Between Informality and Organized Crime: Criminalization of Small-Scale Mining in the Peruvian Rainforest

2020 ◽  
pp. 273-298
Author(s):  
Eva Bernet Kempers
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Small Scale

scholarly journals Differentiating criminal networks in the illegal wildlife trade: organized, corporate and disorganized crime

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Wyatt ◽  
Daan van Uhm ◽  
Angus Nurse
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Corporate Crime ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Criminal Networks ◽  
Significant Area ◽  
Wildlife Trafficking ◽  
Organized Crime Groups ◽  
Complicated Nature

AbstractHistorically, the poaching of wildlife was portrayed as a small-scale local activity in which only small numbers of wildlife would be smuggled illegally by collectors or opportunists. Nowadays, this image has changed: criminal networks are believed to be highly involved in wildlife trafficking, which has become a significant area of illicit activity. Even though wildlife trafficking has become accepted as a major area of crime and an important topic and criminologists have examined a variety of illegal wildlife markets, research that specifically focusses on the involvement of different criminal networks and their specific nature is lacking. The concept of a ‘criminal network’ or ‘serious organized crime’ is amorphous – getting used interchangeably and describes all crime that is structured rather than solely reflecting crime that fits within normative definitions of ‘organized’ crime. In reality, criminal networks are diverse. As such, we propose categories of criminal networks that are evidenced in the literature and within our own fieldwork: (1) organized crime groups (2) corporate crime groups and (3) disorganized criminal networks. Whereas there are instances when these groups act alone, this article will (also) discuss the overlap and interaction that occurs between our proposed categories and discuss the complicated nature of the involved criminal networks as well as predictions as to the future of these networks.

The financial management of cocaine trafficking in Italy

2020 ◽  
pp. 147737082098044
Author(s):  
Fiamma Terenghi
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Work Settings ◽  
National Market ◽  
Organized Crime Groups ◽  
And Control ◽  
Depth Interviews

Drawing on a set of empirical data, including in-depth interviews with law enforcers and public prosecutors, the article provides preliminary and detailed information on the structure, social organization of actors and financial management of cocaine trafficking in Italy. The article aims to increase knowledge on the financing mechanisms of organized crime activities and uses the Italian cocaine market as a case example. The findings suggest that the national market is fragmented into an interplay of actors who belong to upper, middle or low segments, depending on the level of the trafficking operations (that is, large, medium, small scale), that join as criminal networks to lower risks and maximize profits. These networks are mainly based on family, kinship or ethnic ties or relations built in other social/work settings. Cocaine trafficking operations are financed by both legal and illegal capital whose boundaries are blurred especially when organized crime groups are involved. Settlement of payments in cocaine trafficking operations reflects the level of trust between buyers and suppliers, with credit arrangements often set in longstanding business relationships or, at the other extreme, at the retail level to test clients’ reliability. The findings also add knowledge to existing research, improve the understanding and representation of organized crime, and contribute to enhance prevention and control activities of law enforcers, prosecutors and policy makers at the European and international level.

scholarly journals La captura del Estado peruano por el narcotráfico: el caso de los “cuello blanco del puerto”

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-191
Author(s):  
Laura Zúñiga Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Attorney General ◽  
Criminal Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Criminal Organizations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Drug Traffickers

Since the 1980s, Peru has been a key player in the international drug trafficking scenario. The second largest producer of cocaine in the world and one of the countries where the main input, the coca leaf, is grown, the port of El Callao, being one of the main ports in Latin America due to its volume, is presumed to be where important cargoes of this drug leave from. The interception of communications in 2018 to investigate the violent organized crime that was taking place in that province revealed a network of judges, prosecutors, congressmen, and businessmen who were collaborating with drug traffickers, favoring them with impunity. This is not the first attempt to capture the Peruvian State for drug trafficking. In the 1990s, the government of Fujimori-Montesinos used drug trafficking money -among others- to bribe the country's highest authorities: military chiefs, the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the media, and businessmen, all of whom were close to the government. The "narco-indulgence" of Alan García's second administration is another symptom of the seriousness of the collaboration of authorities from the highest spheres of the State with the powerful drug traffickers. The "double standard" of the Peruvian Criminal Policy against international drug trafficking is made evident, strong for the weak and weak for the strong: high penalties for small-scale traffickers and impunity for those at the apex of the criminal organizations. In addition, the enormous corrupting capacity of money from drug trafficking (money laundering) to capture members of the powers of the State: Executive, Legislative and Judicial, is of concern. The "case of the white collars of the port" is an empirical example of the intersection of judicial corruption -and its minions- within the Peruvian State and the organized crime criminal organizations. In order to conjure up these alliances, it is necessary to emphasize the punishment against the white-collar criminals of drug trafficking and their collaborators: lawyers, judges, prosecutors, etc., who use their profession as a cover to enrich themselves personally to the detriment of the common good.

scholarly journals Gold Mining and Mercury Pollution in Colombia: Policy Recommendations to Reduce the Tradeoff between Economic Growth and Sustainability

2019 ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Hernando Grueso
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Mercury Pollution ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
External Costs ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Mining Activities ◽  
Gold Production ◽  
Illicit Trafficking

Colombia is the top mercury polluter per capita in the world and the main cause of this pollution is artisanal gold mining. Even though the current government has restricted the use of mercury in mining, the problem goes beyond regulations: eighty-seven percent of the country’s gold production comes from small-scale, informal (unlicensed) mining. Furthermore, market restrictions on mercury for mining activities have created a window of opportunity for organized crime. Illegal armed groups control the illicit trafficking of mercury into the country and its commercialization among small-scale miners.This article discusses different policies aimed at mitigating the externalities of gold mining in Colombia and considers the tradeoff between the economic benefits and external costs to human health. The main conclusion is that heavy regulations on mining activities have not been helpful in reducing mercury pollution, and that alternative policies based on lessons from behavioral economics can be more useful tools for reducing the environmental hazards associated with gold mining.

