly became accessible to more individuals and for broader purposes. A way of working was transferred without serious rethinking from agencies with very different cultures and traditions to the civilian police. "National security" is used as a catchphrase to repel any demands for There legal is or political a

Bill Tupman University Fellow, Exeter Research Fellow, Anglia Ruskin University watupman@gmail.com

crime

committed. To be identified as involved in the pursuit of organised crime is, consequently, to lose any right to privacy. To deprive an individual of rights is often a decision taken by a police officer in the UK. In other European countries it is more often a decision taken by a prosecutor or judge. Being placed on a police

2010 is the year that computer algorithms started to take the blame for strange behaviour on the Stock market. The flash crash of May 2010 has been blamed on them. Bloggers on health care have also started to question the role of algorithms in taking decisions to reject health insurance claims. Algorithms are also active in deciding whether an individual can be deemed to be part of organised crime and thus deprived of various civil rights. Is it time to put computer software in the dock? The application of Information technology to criminal investigation has a chequered history. It was introduced as much as a deliberate attempt to avoid due process as it was to assist the criminal investigator. The Bundeskriminalamt [BKA] first introduced IT to criminal investigation in Europe during the Baader-Meinhoff period, while the FBI introduced IT-based approaches in the US during the 70s/80s as part of their response to "organised organisations crime". In both were cases deemed the to concerned

database involves taking away a right and therefore must be in some way supervised by the judicial authority. A domain manager is in effect taking judicial decisions and should have judicial training. "Organised crime" as a concept is in effect creating a system by of different classes If an individual of is citizenship default..

accountability.

consequently

danger that data protection legislation will exclude police records on the basis of a spurious extension of this concept from the special requirements of investigating the activities of agents of other states to all forms of crime. Indeed, an English judge recently declared there was no difference between the National Interest and the interests of the government of the day! The application of counter-insurgency/

"suspected of involvement in serious crime", then surveillance both human and electronic can be mounted and data gathered and held indefinitely. Opening a file on an individual as part of an investigation and enabling networked access to that file involves changing the status of a citizen. Keeping records of crime committed where the individual has been found guilty by a court is legitimate. To open a database for an investigation and keep information on interview and other matters is legitimate. What is not clear is the legal basis for making information about matters and individuals under investigation available to other investigators working on other cases. Networking makes this possible and, indeed, relatively easy. Investigating "organised crime" increasingly involves comparison and juxtaposition of apparently unrelated activity. Without hands-on judicial supervision of these processes, there is a danger of returning to security services style information gathering in the name of a new form of "national security" The police have always gathered and held

counter-terrorism policy to organised crime raises arguments about proportionality and the justification of an invasion of liberty/privacy in the name of the greater good. It used to be argued that terrorists did less damage to property and people than organised criminals, but more resources were devoted to countering terrorism on the grounds that the state/political system itself was threatened by "terrorism". Now the corporations and the market are allegedly threatened by organised crime. To what extent does this reversal of previous priorities constitute a recognition of a need to defend a different status quo; that of the market share of the existing cartels? "Terrorists" were often part of the process of bringing permanent "out" groups to the political negotiating table. Organised crime can be portrayed as just business that operates in areas where existing companies are making excessive profits [counterfeit products] or where religious or other prejudice prevents services being provided [drugs and sex]. Or where taxes and duties are excessive [smuggling]. Are the resources being devoted and the invasions of liberty proportionate to the problem? Or is policy against organised

posed a threat to "national security" and possessed an extra-territorial or "international" dimension. Consequently, IT has from the start involved the application of techniques that suspended normal civil rights and precluded any necessity for discussing any possible requirement for a framework of legal or political accountability. Communicating abolishing the across need for borders the through

information on citizens, so what, if anything is new about the application of information technology to these areas? Primarily it is that data is gathered before an offence is committed [proactive investigation]. No specific crime has occurred. Police officers suspect that a crime will be committed, that certain individuals will be involved, therefore in order to prevent it they must collect data about others who may become involved and this data may then permanently remain on record, just in case there may be association in the future. In the case of terrorism, the justification for such an approach was that the lives of individual citizens were at stake. It involved extending the principle that normal human rights can be suspended in a life-

cyberspace was then seen as a way of commission rogatoire, a complex procedure by which one police service asked another for information that could be used as evidence in court proceedings. Since cyberspace had no geographical borders, the argument ran that data transmitted through it was not subject to the same laws as evidence crossing a physical and therefore jurisdictional boundary. Again, the intention was to avoid due process Where organised crime is concerned, be it drug trafficking, trade in people, terrorism, fraud or simply specialised theft, it is often the case that

