Operational-investigative counteraction to crime: another concept or terminological features

The article discusses a number of terms used to denote the activities of the state to combat crime. It is indicated that at present the term counteraction has begun to be widely used in legislation, which requires clarification of this concept. Arguments are given about the relevance of the term “counteraction”, its meaning and relationship with other terms, primarily with the concepts of “fighting crime” and “crime control”. The meanings of the words “counteraction”, “struggle” are considered, it is concluded that it would not be correct to identify the counteraction of crime with its prevention, exactly as with preventive activity. Analyzing the concept of crime control, the author states that it is being put forward in the form of a new strategy in the ORD, although its development is not very intensive today. It is concluded that measures to counter crime, such as the detection and disclosure of crimes, should also be supplemented by a system of preventive measures, such as influencing organized criminal groups and communities in order to separate them, undermining the economic foundations of organized crime, depriving the organizers of organized crime groups and OPS of authority, etc.

Organized crime and state capture in the Western Balkans

The main objective of the article is to show that the temporary symbiosis between centres of political power and organized crime leads to the development of permanent, corrupt and opaque networks. Focusing on the countries of the Western Balkans, the author points to the reasons for the development of organized crime in the region and then to the conditions created in the post-conflict period that resulted in the failure of effective attempts to stop organized crime and the corruption that facilitates it in the these countries. The article also points out that the creation of symbiotic relationships between political elites and organized crime groups leads to a ‘state capture.’ The unresolved problems of corruption and organized crime, in turn, have a direct impact on these countries’ EU-integration processes.

Organized crime a major crisis in India and its impact on the internal security of India

The Linkage between organized crime groups and terrorist groups have strengthen criminal activities like drug trafficking, smuggling of gold, arms and commodities, kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking, fake currency. Organized crime has become a global challenges it has an effect on all the countries involved in this business of supply and demand. Indian terrorist groups has the support of external forces especially who provide them fund in return of drug trafficking, the north –east states and Kashmir this is very common, in fact north east has a parallel government. There are many gangs who conduct this business and Mumbai is the main target being the financial capital and has the biggest port in India, most of the smuggling business is carried out through sea and many terrorist in the past have entered India through sea routes as it is difficult to identify and fake identity card is not recognised. The Indian government has no agencies so strong to tackle this issue only, lack of coordination, resources and manpower, with lack of trained staffs at the police station has made the groups more strong to conduct these activities. Clashes of opinion between the central and the state government to tackle organize crime, increase the time period to come to a single decision. However, we need to strengthen our system and come up with new laws and acts to tackle this menace.

Macabre ceremonies: How Los Zetas produces extreme violence to promote organizational cohesion

Why do some organized crime groups (OCGs) carry out face-to-face killings where perpetrators debase their victims and defile their bodies? Leading criminologists contend that OCGs carry out extreme killings deliberately to attain specific performance objectives. Conversely, psycho-sociological scholars argue that extreme killings only occur in situations that affect perpetrators’ reasoning and emotions. In their view, these situations are largely beyond OCGs’ control. I argue that analyzing extreme killings as organizational rituals can contribute to reconciling these seemingly conflicting views. More specifically, I contend that the OCG known as Los Zetas ritualizes executions to generate the conditions that make extreme violence possible. Through ritualization, Los Zetas influences executioners’ perceptions of extreme behavior from something abhorrent into something valued, desirable, and enjoyable. Once the conditions conducive to extreme violence emerge, Los Zetas exploits it to attain utilitarian objectives.

Collaborating with organized crime in the search for disappeared persons? Formalizing a humanitarian alternative for Mexico

The search for the more than 90,000 disappeared persons in Mexico has highlighted the need to establish relations of collaboration with organized crime groups in order to access not only relevant information to clarify the fate and whereabouts of the missing, but also territories under the control of organized crime groups for carrying out field searches. Given the ineffectiveness of formal, prosecutorial approaches and the considerable success of grassroots, victim-led search strategies, this paper argues for the need for a broader humanitarian approach to the search for the missing that is victim-centred and complementary to accountability mechanisms. The article advances a proposal to formalize this approach through the International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC) involvement in search activities, given the ICRC's unique organizational nature, expertise and humanitarian mandate.

Combating Child Trafficking Internationally and Nationally: Saudi Arabia as a Model: مكافحة الاتجار بالأطفال دولياً ووطنياً - المملكة العربية السعودية نموذجاً

Human trafficking, especially child trafficking, due to its serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in particular and its negative effects on the stability and cohesion of society in general, has recently engaged international attention. The number of persons affected by various forms of child trafficking, such as economic and sexual exploitation, forced recruitment, organ trafficking and so on, is constantly increasing worldwide. Therefore, this problem, owing to the misuse of modern technologies and techniques by organized crime groups for the exploitation of and trafficking in children, must be highlighted and given due attention at the national and international levels.

Resilience to stress in bipartite networks: Application to the Islamic State recruitment network

Networks are resilient to internal failures or external attacks. The resiliency is often beneficial, but there are scenarios where the collapse of a social system, network, or organization would be beneficial to society, such as the dismantlement of terrorist, rebel, or organized crime groups. In this article, we develop a methodology to estimate the effect of knockouts and apply our method to the Islamic State recruitment network. Using our novel application, we demonstrate how coordinated attacks against recruiters might reduce the Islamic State's ability to mobilize new fighters. This analysis has direct implications for studies of network resilience and terrorist recruitment.

Some remarks about the failing state of Mexico in the light of newborn dictatorships

Modern Mexico is a country that has long ceased to perform its basic competences. This is particularly evident in the area of human rights protection. Decades of action by organized crime groups have led to the establishment of their power in occupied territories and, consequently, to their impunity. The social response to the crime groups’ activities was the creation of areas belonging to a “warlord” in which warlords exercise their own power, unlimited by law. In this context, several questions arise about what is currently the constitutional form of power and what form of power actually exists in Mexico, including how this power is exercised and, finally, what the current practice of human rights protection is. The answers to these questions can be found in the present article.

A structured methodical process for populating a crime script of organized crime activity using OSINT

Crime script analysis is becoming an increasingly used approach for examining organized crime. Crime scripts can use data from multiple sources, including open sources of intelligence (OSINT). Limited guidance exists, however, on how to populate the content of a crime script with data, and validate these data. This results in crime scripts being generated intuitively, restricts them from being scrutinised for their quality, and limits the opportunity to combine or compare crime scripts. We introduce a practical process for populating the content of a crime script that involves simple coding procedures and uses document analysis to quality assure data that are extracted from open sources. We illustrate the process with the example of theft of oil from pipelines in Mexico committed by organized crime groups. The structured methodical process we introduce produces a crime script of high quality, helps to improve the systematic analysis of decision-making performed by members of organized crime groups, and can improve the identification of opportunities for crime control.

Indigenous People, Organized Crime and Natural Resources: Borders, Incentives and Relations

This article explores the relationship between the Emberá–Wounaan and Akha Indigenous people and organized crime groups vying for control over natural resources in the Darién Gap of East Panama and West Colombia and the Golden Triangle (the area where the borders of Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Thailand meet), respectively. From a southern green criminological perspective, we consider how organized crime groups trading in natural resources value Indigenous knowledge. We also examine the continued victimization of Indigenous people in relation to environmental harm and the tension between Indigenous peoples’ ecocentric values and the economic incentives presented to them for exploiting nature. By looking at the history of the coloniality and the socioeconomic context of these Indigenous communities, this article generates a discussion about the social framing of the Indigenous people as both victims and offenders in the illegal trade in natural resources, particularly considering the types of relationships established with dominant criminal groups present in their ancestral lands.