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The phantom and threat of organized crime

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Abstract

Organized crime is often perceived in terms of extended, hierarchical crime “families” that extend not only their activities but also their authority structures across national boundaries. However accurate such a view may or may not have been in the United States, where it originated, evidence from a Dutch survey of organized crime enterprises reveals a different picture. For organized crime in northwestern Europe, it is more helpful to think of crime markets of two kinds: those in which the goods and services are themselves forbidden, and those in which legal goods and services are handled in illegal ways. Case studies of the drug trade, and of organized crime in the business realm, offer a detailed look at these two kinds of markets. The evidence suggests that while organized crime enterprises conduct trade across national boundaries, they do not constitute an international authority structure. Crime entrepreneurs constitute a challenge, not to the basic structure of society itself, but rather a more subtle kind of challenge to basic values and morals, particularly when criminal enterprise is linked to power at higher levels of society.

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  1. Ministry of Justice, P.O. Box 20301, 2500 EH, The Hague, The Netherlands

    Petrus C. van Duyne

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van Duyne, P.C. The phantom and threat of organized crime. Crime Law Soc Change 24, 341–377 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01298354

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