[10]

crime

cover

for

the

introduction

of

organised crime is causing damage to the fabric of society still does not justify noble cause corruption.

introduced ostensibly against "criminals" being used against political dissidents. There are two interrelated problems involved

technological totalitarianism, or a French-style "surveillance society", in the sense of a return to pre-revolutionary and even nineteenth century French policing [Chapman The Police State].Taking the principle of proportionality first: are databases really both appropriate and proportionate as a response to a perceived problem of cross-border crime? Are they even an appropriate and proportionate response to the problem of domestic crime. If the police argument is that we need to balance security of the person against privacy, then they have to convince us of the nature of the threat. Poveda argued some years ago [T. Poveda Understanding the FBI] that the average

Information technology enables a situation where more information can be and is held on file. It also makes it easier for more individuals to access that information. Criminal records, police activity records, employment records, bank records, credit records, taxation records, health records, educational records, licensing of vehicles and firearms, telephone usage; all these are recorded and can on occasion be subject to police investigation. The coming of Closed Circuit Television Cameras [CCTV] to commercial premises, city centre shopping streets, motorways and traffic blackspots meant that videos could be searched by individual police officers, after a crime was committed, for evidence as to who was present at the time. Digitalisation of the visual image now means that information can be stored and held on disc and later searched for e.g. by car number plate. Traffic cameras were not put in place to facilitate surveillance of potential or actual criminals, but they are now used in this role as well as their intended one. New analytical software makes it easier to search databases. Networking makes it easier to search other organisations' files and add information of the investigator's choice to the investigative database. Privacy is under increasing threat, information technology use and procedures are not supervised, and the nature of citizenship is itself being changed. The economic constraints of manpower costs that precluded surveillance and recording of every action of every citizen are no longer an obstacle. The argument frequently used to defend these changes is the old chestnut "if you're innocent, then you have

in

presenting

information

technology

generated evidence in court. Firstly there is the danger of "scientism": the idea that data gathered within a framework social is science/criminological

somehow "truth" and provides a scientific statement of validity for an accusation against a suspect. Statistical manipulation can appear to a jury to have turned what is no more than stereotyping into a statement of fact. The technique of "profiling", for example, is presented as objective and popularised by television programmes such as Cracker but it frequently consists of no more than the contextualising of prejudice into pseudo-science. This becomes even more so where the manipulation of data is done by a computer, somehow a machine is more "objective" than a human being. A computer is even more "expert" and "objective" than an expert witness such as a forensic scientist. Criminological data and even forensic data increasingly involves discussion of orders of probability which are presented as certainty. DNA profiling/fingerprinting is a case in point. It actually consists of statistical analysis of a variety of indicators. Numbers such as one in ten million are presented to a jury and their sheer size precludes proper

person is at risk from the opportunist thief, and most of the people who act as opportunist thieves do not remain criminals. They tend to be juveniles, they tend to offend between the ages of 18 and 24, and they tend not to be the people who appear on databases. Databases tend to deal with people whose main crimes are against commercial enterprises and against governments and the commission itself. The amount of money spent on new technology makes the police more and more the servant of government and the commercial interest, and less and less the servant of the people as a whole. argued The database solution can thus be to be both inappropriate and

disproportionate. The procedures that were transferred from antiterrorism to policies against "organised crime", avoid defining the phenomenon, just as was the case with "terrorism". Thus even if there were a legal framework for the suspension of the rights of the suspect and anyone associated with her, there are no clearly defined circumstances in which the procedures could be applied. There are two requirements for a legal

discussion. There is also doubt as to whether judges really understand the nature of the evidence. In any given offence there is a statistical probability that is measurable that any one individual may have committed a crime. The range of statistical probability is from zero to 100%. That someone was in a particular place, increases the probability from zero to X%. That they possessed a particular car, may further increase the probability. The danger is that a random set of factors can be turned into proof even where there is no witness evidence that a person was or was not present at the crime. The principle of corroboration becomes important here. Expert witnesses are going to battle in court over the interpretation of statistical probability. In the UK at least, the Maguire case led to a rethink of the way expert witness evidence is presented. This involved natural science data. If there are problems with the hard sciences, then there will be even more with the presentation of social science data as evidence in court and its exposure to the adversarial process [cross-examination].

