organized crime
Critique of Provisions for & Definitions of
“Organized Crime”
CARLO CAVALIERE
100817631
OCTOBER 1ST 2014 Defining organized crime has proven to be a general difficulty throughout history. The belief of this paper is that definition is crucial, however, at the same time one should identify that within the scope of organized crime, definition has been quite subjective and controversial. The reason why it is important is because the exact way in which organized crime is defined goes a significant distance in determining how legislation and laws are constructed, how research studies are completed, how examinations and prosecutions are coordinated, and lastly, how interactive and connected legal assistance across national and international borders is or is not provided. What one may understand organized crime to be, and how seriously the society regards it, will also decide the amount of the public 's support for policies and resources to confront and address it. Therefore, due to the fact that there lies severe inconsistencies and deviations from a true and uniform definition of organized crime, the public and law enforcement is confronted with a major dilemma as to the route of understanding and elimination of such illegal facet. There are numerous difficulties, which can be found within defining organized crime, one of which, can be discovered within the work of the United Nations convention on transnational organized crime in the late twentieth century. Seeking agreement on a definition indeed proved to be one of the most difficult issues for the negotiators within the UN, which resulted in a very broad, almost useless, sort of least common denominator definition, which I will discuss further within the paper. The objective of the paper is to not only critique, but commend the definitions which have been set out by the Government of Canada, the UN, the FBI and Canadian and American scholars. This will provide the reader with
“Organized Crime”
CARLO CAVALIERE
100817631
OCTOBER 1ST 2014 Defining organized crime has proven to be a general difficulty throughout history. The belief of this paper is that definition is crucial, however, at the same time one should identify that within the scope of organized crime, definition has been quite subjective and controversial. The reason why it is important is because the exact way in which organized crime is defined goes a significant distance in determining how legislation and laws are constructed, how research studies are completed, how examinations and prosecutions are coordinated, and lastly, how interactive and connected legal assistance across national and international borders is or is not provided. What one may understand organized crime to be, and how seriously the society regards it, will also decide the amount of the public 's support for policies and resources to confront and address it. Therefore, due to the fact that there lies severe inconsistencies and deviations from a true and uniform definition of organized crime, the public and law enforcement is confronted with a major dilemma as to the route of understanding and elimination of such illegal facet. There are numerous difficulties, which can be found within defining organized crime, one of which, can be discovered within the work of the United Nations convention on transnational organized crime in the late twentieth century. Seeking agreement on a definition indeed proved to be one of the most difficult issues for the negotiators within the UN, which resulted in a very broad, almost useless, sort of least common denominator definition, which I will discuss further within the paper. The objective of the paper is to not only critique, but commend the definitions which have been set out by the Government of Canada, the UN, the FBI and Canadian and American scholars. This will provide the reader with