Inter-Agency Relations: Some Hidden Obstacles to Combating Organised Crime?

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Corns
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies

This article critiques the argument that poor relationships between law enforcement agencies inAustralia has actedas a majorbarrier to combating organised crime. Thesignificance oflegislativesecrecy provisions restricting the communication of information between agencies is examined aswellas the role oforganisational ‘subculture’.

scholarly journals Translated Transcripts From Covert Recordings Used for Evidence in Court: Issues of Reliability

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gilbert ◽  
Georgina Heydon
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
National Security ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Complex Environment ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Australian State ◽  
Using Data

Nation states increasingly apply electronic surveillance techniques to combat serious and organised crime after broadening and deepening their national security agendas. Covertly obtained recordings from telephone interception and listening devices of conversations related to suspected criminal activity in Languages Other Than English (LOTE) frequently contain jargon and/or code words. Community translators and interpreters are routinely called upon to transcribe intercepted conversations into English for evidentiary purposes. This paper examines the language capabilities of community translators and interpreters undertaking this work for law enforcement agencies in the Australian state of Victoria. Using data collected during the observation of public court trials, this paper presents a detailed analysis of Vietnamese-to-English translated transcripts submitted as evidence by the Prosecution in drug-related criminal cases. The data analysis reveals that translated transcripts presented for use as evidence in drug-related trials contain frequent and significant errors. However, these discrepancies are difficult to detect in the complex environment of a court trial without the expert skills of an independent discourse analyst fluent in both languages involved. As a result, trials tend to proceed without the reliability of the translated transcript being adequately tested.

scholarly journals Polycephalous ‘ndrangheta: Crimes, behaviours and organisation of the Calabrian mafia in Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Sergi
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Ethnic Solidarity ◽  
Traditional Norms

While attention to the ‘ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, in Australia, has significantly increased in the past two decades, historical records referring to this peculiar manifestation of organised crime in the country date back almost a century. This research is situated in between studies on mafia mobility and studies on the nature of mafia-type organised crime in Italy and in Australia. Relying on archival research, fieldwork and focus groups with law enforcement agencies across most Australian jurisdictions, this paper will essentially argue that there is in Australia an on-going criminal system that is made of ethnically hybrid criminal networks – predominantly made of, but not limited to, Calabrian ethnicity. Ethnic solidarity and traditional norms and values of the ‘ndrangheta, embedded in Calabrian migrant culture, provide the roof to these networks’ behaviours and organisation. This paper will discuss how the resilience of this mafia in Australia is linked to the capacity of ‘ndrangheta clans to maintain different heads – to be polycephalous – all differently and equally important: their organisational head is stable and culturally homogeneous, their (mafia-type) behaviours are constant, flexible and rooted in ethnic solidarity, and their activities are very dynamic, but hybrid in their ethnic composition.

The Emerging Police Complex: Hoogenboom and Australian Inter Agency Cooperation†

1994 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Peter Fairchild
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Data Matching

Explanations of cooperation between law enforcement agencies have primarily relied upon Old Boy Network' arguments. These are insufficient in an era which continues to juggle the conflicting pressures of traditional rights with the intrusive capabilities of Information Technology. This article draws expressly on Bob Hoogenboom's concept of ‘grey policing’ and constructs a structural understanding of Australian agency cooperation. In so doing it analyses the inherent tensions associated with the investigative need for in-depth and timely information, legal protection and agency organisational goals. Recognition is also given to the influence of contemporary political initiatives relating to organised crime and privacy. By highlighting the contemporary moves to increased data-matching it is argued that the trend towards intensive cooperation between police and other agencies has been established. — The trend towards what Hoogenboom refers to as the ‘police complex’. These findings draw attention to the merits and social harms associated with greater agency cooperation.