nothing to fear". The apparently endless series of miscarriages of justice in recent years have proved that this is simply not true. It is the case that once the police have decided that someone is guilty of an offence, there are all sorts of things they can do that will make that person guilty. We have seen instances of obtaining confessions by false means, or even by force. We have seen this approach justified by the production of false forensic evidence, or at least as a result of the misinterpretation of forensic evidence by scientists who should have had higher standards.[Guildford 4, Birmingham 6]. One of the dangers of

framework for police investigatory networks and police rights of access to networked databases maintained by other organisations. Firstly, the human rights of the innocent must be protected. Secondly, there must be clear procedures to be followed by investigators to avoid the danger that major criminals will escape conviction on technicalities. The courts will have to police the balance between effective investigation and due process. If new technologies require a different human rights framework from existing technologies, then the principles involved in that framework must be spelt out and justified. Electronic invasion of privacy raises exactly the same legal issues as physical invasion of privacy. The existence of information technology transforms the nature of private and public space, making it possible for personal privacy to be invaded without physical entry into someone's home. The fact that

networking databases is that they can become a way of giving the stereotype a false scientific basis, and therefore make it appear to be evidence rather than a supposition. Another cause for concern in this context is the long tradition of laws and investigatory systems

[11]

These become even more so when the expert witness that has run the analysis is a software programme analysing a computerised networked database. The rights of the defence to interrogate such an expert witness become problematic. Courts may eventually find it reasonable to create a legal requirement that an analyst of the defence's choice re-run the analytical software on a recreation of the networked database. Otherwise it may be necessary that the database once created be recorded for disclosure to the defence if an investigation leads to trial. If database analysis is submissible as

Varese, F. (Ed.) (2010) Organised Crime, Oxon: Routledge.

RECENT

As research on organized crime continues to flourish, this new title in the Routledges Critical Concepts in Criminology series, addresses the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of interdisciplinary scholarly literature. Calderoni, F. (2010) Organised Crime Legislation in the European Union- Harmonization and Approximation of criminal law, National Legislations and the EU framework Decision on the Fight against Organised crime, London: Springer.

The book provides a critical examination of the European policies and legal instruments to promote the harmonization and approximation of criminal law in this field (including the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime). Cayli, B. (2010) ''Social Networks of the Italian Mafia; The Strong and Weak Parts'' CEU Political Science Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 382-413.!

BOOKS

evidence, either by prosecution or defence, what sort of evidence is it? Should it be treated as circumstantial evidence requiring corroboration, or should it be treated as a DNA-style statement of probability? Should the fact that the application of algorithms led to the investigation targeting a particular individual be disclosed and what rights do the defence have in relation to it? Do they have the right to see the asset trails of the investigator? Or if it is an Ana Capa style analysis, does the prosecution have the responsibility to present the evidence of the links between transactions on-screen in court, or must each individual transaction be proved? Algorithms are not part of a black box. They are increasingly being recognised as capable of going rogue as the combined effects of different scientism assumptions to informed lend a spurious The prejudice.

In this paper, it is found that the Mafia well-built network system does not solely comprise of strong parts but that the weak parts also exist, albeit, that they have not yet played a defective role in the resolution of the Mafia. Therefore, this paper suggests that the illustration of both the strong and weak parts of these networks can have prominent and assisting role in the combat against the Mafia phenomenon in the future, either by strengthening the weak parts or !by weakening the strong parts of its networks.! Benedek, W. ,C. Daase, V. Dimitrijevi" & P. van Duyne (2010) Transnational Terrorism, Organized Crime and Peace-Building- Human Security in the Western Balkans: Palgrave Macmillan.

AND

This fascinating volume investigates the role of transnational terrorism and criminal organizations in the peace-building process in the Western Balkans. It maps organized crime and terrorism in the region and highlights the close links that have developed between organized crime and state institutions during and after the wars.

REPORTS

UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) (2010) Smuggling of Migrants- a global review and annotated bibliography of recent publications, Vienna.

Available at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/humantrafficking/Marian/Smuggling_of_Migrants_A_Global_Review.pdf Allum, F. & S. Gilmour (Ed.) (2011) Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organised Crime, Oxon: Routledge.

computer needs to be subject to cross examination, both as to the nature of data held and the way that analytical software has been applied. Otherwise, the innocent may well turn out to have loads to fear, while the criminals expert lawyers will find new technicalities to exploit.

ON

The handbook seeks to provide the definitive overview of transnational organized crime, including contributions from leading international scholars as well as emerging researchers. The work starts by examining the origins, concepts, contagion and evolution of TOC and then moves on to discuss the impact, governance and reactions of governments and their agencies, before looking to the future of TOC, and how the State will seek to respond. Xenakis, S. (2011) The Politics of Organised crime: Oxon, Routledge.

