scholarly journals The evolution of drug trafficking and organized crime in Latin America

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Bagley
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Control Policies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Criminal Groups ◽  
Drug Economy ◽  
Illicit Drug Trafficking

This article analyses the evolution of illegal drug economy in the Americas over the past two decades. It identifies eight key trends that have characterized illicit drug trafficking and organized crime as of mid-2011. They are: (1) The increasing globalization of drug consumption; (2) The limited victories and unintended consequences of the U. S. -led ‘War on Drugs’; (3) The proliferation of cultivation areas and of drug smuggling routes; (4) The dispersion and fragmentation of organized criminal groups; (5) The failure of political reform and state-building efforts; (6) The inadequacies U. S. domestic drug and crime control policies; (7) The ineffectiveness of regional and international drug control policies; (8) The growing support for legalization debate.

scholarly journals Land of the Free: Prison Reform Following the War on Drugs

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-32
Author(s):  
Megan Tingley
Keyword(s):  
Prison Population ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Prison Reform ◽  
World Population ◽  
Federal Prison ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing ◽  
The U.S

ince its beginnings in 1971, the war on drugs has been largely unsuccessful in reducing drug use. Instead, it has had many unintended consequences, one of which is a huge increase in the federal prison population over the past 40 years. Despite making up only five percent of the world population, the U.S. is home to 25 percent of its prisoners. Since the 1970s, the prison population in the U.S. has skyrocketed due to the implementation of War on Drugs policies. The main reason for the failure of the War on Drugs can be attributed in part to mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Implemented as a part of the Anti- Drug Abuse Act of 1986, these one-size-fits-all policies require a certain punishment based on the amount and type of drug in possession without allowing for flexibility based on context. 

scholarly journals Third-Party Policing Approaches against Organized Crime: an Evaluation of the Yakuza Exclusion Ordinances

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuya Hoshino ◽  
Takuma Kamada
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Income Source ◽  
Criminal Organizations ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Third Party Policing ◽  
Concentration Levels

Objective: Third-party policing (TPP) refers to police efforts to persuade or coerce third parties to take some responsibility for crime control and prevention. The Yakuza Exclusion Ordinances (YEOs) of Japan aim to combat organized crime syndicates—the yakuza—and to increase social welfare. Consistent with the principles of TPP, the YEOs prohibit third parties—non-yakuza individuals—from providing any benefit to the yakuza. We study both intended and unintended consequences of the YEOs by examining the YEOs’ effects on the number of yakuza members and on the revenues generated by communications fraud, which is the yakuza’s emergent income source. Methods: We use unique data on the yakuza and communications fraud. Using prefecture-level variation in the YEOs’ enactment dates, we apply a difference-indifferences approach, while allowing for heterogeneity in the YEOs’ effects by regional concentration levels of yakuza syndicates.Results: The YEOs decrease the number of yakuza members but increases the revenues generated by communications fraud. Moreover, the YEOs’ effects are smaller in regions with higher concentration levels of yakuza syndicates. These results are consistent with the argument that former yakuza members, who generally experience poor economic conditions and criminogenic conditions, tend to engage in widespread communications fraud. Conclusions: The YEOs are related to TPP strategies that rely on coercive techniques. Given this, our results support the effectiveness of TPP against organized crime but suggest that TPP can have unintended consequences on organized crime by increasing the level of income-generating crime. Our results indicate the importance of rehabilitation assistance for former members of criminal organizations.

scholarly journals Architectures, spaces, and territories of illicit drug trafficking in Colombia and Mexico

2020 ◽  
pp. 174165902091021
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Aschner ◽  
Juan Carlos Montero
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Illicit Drug ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Crop Fields ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
Criminal Organizations ◽  
Bidirectional Relationship ◽  
Drug Economy ◽  
Illicit Drug Trafficking

This research applies an interdisciplinary approach to the bidirectional relationship between illicit drug trafficking activities (specifically, cocaine and opioid trafficking in Colombia and Mexico) and the architectures, spaces, and territories in which they are located. Certain spaces that determine or are determined by the actions of drug trafficking organizations are described, analyzed, and classified based on various methodologies and the use of academic, official, and press information. In addition, case studies are reconstructed using architectural and geographic representation mechanisms to exemplify and illustrate the main arguments. The paper examines the three stages of activity that constitute the illegal drug economy: production (involving the placement of crop fields and laboratories), distribution (which entails exploitation of mobility infrastructure), and cross-cutting activities in relation to drug trafficking support spaces. The research provides an articulated interpretation of the various drug trafficking activities from a spatial perspective, the characterization of spaces that are important to criminal organizations and to the performance of their activities, and insights into the spatial thinking strategies and tactics associated with drug trafficking.

