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The Goods Transport Network’s Vulnerability to Crime: Opportunities and Control Weaknesses

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Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study into the goods transport sector and its vulnerability to crime. Based on 33 interviews with professionals and law enforcement agents, four interviews with convicted criminals, 26 case files from the Belgian Federal Police and the customs services and 9 informal conversations with law enforcement agency personnel, academics and professionals, the paper analyses what structures, mechanisms, conditions and interdependencies make the goods transport network susceptible to criminal activity. It is suggested that vulnerability to crime is twofold, consisting of opportunities based on weak sector conditions and weak regulation. It will be demonstrated that small and medium enterprises present particular opportunities for criminal exploitation due to their weaker financial position and the lack of crime prevention measures in place. The study found no criminal ‘front’ structures that are transport businesses alone, because of the high start-up costs within the industry; rather, non-transport companies are exploited to connect to the legal transport sector. Finally, the paper identifies key weaknesses in the sector, asking whether there should be due diligence or regulatory duties for certain roles in the supply chain like shipping agents.

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Notes

  1. All quotes in the text are translated by the author from Dutch or French to English.

  2. ‘‘Organised crime is the planned commission of criminal offences determined by the pursuit of profit and power which, individually or as a whole, are of considerable importance if more than two persons, each with his/her own assigned tasks, collaborate for a prolonged or indefinite period of time:

    a) by using commercial or business-like structures,

    b) by using force or other means of intimidation, or

    c) by exerting influence on politics, the media, public administration, judicial authorities or the business sector.’’

  3. In this research ‘transport’ includes not only road transport but also all other forms of transport of goods. Storage, transport support services and export–import activity are also included.

  4. Concealable, Removable, Available, Valuable, Enjoyable, Disposable.

  5. The notion ‘super controllers’ was introduced by Sampson et al. (2010) and refers to an extended crime triangle based on the Routine Activity Theory originally presented by Cohen and Felson (1979) and later extended (Eck 1994, 1995; Felson 1995) consisting of a conjunction of offenders and targets at a place and the absence or ineffectiveness of controlling handlers, guardians and place managers. The controlling instances of these ‘controllers’ are labelled ‘super controllers’ (see Sampson et al. 2010).

  6. Costs relating to his personnel were affected by the impact of expansion, as well as the expansion itself. As his business expanded, he had to hire drivers he did not know. When he had only five trucks he could hire people he already knew, but once the business grew he had to change from a trust-based relationship with his employees to a control–based one. He had neither the experience nor the facilities to make this change, and reported that he subsequently suffered from employee theft and fraud (for more on employee crime see, for example, Cools 1991).

  7. FPS Economy, SMEs, Independent Professions and Energy. See http://statbel.fgov.be/nl/statistieken/webinterface/index.jsp?loadDefaultId=19&IDBr=tcm:325-22373-4

  8. http://www.tapaemea.com

  9. Reppetto (1976) identified five types of displacement – crime, target, method, place and time. A sixth one was added by Barr and Pease (1990), namely the perpetrator.

  10. The EC 561/2006 requires truck drivers to take rest periods at regular intervals, independent of whether there is a secured parking area close by. See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:102:0001:0001:EN:PDF

  11. In 2006 in Belgium a committee, chaired by the Ministry for Internal Affairs – Section Security and Prevention Policy, was set up, bringing together representatives from the public, private and law enforcement sectors with the aim of tackling cargo-related crime on Belgium’s roads.

  12. At the European level programmes financed by the EU Commission have been launched, such as the STEPOS programme (http://www.setpos.eu/introduction.htm) and LABEL (http://www.truckparkinglabel.eu/) on secured parking spaces.

  13. Attacks on water have recently been reported in the press, who call the perpetrators ‘pirates’. These attacks often result in ransom demands. See, for example, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7999350.stm or http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/02/04/indian.ocean.pirate.attack/index.html. Such cases were not reported by the interviewees in this study.

  14. These perpetrators were arrested by the specialised cargo crime team in Belgium. Since then this modus operandi has not been reported.

  15. Even though this notion dates back to Jeffery (1971), the territoriality and surveillance themes of Newman’s (1972) ‘defensible space’ are the basis for most of today’s CPTED applications.

  16. Nomenclature générale des Activités économiques dans la Communauté Européenne (NACE).

  17. The easiest transport business to open is a road haulage company. But even here the preconditions are higher than in other businesses. A special licence is required from the Ministry for Transport and Mobility, on top of all the usual preconditions to opening a company. In addition to this, the financial investment in trucks (including specialist driving licences) and depots (if needed) is high. For shipping companies the investment is even higher, and the licences stricter. Air shipping and goods transport via rail are limited to a few large companies. Special transport services, such as transporting dangerous goods, food, etc. require additional special licences. See all the preconditions in Belgium (also at EU level) at: http://www.mobilit.fgov.be/fr/index.htm

  18. All preconditions can be found on the website of the FPS Economy, SMEs, Independent Professions and Energy (http://economie.fgov.be/en/index.jsp).

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Acknowledgements

This research has been carried out under the auspices of the Belgian Science Policy Office in the programme "Society and Future". The author would like to thank the “DANGER” project group members especially Prof. Dr. Tom Vander Beken and Prof. Dr. Nicholas Dorn for their sustained support and advice. In addition we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their fruitful comments to improve this paper.

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  1. IRCP - Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Ghent University, Universiteitstraat 4, 9000, Gent, Belgium

    Noël Klima

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Klima, N. The Goods Transport Network’s Vulnerability to Crime: Opportunities and Control Weaknesses. Eur J Crim Policy Res 17, 203–219 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-011-9139-x

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