Repeated calls have been made for greater international collaboration, better data collection, fairer international systems of economic exchange, more accurate and relevant threat assessments, and more humane anti-organized crime policies. This book argues that such outlooks miss the essential political functions of the international agenda against organized crime. Cockayne, J. & A. Lupel (2011) Peace Operations and Organised crime: enemies or allies, Oxon: Routledge.

ORGANISED

CRIM E

This volume examines the relationship between international peace operations and organised crime which in some cases are clear enemies, and in others, tacit allies.

[12]

CONFERENCE REPORT

Stepping up for Victims of Trafficking in Persons

The international community has a responsibility and determination as a whole not only to establish peace and order, but a pledge to defend and advocate against issues that can be detrimental to all countries. Before this epidemic of modern day slavery spreads, we must engage in protecting victims from the injustices of human trafficking. Human trafficking destroys the lives of women and children all over the world, stated by Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). UNODC is a cardinal player in the fight against human trafficking; sex trafficking, forced labor, and trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal. Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar a year business; competing with drug and arms trafficking, it comes in as third in the race of profits. Unlike drug and arms trafficking, there are real victims; voiceless, paralyzed, and powerless. Drugs and arms cannot articulate their experiences, but human trafficking victims can; and they are the best allies that we have against these perpetrators that continue to promote this heinous crime on helpless individuals. It is crucial to recruit advocators, combatants, and characters of compassion with the effort of abolishing this crisis. The United Nations has stepped up to the cause for victims of trafficking. On Thursday November 4th, a press conference was held in New York to inaugurate the United Nations Fund to aid human trafficking victims; The United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons. It attributes to the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, adopted by the General Assembly in July 2010. The Fund will provide humanitarian, legal and financial aid to victims, under the management of UNODC and with the advice from a Board of Trustees (UN, 2010). The group of panelists included: General Assembly President Joseph Deiss, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning author-journalist Nicholas Kristof, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov, Chief of the UNODC New York Office- Simone Monasebian, and Hollywood celebrities Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. The conference commenced with a brief introduction of the immoral aspects of human trafficking. In a brief comment, Moore distinguishes the difference between slavery and trafficking; which she consistently addresses as modern day slavery. The word trafficking lacks to capture the emotions, struggles, and pain of which these individuals have endured. The word slavery depicts what victims have experienced; forced against their will and held hostage. Kutcher is playing a role in promoting a trafficking free internet by creating a partnership with Google, Twitter, Microsoft, and Facebook. Runaways tend to update their social networks, and law enforcement can track them down before they are trafficked. 76% of trafficking occurs online, where purchases of women and young children are conducted. Kutcher also stated that 62 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, todays modern slavery has more victims than at any previous era of human history. Something has to be done, not just by creating laws that govern injustices, but enforce them. The concept of human trafficking is illegal in each country and should be handled as such. The greatest agreement was declaring that victims are the best assets and allies against these perpetrators; they hold the key to combat the international world of trafficking. The conference exposed me to how passionate and powerful it can be when people come together for a great cause. Many countries declared their commitment to assist with the Fund and to continue to strive to abolish trafficking. As Yury Fedotov said in regards of how to win the battle, he quoted the three-Ps: Prevention, Prosecuting, and Protection. There is a long road ahead that not only consist of aiding victims, but saving those that are still forced in the trafficking world, and preventing future victims. By Nina Chao, Graduate Student, Master of Arts in International Crime and Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (nina.chao@jjay.cuny.edu)

THIRD ECPR SGOC SUMMER SCHOOL ORGANIZED CRIME AND NEW SECURITY THREATS OHRID, MACEDONIA, 3-16 JULY 2011 DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION: MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2011
DUE TO LIMITED AVAILABILITY, INTERESTED STUDENTS ARE HIGHLY ENCOURAGED TO REGISTER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE Contact: Prof. Jana Arsovska, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA at jarsovska@jjay.cuny.edu and Ms. Lile Zileska at issocmacedonia@hotmail.com

Financially supported by the European Commission

[13]