CRIMINAL ANALYSIS – AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR COMBATTING ORGANISED ECONOMIC CRIME

2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
pp. 290-305
Author(s):  
MARIUSZ WOJTALEWICZ ◽  
BEATA SPEICHERT-ZALEWSKA
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Economic Crime ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Detection Process ◽  
Effi Ciency ◽  
Indispensable Tool ◽  
Criminal Groups ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Economic Nature

Criminal analysis in law enforcement agencies’ work has been around for many years. Initially, it was used by police offi cers in a nonformalised way, its main purpose being to try to understand and systematise crimes. Attempts to draw conclusions from the collected data contributed to greater effectiveness of the detection process. Nowadays, the need for effi ciency in processing the increasing amount of data, and the far-reaching professionalisation of criminal groups have resulted in the fact that criminal analysis is no longer a cure-all for a lack of thinking, but an indispensable tool in the effective fi ght against crime. Considering the above, the article presents the need for the effective use of criminal analysis in combatting mainly organised crime of an economic nature.

Civil forfeiture and Article 6 of the ECHR: due process implications for England & Wales and Ireland

Legal Studies ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin King
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Presumption Of Innocence ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
The Individual

Civil forfeiture is playing an increasingly prominent role in the fight against organised crime. While this tool is attractive to law enforcement agencies, it does give rise to concerns under Art 6 of the ECHR. Such proceedings ought to attract the full range of enhanced procedural protections inherent in the criminal process. Even if the Strasbourg Court decides otherwise, there is an argument that the presumption of innocence ought to apply where civil forfeiture proceedings are instituted against a person subsequent to that person being acquitted in criminal proceedings. The Strasbourg jurisprudence, though, is permeated by confusion and inconsistency, which does not inspire confidence that the rights of the individual will be protected. The final section of this paper, then, considers whether civil forfeiture represents a proportionate response in the fight against organised crime. Ultimately, though, given lack of information on such crime, we cannot provide an answer either way – what can be said, though, is that civil forfeiture has had a significant impact on the rights of the individual.

Part V Procedural and Technological Challenges for the Investigation of TOC—Policing, Technological Aspects, Efficiency, Exchange of Information, Abuse of Power, and Tactics for Conducting Investigations, 23 Policing Transnational Organised Crime—The International Perspective

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madsen Frank G
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
International Law ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Random Data ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Security Services ◽  
The Third

This chapter examines international cooperation in the fight against transnational organised crime (TOC). As main thesis it claims that within the area of law enforcement in general and international law enforcement in particular, an epistemological rupture has changed the way we think about law enforcement. First, the chapter looks at the institutions involved in the fight: it asks ‘who’? The second part asks ‘what’ do law enforcement agencies do to counter the activities of TOC? The third part picks up the claim of an epistemological rupture, identifies this in the ever-increasing use of bulk or random data, and presents some arguments for using such methods and some—based on privacy rights—for not using them. This part deplores the militarization of law enforcement and the blurring of the boundary between law enforcement and the security services, which, it postulates, leads to law enforcement being alienated from the populations it serves.

scholarly journals Transnacionālās organizētās noziedzīgās grupas starptautisko kriminālo tīkla struktūru kontekstā

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Andrejs Vilks
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Damage Prevention

Mūsdienu sabiedrības izteikto globalizācijas procesu ietekmē ir vērojama ne tikai strauja moderno tehnoloģiju attīstība, komunikatīvo sistēmu sfēru paplašināšanās, informācijas kā kapitāla lomas pieaugums, brīva un masveidīga cilvēku pārvietošanās pāri robežām un kontinentiem, bet arī sociāli nelabvēlīgo parādību eskalācija: pieaug terorisma akti un to draudi, ierastas kļūst hibrīdkara elementu izpausmes, nostiprinās transnacionālās organizētās noziedzīgās grupas, kuras veido un efektīvi izmanto starptautiskās kriminālā tīkla struktūras. Transnational organised crime is a major threat to global security and can cause significant social and economic damage. Prevention efforts need to be increased in order to encompass this phenomenon. Transnational organised crime benefits from certain legal loopholes, and law enforcement agencies have a difficulty in reacting quickly to criminal businesses which use very sophisticated methods to conceal their activities and the proceeds of their crimes, and take advantage of globalisation and the use of information and communication technologies. Through pyramidal structures, transnational organised crime has evolved to networks of cells with continuously changing partners and even locations. As organised criminals take advantage of the advances in ICTs and become ever defter in their methods, and with law enforcement authorities increasingly in need of additional resources, administrative synergies emerge as a natural and cost-efficient extension of the powers that counter organised crime.