Reasons to strike first

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Buckner ◽  
Luke Glowacki
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Conflict ◽  
Small Scale

Abstract De Dreu and Gross predict that attackers will have more difficulty winning conflicts than defenders. As their analysis is presumed to capture the dynamics of decentralized conflict, we consider how their framework compares with ethnographic evidence from small-scale societies, as well as chimpanzee patterns of intergroup conflict. In these contexts, attackers have significantly more success in conflict than predicted by De Dreu and Gross's model. We discuss the possible reasons for this disparity.

Exploring Coronal Structures with SOHO

2000 ◽  
Vol 179 ◽  
pp. 403-406
Author(s):  
M. Karovska ◽  
B. Wood ◽  
J. Chen ◽  
J. Cook ◽  
R. Howard
Keyword(s):  
Solar Corona ◽  
Image Enhancement ◽  
Coronal Mass Ejections ◽  
Dynamical Evolution ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Contrast Structures ◽  
Scale Structures ◽  
Small Scale Structures ◽  
Coronal Structures

AbstractWe applied advanced image enhancement techniques to explore in detail the characteristics of the small-scale structures and/or the low contrast structures in several Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) observed by SOHO. We highlight here the results from our studies of the morphology and dynamical evolution of CME structures in the solar corona using two instruments on board SOHO: LASCO and EIT.

Scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy: New tools for biology

1989 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 778-779
Author(s):  
CE Bracker ◽  
P. K. Hansma
Keyword(s):  
Physical Property ◽  
Scanning Probe ◽  
Scanning Tunneling ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Tunneling Microscopy ◽  
Force Microscopy ◽  
New Family ◽  
Small Probe ◽  
Atomic Force ◽  
Transmission Electron

A new family of scanning probe microscopes has emerged that is opening new horizons for investigating the fine structure of matter. The earliest and best known of these instruments is the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). First published in 1982, the STM earned the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics for two of its inventors, G. Binnig and H. Rohrer. They shared the prize with E. Ruska for his work that had led to the development of the transmission electron microscope half a century earlier. It seems appropriate that the award embodied this particular blend of the old and the new because it demonstrated to the world a long overdue respect for the enormous contributions electron microscopy has made to the understanding of matter, and at the same time it signalled the dawn of a new age in microscopy. What we are seeing is a revolution in microscopy and a redefinition of the concept of a microscope.Several kinds of scanning probe microscopes now exist, and the number is increasing. What they share in common is a small probe that is scanned over the surface of a specimen and measures a physical property on a very small scale, at or near the surface. Scanning probes can measure temperature, magnetic fields, tunneling currents, voltage, force, and ion currents, among others.

Superstructures and ordering phenomena in ceramic superconductors

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 710-711
Author(s):  
R. Gronsky
Keyword(s):  
Domain Growth ◽  
Small Displacement ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ceramic Superconductors ◽  
Oxygen Sublattices ◽  
Tweed Contrast ◽  
Diffraction Patterns ◽  
Representative Image ◽  
Static Lattice ◽  
Modulation Wavelength

It is now well established that the phase transformation behavior of YBa2Cu3O6+δ is significantly influenced by matrix strain effects, as evidenced by the formation of accommodation twins, the occurrence of diffuse scattering in diffraction patterns, the appearance of tweed contrast in electron micrographs, and the generation of displacive modulation superstructures, all of which have been successfully modeled via simple Monte Carlo simulations. The model is based upon a static lattice formulation with two types of excitations, one of which is a change in oxygen occupancy, and the other a small displacement of both the copper and oxygen sublattices. Results of these simulations show that a displacive superstructure forms very rapidly in a morphology of finely textured domains, followed by domain growth and a more sharply defined modulation wavelength, ultimately evolving into a strong <110> tweed with 5 nm to 7 nm period. What is new about these findings is the revelation that both the small-scale deformation superstructures and coarser tweed morphologies can result from displacive modulations in ordered YBa2Cu3O6+δ and need not be restricted to domain coarsening of the disordered phase. Figures 1 and 2 show a representative image and diffraction pattern for fully-ordered (δ = 1) YBa2Cu3O6+δ associated with a long-period <110> modulation.

Indirect Assessment of Attitudes with Response-Time-Based Measures

2006 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Degner ◽  
Dirk Wentura ◽  
Klaus Rothermund
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Incremental Validity ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Implicit Measures ◽  
Scale Theory ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Predicting Behavior ◽  
Social Cognitive Theories

Abstract: We review research on response-latency based (“implicit”) measures of attitudes by examining what hopes and intentions researchers have associated with their usage. We identified the hopes of (1) gaining better measures of interindividual differences in attitudes as compared to self-report measures (quality hope); (2) better predicting behavior, or predicting other behaviors, as compared to self-reports (incremental validity hope); (3) linking social-cognitive theories more adequately to empirical research (theory-link hope). We argue that the third hope should be the starting point for using these measures. Any attempt to improve these measures should include the search for a small-scale theory that adequately explains the basic effects found with such a measure. To date, small-scale theories for different measures are not equally well developed.

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