CONFERENCE REPORT
Organized Crime in the Schengen Area and the EU in Light of the Imminent Enlargement: Assessing Security Threats and Existing Countermeasures Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, 14.10.2010 Conference Report Organized crime phenomena undoubtedly belong to fields that are very difficult to study. Due to the lack of accessible information, scholars basically cannot avoid having to cope with a number of problems whilst conducting their research. Besides confidential interviews with key informants the only way to overcome such difficulties seems to be the bringing together of academics, practitioners and the broad public, in order to enable the discussion of these issues openly. Such effort was the exact aim of a conference called Organized Crime in the Schengen Area and the EU in Light of the Imminent Enlargement: Assessing Security Threats and Existing Countermeasures, held by The Center for Security and Strategic Studies co-operating with The Department of Political Science and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung foundation. The opening speech of the conference was given by the head of The Department of Political Science Stanislav Balk, the representative of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Anna Krnkov and the head of the Center for Security and Strategic Studies Tom! "md. As the title of the conference suggests, it focused mainly on the threat posed by organized crime to the Schengen Area and its future enlargement. The First Panel Organized crime in the Schengen area and the EU: Current Situation and Outlook The first speacker of the conference, Tihomir Bezlov from the Center for the Study of Democracy (Sofia, Bulgaria) dealt with the impact of the accession states on organized crime in the Schengen area. Mr Bezlovs objective was to introduce and assess the case study of Bulgaria. The initial part of the contribution was dedicated to the history of Bulgarian organized crime and according to Bezlov it shared many features with Russian organized crime patterns. Regarding to the Czech organized crime in the context of enlargement of the Schengen area it was Tomas "md from the Center for Security and Strategic Studies, (Brno, Czech Republic) who introduced the preliminary inference of the research he is conducting with his doctoral student Petr Kupka. Basically, he focused on the classification of the Czech organized crime and to what extent it has become transnationalized. Methods of #mds and Kupkas analysis mostly include interviewing the key informants from the police, media and judicial sector. The next contribution presented by Blanka Hancilov, from the Apreco Consulting Group, was dedicated to the relation between migration and organized crime in the European perspective. She expressed it is hard to define such phenomenon as organized crime as there is even no consensus at international level. Consequently, this casts difficulties on how trafficking of human beings is perceived. To conclude, Mrs Hancilov emphasized it is important to understand the market and motives underlying these activities. To enrich the debate on organized crime with practical experience, Alan Cunningham from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency took the floor. Firstly, he introduced his agency and its duties. Subsequently, he identified 367 so called serious organized crime groups using a map to present their allocation within Scotland. Most serious cases in this sense according to Mr Cunningham are labour exploitation, prostitution, ATM fraud and child exploitation. To cope with these problems efficiently Mr Cunningham presented some steps aiming at better understanding criminal techniques and at improving co-operation in law enforcement. The last contribution to the first panel of the conference was held by Abdulla Istamulov (Moscow School of Political Science, Russia). His speech was devoted to the export of the Chechen organized crime to EU countries. According to Mr Istamulov, between 1990 and 2004 the Chechen crime in Europe ranged from 1% to 20%. Istamulov suggested Europeans should better understand motives of Chechen immigration and also warned that organizations like Interpol are ineffective because governments have ties to the crime. The Second Panel Assessing the Countermeasures: Institutional Framework in the Fight against Organized Crime The opening speech of the second panel focused on the securitization of organized crime at the EU level. Firstly, Helena Carrapico, from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna), presented how organized crime is studied, underlyning the importance of critical approaches. She provided the audience with an explanation of what securitization theory is, who developed it and how the securitization process works. Regarding the securitization of organized crime at the EU level Ms. Carrapico demonstrated there has been a transversal trend to securitize organize organised crime as well as enlarging that securitization to new areas of crime. Daniela Irrera (University of Catania, Italy) presented the evolution of the EU legal framework regarding anti-organised crime initiatives, in light of the Lisbon treaty. From an economic-orientated community, the EU evolved into a political organization. However, internal security remained very much in the sphere of competence of Member States. After the Maastricht treaty, which introduced the essential three pillars of European Union, there was a shift of direction. There were attempts to introduce change through specialized programmes such as the Tampere, The Hague and the Stockholm programme. The Lisbon Treaty has taken a considerable step towards closer cooperation. The speech by Benjamin Farrand (European University Institute, Florence, Italy) concentrated on the process of securitization of copyright at the EU level. He shortly presented the history of copyright. An increasing tendency to securitize the question of copyright has been taking place since the early 1980s. Farrand went on to present the key differences between counterfeiting and piracy. The main difference is that whereas counterfeit products can lead to real harm to people who use them, piracy threatens the finances of involved companies. Consequently in the field of intellectual property, the securitizing actors have begun to systematically link counterfeiting and piracy in such a way as to build an inseparable notion of the two activities. The problems of cross policy evidence gathering and risks associated with it were at the centre of Dennis Clarks speech (Centre for Police Research and Education, University of Coventry, UK). He stressed the problematic character of evidence gathering from other EU countries. Clark sees it mainly as a political problem, because the possibility of some kind of FBI-like organization at EU level is nearly impossible. He mentioned a number of practical as well as moral issues, connected with this problem, such as electronic surveillance and obtaining information from informants. Michael Weiss (European Arrest Warrant Department of SIRENE, Czech Republic) made the last contribution to the conference by introducing the Schenghen Information System and the role of the Czech SIRENE. He highlighted the radical shift introduced by the creation of the Schenghen area of free movement. It enabled criminals to travel more freely and provide faster for their business. The SIS enables policemen to share their information and search for people, stolen documents and notes in a faster way. The Conference Organised Crime in the Schengen Area and the EU in Light of the Imminent Enlargement: Assessing Security Threats and Existing Countermeasures can be regarded as very successful. There was a relaxed atmosphere of discussion and the audience seemed to be very interested in all presentations. The event created an inspiring opportunity for discussion and knowledge exchange about organised crime for the wider public, as well as for experts, who had a round table at the end of the conference. The organization of the event went without any significant problem and we can only hope, that events such as this one will also be possible in future. Authors: Michal Mdl, Zdenek Vodk