Lawyers and Police: An Uneasy Marriage in the National Crime Authority's Fight against Organised Crime

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Corns
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Criminological Research ◽  
Research And Policy

A central feature of new law enforcement agencies, established specifically to combat organised crime in Australia, is their use of internal multi-disciplinary investigation teams. This strategy can be seen as mirroring the structure and modus operandi of the targeted criminal activity. One of the first law enforcement agencies in Australia to 'collectivise' legal and policing skills has been the National Crime Authority. However, aspects of the legal and police 'sub-cultures' are structurally and ideologically inconsistent creating the potential for significant intra-organisational conflict. This article explores the nature and significance of 'cultural clashes' between lawyers and police within the National Crime Authority, and describes a number of unique legal problems arising from the cross-jurisdictional deployment of police officers on secondment to the National Crime Authority. The article argues that in the context of organised crime, sub-cultural dimensions of law enforcement has been a neglected area within criminological research and policy making. The article argues that organisational sub-cultures have limited the capacity of law enforcement agencies to fulfil their junctions and suggests a number of reforms.

Risks of Corruption in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-221
Author(s):  
Vasyl Franchuk
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Criminal Sanctions ◽  
The World ◽  
Economic Crimes ◽  
Research Analysis

orruption is a social evil that encroaches on certain human values, and various law enforcement agencies and institutions function to combat it. In many countries, the fight against organised crime, as well as crimes in the economic and financial spheres, is handled by various specialised law enforcement agencies. In addition, experts claim that the pandemic has negatively affected the situation with corruption around the world and COVID-19 is a challenge to the anti-corruption fight of each country. Available reports indicate that corruption is widespread throughout the COVID-19 response: from bribery in the procurement of tests, medicines, and provision of medical services for public procurement of medicines and general preparedness for emergencies. This situation has some shortcomings of a total crime prevention and may reduce the priority of the fight against corruption in the general list of combating economic crimes and organised crime. To provide effective counteraction against corruption-related crimes, it is rather important to find out the reasons for them and preconditions of their origin, especially their certain types which have spread during the pandemic. In this context, the research analysis of Ukrainian and foreign scientists from all the world is of particular importance. It will give us the possibility to justify, under modern conditions, the recommendations aimed at improving the drawing up of the content of administrative and criminal offences as well as administrative and criminal sanctions for corruption-related crimes.

Early identification and intervention with individuals at risk of becoming involved in serious and organised crime (SOC)

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mick Hurley ◽  
Laura Jane Boulton
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Stage Process ◽  
Organised Crime Groups ◽  
Preventative Interventions

Purpose This paper aims to examine the “engage” pilot project and related processes for identifying individuals vulnerable to becoming involved in serious and organised crime groups (OCGs). Design/methodology/approach In this, a six-stage process developed in the five pilot sites to guide interventions is described. The project identified 18 individuals who have confirmed low level involvement in OCGs based in 5 areas of Greater Manchester by combining risk factors and the connecting of records held by law enforcement agencies. Findings Key risk factors found to be associated with the 18 individuals identified are described in relation to literature and discussed in terms of future intervention possibilities. A brief description of the key findings of the evaluation of the pilot project is also included. Originality/value Together these findings are discussed to explore the challenges of preventative interventions tailored towards young people already involved in criminality and offers recommendations for future programmes in this field.

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