Crime in Puerto Rico: Drug Trafficking, Money Laundering, and the Poor

1997 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Montalvo-Barbot
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Violent Crimes ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Government ◽  
Drug Economy ◽  
The Military

Echoing the federal “war on drugs,” the government of Puerto Rico has implemented a series of aggressive law enforcement policies aimed at dismantling the underground drug economy of the island. This article examines three main Puerto Rican law enforcement operations: “Greenback” (in 1985), “Lucky Strike” (in 1990), and the military invasion of public housings (in 1993). The data suggest that governmental attempts at disrupting the drug-based underground economy in Puerto Rico may have been responsible for the increase in violent crimes on the island during the past two decades. Policy implications of the anticrime operations also are discussed.

Part II Predominant Security Challenges and International Law, National and Transnational Security, Ch.12 Transnational Organized Crime

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hauck Pierre ◽  
Peterke Sven
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Transnational Organized Crime ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Illegal Activities ◽  
Criminal Groups ◽  
Governance Transparency

This chapter focuses on transnational organized crime (TOC), pointing out some of the impacts attributed to this cross-border delinquency and its ties and linkages with other legal and illegal activities and actors. With the growing recognition that combating TOC requires more effective international cooperation, an impressive international legal regime has been constructed around this subject matter. A good part of this framework consists of so-called ‘suppression conventions’ that oblige State Parties to criminalize certain ‘evils’, to enforce relevant domestic laws, and to cooperate with each other in the persecution of these illegal activities. An often-downplayed problem is that these instruments are ‘rooted in the crime control policies of powerful Western states’, supposedly serving as models for other governments. They therefore tend to impose duties that are rather difficult to comply with for States with fragile institutions, often incapable of effectively delivering essential goods, such as safety and security. Against this background, it is increasingly acknowledged amongst both scholars and practitioners that tackling TOC requires the use of a broader and far more differentiated approach which addresses not only the multiplicity of non-State actors who have links to organized criminal groups (such as rebels and terrorists), but also the promotion of good governance, transparency, and professional ethics. The sound implementation of this approach must be seen as pivotal for achieving both global justice and security.

Fighting for Fees-Drug Trafficking and the Forfeiture of Attorney's Fees

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-436
Author(s):  
John Dombrink ◽  
James W. Meeker ◽  
Julie Paik
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Defense Attorneys ◽  
Defense Counsel ◽  
The Impact

In the past two years since the passage of 1984 amendments as part of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, government prosecutors have included defense counsel fees as forfeitable assets stemming from drug trafficking and organized crime prosecutions. This development has been described by affected defense counsel as having an “arctic” effect upon their relationships with clients, as an abridgement of Sixth Amendment right to counsel, and as a deterrent to effective lawyering in this field. Prosecutors, on the contrary, have argued that a person can neither purchase a Rolls Royce nor a “Rolls Royce class of attorney” with proceeds of criminality. This paper delineates the issues in this debate, and their genesis, as articulated injudicial opinions; interviews with prosecutors and leading defense attorneys in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City; published articles; and transcripts of hearings held by bar associations. In addition to the fees issue, similar controversial issues, such as grand jury subpoenas of attorneys and cash reporting requirements placed on attorneys, are addressed. Particular attention is paid to the increased adversariness in this stratum of the criminal justice system, and to the impact these developments have and will have on the quality of justice in major drug trafficking and organized crime cases.

Escaping from the Standard Story

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Pfaff
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Credit Crunch ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Incarceration Rate ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Key Aspects

Whether as a result of low crime rates, the financial pressures of the 2008 credit crunch, or other factors, policymakers on both sides of the aisle are trying to rein or even reduce the US incarceration rate after an unprecedented forty-year expansion. Unfortunately, reforms are hampered by the fact that we do not have a solid empirical understanding of what caused the explosion in the first place. In fact, the “Standard Story” of prison growth generally overemphasizes less important factors and overlooks more important ones. This essay thus does two things. First, it points out the flaws in five key aspects of the Standard Story: its argument that the War on Drugs is of central importance, that trends in violent and property crimes are relatively unimportant, that longer sentence lengths drive growth, that the “criminal justice system” is a fairly coherent entity advancing specific goals, and that the “politics of crime control” is uniquely dysfunctional. And second, it argues that an increased willingness of the part of prosecutors to file charges—a causal factor almost completely overlooked by the Standard Story—is likely the most important force behind prison growth, at least for the past two decades.

Crime Control Policy

Criminology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Blomberg ◽  
Julie Brancale
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Control System ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Critical Inquiry ◽  
Control Policies ◽  
Crime Control Policy ◽  
Control Knowledge

The literature on crime control policy has developed from several areas of study. Included among these areas are general descriptive studies of the operations of the crime control system (police, courts, and corrections), studies of the causes of criminal behavior in relation to the rehabilitation of offenders, critical inquiry into crime control policies and practices, historical studies of crime control, studies of crime control reforms, studies of get-tough crime control policies, and studies aimed at linking crime control knowledge to public policy. A theme emerging from this literature has been a recognition of the patterned capacity of various crime control policies and reforms to have unintended consequences.

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