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CONFERENCES
American Society of Criminology Crime and Social Institutions November 17, 2010 San Francisco, USA www.asc41.com/ Ecrimes Summit 2010 Trends, Threats and Strategies ! November 18 - 21, 2010 !Montreal, Canada !www.ncfta.ca/summit.php Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute Conference Conflict, Intervention and the Politics of Knowledge November 25- 26, 2010 Manchester, UK www.hcri.ac.uk/events/documents/CIPK_FI NAL_programme.pdf Scottish Center for crime and Justice Research Event Gangs and Global Exchange December 2- 3, 2010 Galsgow, UK www.sccjr.ac.uk/news/Gangs-and-GlobalExchange-Event/564 Political Studies Association Graduate Conference December 6- 7, 2010 Oxford, UK www.psa.ac.uk/Content.aspx?ParentID=4 Modernizing Policing Reform and Social Responsibility December 8, 2010! London, United Kingdom www.publicserviceevents.co.uk/event/overv iew.asp?ID=160 The Critical Governance Conference 2010 Challenging Orthodoxies December 13- 14, 2010 Warwick, UK http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/proje cts/orthodoxies/

RELEVANT
Policing and !European Studies miniconference February 25, 2011 Dundee, UK http://policingandeuropeanstudies.abertay.ac. uk/1011-conference/2011-conferenceprogramme/ Academy of criminal Justice Sciences- 2011 Annual Meeting March 1 - 5, 2011! Toronto, Canada ! Website: www.acjs.org 12th Biannual International Conference of the European Union Studies Association March 3- 5, 2011 Boston, USA www.eustudies.org/conference.php?cid=6

IPSA- ECPR Joint Conference Whatever happened to North- South? February 16- 19, 2011 So Paulo, Brazil www.ipsa.org/events/conference/saopaulo201 1

AND

ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops April, 12- 17, 2011 St. Gallen, Switzerland www.ecprnet.eu/joint_sessions/st_gallen/defa ult.asp 61st Political Studies Association Annual Conference Transforming Politics: new Synergies April 19- 21, 2011 London, UK www.psa.ac.uk/2011/ Fences, Walls and Borders: State Insecurity? May 2011 Montreal, Canada www.asc41.com/cawcfp%20attachments/fencesCFP.pdf ECPR Summer School on Organised Crime July 3- 16, 2011 Ohrid, Macedonia of

EVENTS
16th World Congress of the International Society for Criminology Global Socio- Economic Crisis and Crime Control Policies: Regional and National Comparison August 5- 9, 2011 Kobe, Japan http://wcon2011.com/ Third Global International Studies Conference World crisis. Revolution or Evolution in International Community? August 17- 20, 2011 Porto, Portugal http://wisc2011.up.pt/ 6th ECPR General Conference August 25- 27, 2011 Reykjavik, Iceland www.ecprnet.eu/conferences/general_confere nce/Reykjavik/default.asp 11th Annual meeting of the European Society of Criminology Rethinking Crime and Punishment in Europe September 21- 24, 2011 Vilnious, Lithuania www.eurocrim2011.com/

