The Making of the United Kingdom's Organised Crime Control Policies

The aim of this chapter is to review the development of responses to ‘organised crime’ in the United Kingdom. In no country does this construct come ‘fully formed’: rather views about and even the attachment of such a label to the supply of illegal drugs, immigration and fraud are part of a social and cognitive process, partly in interaction with other countries – principally the United States and then the European Union – which I will explore. The chapter will examine the gradual growth of centralised policing – always an issue in a country with hostility towards the French Revolution and an attachment to devolved, local policing (at least rhetorically) – and the methods that law enforcement agencies (which include Customs and Excise) adopt.