Law and You > Criminal Laws > Criminology > Control of Organized Crimes
Organized crime is defined as “those involved, normally working with others, in continuing serious criminal activities for a substantial profit, elsewhere”. The organized crime involves extortion, collection of protection money from rich businessmen, contract killing, kidnapping, film financing, human trafficking, human organ trafficking, drug trafficking, narcotics trafficking, smuggling and illicit trade in Arms and Ammunition. In this article, we shall study the methods of control of organized crimes and difficulties faced by law enforcement agencies in controlling it.
Control of Organized Crimes:
Combating Crime through Criminal Law:
Crime is normally considered to be the breakdown of social order. Social order is maintained, and violence is prevented by the effective functioning of society’s primary legal, political and social institutions- including, among others, the agencies of law enforcement. Criminal laws are those rules that prohibit or compel instances of conduct held to be important for the welfare of the society or the state. The elements of the criminal policy are in general made up of the social and political conditions, the trends in criminality and the experiences of the struggle against crime. These principles of criminal policy will retain certain stability only in so far as the social and political conditions and so also the trends in criminality are stable and not changing abruptly. The principles of criminal policy insist upon the permanent observation of these factors and taking into account any fluctuations in them. Thus criminal law is the primary source for any state to combat and control of crime and maintain stability in society for the welfare of its people.
International Legal Frame Work:
Due to globalization, technological advances, better communication, and ease of travel around the globe many criminal organizations increased their operations and expanded them worldwide and have become transnational. Translational crime includes offences whose inception, prevention, and/or direct or indirect effects involve more than one country. Due to its clandestine nature, international crime is hard to measure. Independent national response cannot control transnational crime. Generally, organized criminals set a distance between the location in which the illicit activity is conducted and the place from which they direct and control their operations, making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to curb their activities.
The role of international organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, is to overcome the problems that arise among countries because of legislative discrepancies and inefficient co-operation (in information-sharing, in joint investigations, in the provision of assistance in legal procedures – such as testimony-taking, locating persons and freezing forfeitable assets and in extraditing criminals).
One major mechanism for identifying common, theoretical values and coordinating international responses is international conventions. Conventions would help to legitimize national actions against criminal organizations and could pre-empt certain activities. They would also provide a set of standards and exceptions that the signatories would have an obligation to live up to and facilitate the exertion of peer pressure as a common effort of the international community in addressing the problem. Signing conventions would also facilitate public education and enable political leaders to mobilize the private sector for support. The United Nations (UN) has played a key role in uniting nations to combat organized crime. Since its inception the UN has passed many resolutions and conventions, favouring world peace and order.
The UN to counter organized crime came up with a convention,13 The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and three optional protocols. The Convention represents a major step forward in the fight against transnational organized crime and recognizes that the problem can be solved through effective international cooperation. Under the treaty, National Governments commit themselves to:
- Criminalizing offences committed by organized crime groups, Criminalization of
- obstruction of justice and corruption.;
- Cracking down on money-laundering and the proceeds of crime;
- Speeding up and widen the reaches of extradition;
- Protecting witnesses testifying against criminal groups;
- Tightening cooperation to seek out and prosecute suspects;
- Boosting prevention of organized crime at the national and international levels;
- Developing a series of protocols containing measures to combat specific acts of transnational organized crime.
Thus as per UN guidelines, every signatory country should
- formulate legislative, administrative or other measures for reducing existing and future openings of organized criminal groups aiming to participate in lawful markets on their strength of illegal funds.
- conduct a thorough scrutiny of all applicants by the relevant authorities so that the organized criminal groups can be prevented from applying for subsidies, licenses, etc. granted by public authorities for conducting commercial activities.
- design crime prevention strategies, where essential, to protect special marginalized groups, especially women and children who are vulnerable to the action of organized criminals including human trafficking and smuggling of migrants.
The Financial Action Task Force on Money laundering (FATF) has provided and continues to provide the impetus to give legislative form to the policy framework set up by the Basle Committee. The FATF was established by the G7 at the Paris Economic Summit in 1989.
Forty recommendations in FATF report seek to achieve three objectives:
- To improve national systems to combat money laundering, in consideration of and consistent with the Vienna Convention, by criminalizing all aspects of money laundering crimes, even for offenses not associated with drugs, and by setting up an effective confiscation procedure;
- To strengthen the role of the financial system, in the broadest sense, i.e., banking institutions and non-banking financial institutions. These recommendations, consistent with the Basel Statement of Principles, seek to make better provision within financial institutions for the identification of clients, the detection of unjustified or suspicious transactions and the development of secure and modem transaction techniques;
- To strengthen international cooperation, at the administrative level through the exchange of information on international foreign currency flows, and at the judicial level through the development of mutual judicial assistance for purposes of investigation, seizure, and confiscation of funds, and extradition
General Measures:
- A database of records of people who have been involved in illegal activities should be created with continuous tracking of these people.
- Money laundering should be totally prevented and every transaction should be closely monitored.
- A public record should be made such that it cannot be vitiated and tempered with.
- Such cases should be handled by the Court in a reasonable time.
- All the countries signatory to the UN convention should readily share and exchange information and data about such organized criminals among themselves.
Problems in Control of Organized Crimes:
There are several difficulties in combatting organized crime.
Absence of Adequate Legal Structure:
In India, there is no special law to control/curb organized crime. The existing laws are inadequate as they target individuals and not criminal groups. It is difficult to prove conspiracies in a court of law.
Difficulties in Gathering Proof:
Organized crimes are created by groups which work as corporate structure. An individual member is delegated his work as per his caliber and skill. They work in secrecy. Even the members of such groups don’t know about other members and the top bosses. The witnesses are not willing to depose for fear of their lives and there is no law to provide protection to the witnesses against organized gangs. The informers are not willing to come forward as some kind of stigma is attached to being an ‘informer’. Hence in organized crime proof gathering is very difficult.
Lack of Resources & Training:
Organized crimes are created by groups which work as corporate structure. An individual member is delegated his work as per his caliber and skill. Every member is a professional in their field. They work in secrecy. They have huge financial support from money obtained by illegal activities. But law enforcement agencies are not professional in modern-day techniques. They have to take help from professionals outside their system. That requires financial support from the Government. Most of the Governments face a resources crunch and are not in the position to spare adequate resources for the law enforcement agencies and criminal justice system agencies. The number of police personnel posted in police stations is inadequate.
Lack of Co-ordination:
Organized crimes are created by groups which work as corporate structure. There is perfect coordination among their members. Investigating and law enforcement agencies lack this coordination particularly at national and international levels. There is no central agency to collect, collate, analyze, document and function as a central exchange of information relating to international and inter-state gangs operating in India and abroad.
Criminal, Political & Bureaucratic Nexus
There has been a rapid spread and growth of criminal gangs in the country which have, over the years, developed an extensive network of contacts with the bureaucrats, government functionaries, politicians, media persons and democratically elected individuals at the local level. Some of them have international linkages, including with foreign intelligence agencies. These factors make it difficult for law enforcement agencies to take action against them.
Operational Flexibility of Organized Crime:
The crime syndicates do not respect national boundaries. Due to globalization, technological advances, better communication, and ease of travel around the globe many criminal organizations increased their operations and expanded them worldwide and have become transnational. Organized criminals set a distance between the location in which the illicit activity is conducted and the place from which they direct and control their operations, making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to curb their activities. Similarly, a certain act may be ‘crime’ in one country but not in another. For example, money laundering is a crime in the USA and several European countries but not in India.