ORGANISED
Workshop on Organised Crime Legitimacy and Protection of Human Rights in the JHA December 10- 11, 2010 Catania, Italy For more information please contact: Bill Tupman (watupman@gmail.com) Francesca Longo (lonfran@unict.it) www.fscpo.unict.it/europa/JM_OC/index.ht m Moral Panics in the Contemporary World December 10- 12, 2010 Brunel, UK www.moral-panic.co.uk/ International Studies Association Convention 2011Global Governance: political Authority in Transition March 16- 19, 2011 Montreal, Canada www.isanet.org/montreal2011/ Crime Mapping Research Conference Crime, Social Ills and Place- based Solutions April 13- 15, 2011 Miami, USA www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/events/maps/welcome. htm

Workshop on organised Crime Fighting Cross- border Crime in the EU: theory, practice and political implications March 2011 Catania, Italy For more information please contact: Felia Allum (mlsfsa@bath.ac.uk) Panos Kostakos (p.kostakos@bath.ac.uk) www.fscpo.unict.it/europa/JM_OC/index.htm

ON

CRIME

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Registration fees: o 420 EUR: Postgraduate students (ECPR member institutions) o 500 EUR: Postgraduate students and advanced researchers (non-ECPR member institutions) o 600 EUR: Practitioners (non-ECPR member institutions) Registration fees include: o Accommodation for thirteen days in Ohrid, Macedonia (breakfast and transportation to/from airport included); o Two weeks of lectures by renowned academics and international experts on organized crime and terrorism; o Guest lectures and round table discussions; o Course material (reader, consumables, ect.); o Two coffee breaks per working day; o One social event (opening reception or closing dinner); o Tutorials; o Local excursion; o Possible publication in international peer-reviewed journal; o Certificate for completed summer school; ACCOMMODATION Accommodation fee for participants:* Two weeks of accommodation in large double and triple rooms with en-suite bathroom and breakfast. The new hotel Diplomat is located in the center of Ohrid, only 50 meters from the Lake Ohrid. You can find more information at http://www.hoteldiplomatohrid.com/?lg=en *Participants are not obliged to be accommodated in the facilities provided by the organizers, but then they will have to cover their own expenses. With the support of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), its Standing Group on Organised Crime (SGOC) and the European Commission, University of ss. Cyril and Methodius will be hosting a two-week intensive summer school on organized crime in Ohrid, Macedonia from July 3 to July 16, 2011. Part of a series of three, the Macedonian summer school is entitled Organized Crime and New Security Threats. During this two-week period, around 25 selected students and practitioners will have the unique opportunity to enrich their knowledge, discuss and critically analyse new security threats and challenges with international experts. An international team of renowned scholars and high-ranking practitioners will give cutting-edge lectures. Among many others, some confirmed speakers include: ! Prof. Dr. Michael Levi, Cardiff University, UK ! Dr. Tamara Makarenko, Founding Partner, West Sands Advisory LLP, UK ! Prof. Dr. Vlado Kambovski, University Ss Cyril & Methodius, Macedonia ! Prof. Dr. Federico Varese, Oxford University, UK ! Prof. Dr. Jana Arsovska, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA ! Prof. Dina Siegel, Utrecht University, The Netherlands ! Alexis A. Aronowitz, University College, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands ! Prof. Dr. Bill Tupman, Exeter University, UK ! Dr. Felia Allum, University of Bath, UK ! Dott. Michele Del Prete, Public Prosecutor, Naples, Italy ! Prof. Dr. Henk van de Bunt, Erasmus University, The Netherlands ! Panos Kostakos, Bath University, UK ! Prof. Dr. Goce Naumovski, University Ss Cyril & Methodius, Macedonia ! Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Gruevska-Drakulevski, Ss Cyril & Methodius, Macedonia ! Prof. Dr. Francesca Longo, Catania University, Italy ! Prof. Letizia Paoli, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (tbc) ! Dr. Philip Gounev, Center for the Study of Democracy, Sofia, Bulgaria (tbc) ! Mr. Nikos Zarkadoulas, Analyst, Europol DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION: MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2011 PARTICIPANTS ARE HIGHLY ENCOURAGED TO REGISTER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. PLEASE SEND COMPLETED REGISTRATION FORM, DETAILED CV, RESEARCH ABSTRACT AND ONE RECOMMENDATION LETTER TO: Ms. Lile Zileska at issocmacedonia@hotmail.com (in CC Jana Arsovska, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, jarsovska@jjay.cuny.edu) More information on the ECPR Organised Crime Summer Schools will be posted on: ECPR website (http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/) and ECPR SGOC website (http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/standinggroups/crime/index.htm)

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GLOBAL CRIME
Editor: Federico Varese , Oxford University, UK Associate Editors: Feila Allum, University of Bath, UK and Carlo Morselli, University of Montreal, Canada Volume 11, 2010, 4 issues per year

Global Crime is a social science journal devoted to the study of crime broadly conceived. Its focus is deliberately broad and multidisciplinary and its first aim is to make the best scholarship on crime available to specialists and non-specialists alike. It endorses no particular orthodoxy and draws on authors from a variety of disciplines, including history, sociology, criminology, economics, political science, anthropology and area studies.

LATEST ISSUE: VOLUME 11, ISSUE 3, 2010

Criminal constitutions Peter T. Leeson; David B. Skarbek Pages 279 297 Correlates of distance to crime in Mexico City Carlos J. Vilalta Pages 298 313 Methods of sex trafficking: findings of a case study in Turkey Oguzhan Omer Demir Pages 314 335 The Phantom Capitalists: a classic Susanne Karstedt Pages 336 339

Phantom fraudsters still: re-viewing long-firm fraud Hazel Croall Pages 340 345 Torrential intellect Neal Shover Pages 346 349 The phantom capitalists ride again: a response to my critics Michael Levi Pages 350 354

GLOBAL CRIME: CALL FOR PAPERS

The editors welcome contributions on any topic relating to crime, including organized criminality, its history, activities, relations with the state, its penetration of the economy and its perception in popular culture. Global Crime also seeks submissions in areas such as corruption, crime and womens studies, illegal migration, terrorism, illicit markets, violence, police studies, and the process of state building. Submissions of articles in the area of methodology are especially welcome. In addition to research articles, the editors encourage submission of review papers, shorter pieces on methodological advances or research findings, and field reports from law enforcement officials.

Submissions should be sent to: GlobalCrime@gmail.com

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CONTRIBUTIONS!

SUGGESTIONS!

For the newsletter we are looking for short original articles (1000-2000 words) on different organised crime-related themes. These contributions can stem from yur ongoing research or from summaries of published material, which you might wish to circulate among the organised crime research community. You may also contribute to the content of the newsletter by sending us any announcement of conferences/ workshops/ literature references you feel could be of interest to this field.

You are also invited to propose things that could improve the quality of the newsletter. Please send your suggestions and articles to: Helena.carrapico@eui.eu

Announcement

The Standing Group on organized crime is structuring a panel on 'Fighting organized crime: EU initiatives in search of a common policy?' for the ECPR Reykjavik conference in August 2011. !Abstract: Throughout the last two decades, the European Union has come to understand organized crime as a growing threat to democracy, to the functioning of markets and to the safety of its citizens. The European Unions discourse presents this phenomenon as taking advantage of globalization in general, of the free circulation and establishment entailed by the Single Market in particular, and of technological advances. The idea that criminal opportunities could be reduced by greater cooperation and coordination among Memberstates has driven the development of new instruments and measures to counter organized crime. Having known an acceleration since the Amsterdam treaty, the latter have evolved through harmonization, approximation and mutual recognition. Nevertheless, the process relating to counter organized crime responses is not an isolated one, as can be witnessed from other policy areas within EU Justice and Home Affairs. Indeed, since the creation of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, there have been considerable efforts to reduce existing differences within this space, so as to provide European citizens with improved quality of life. Some of those efforts have even culminated in the development of common policies, as was the case of migration and asylum. Unlike the latter, however, organized crime initiatives have remained largely intergovernmental and the production of common instruments has more often than not failed to reflect the sense of political urgency associated to this phenomenon. Considering this background, this panel would like to organize a discussion on the development of EU responses to organized crime and their potential institutionalization, which continues to be undertheorized within Political Science. In this sense, the panel would like to welcome the submission of paper abstracts relating to EU initiatives in the different sub-areas of organized crime, processes of transfer of competences to the European level, the role of European and national actors in the field, processes of EU agenda-setting for organized crime initiatives, the external dimension of EU counter- organized crime responses, the application of critical security approaches and prospects for the evolution of this policy area. In this context, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that the call for papers for this panel is now open. Applications may be submitted through the main webpage of the conference: http://www.ecprnet.eu/conferences/general_conference/reykjavik/ The deadline is February, the 1st 2011.!Please find below the details of the panel. if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the co- chair of the panel (Helena Carrapico, Helena.carrapico@eui.eu).

Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information contained in this newsletter, neither the Editors nor the ECPR can accept responsibility for any errors.

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