Silent Risks: Tackling organised crime in the 21st century
12 Jun
Networked Security Seminar Series
- Date and time:
- Tuesday, 12th June 2007 at 12:15pm
- Location:
- Demos
Organised crime is big business. Criminal networks extend beyond national borders and employ increasingly sophisticated techniques. Activities range over a vast area, from drugs and organised immigration crime, through evasion of VAT and excise duties, financial and business fraud to intellectual property theft or counterfeiting. Much of the harm done by these activities remains hidden from the public eye. As a result, the scale of the threat is still not widely recognised by society.
This is a growing concern as criminal networks become more fluid and flexible, while the increased availability of information technology continues to facilitate various crimes and spawn new forms of criminal.
This seminar will seek to answer the following questions:
- What is the nature and scale of the threat posed by organised crime and what threats can be expected in the future?
- Are the current partnerships between governments, national and international organisations adequate in tackling the broad spectrum of threats?
- How can national agencies and the Police tackle serious and organised crime at the local level?
- How can information be better shared with strategic partners?
- What are the skills required by the pubic and private sectors to meet the challenges posed by organised crime?
The seminar will hear from five leading thinkers and practitioners.
Sophie Barrow is a Senior Manager in the International Directorate, Serious Organised Crime Agency.
Detective Chief Inspector Stan Gilmour is Head of Field Intelligence at Thames Valley Police
Tim Grant is an Assistant Director at Interpol. He is responsible for the development and implementation of organisational protocols and strategic planning/policy.
Professor Dick Hobbs is Professor of Sociology with special reference to Criminology at the London School of Economics.
Ian McCredie is a former British diplomat and is Vice President Corporate Affairs Security, Shell.
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Comments
It isn't true that the harms and costs of organised crime are ignored. There have been serious attempts to attempt to quantify the economic and social costs in this particularly difficult area. The London School of Hygiene conducted an excellent study on the harm of trafficking. Other efforts have been attempted. It's simply not easy to develop a robust way of doing so. Probably the better way is to develop annual estimates of how big the black/grey economy actually is using OECD methodology in this area.
This is one of the emerging issues affecting public policy. Like many of the ones which struggle to be addressed with, this requires thinking outwith existing structures. Partly because the subjects are so fluid and only really trigger concern when spilling over into violence. Endemically, the organisations however loose-knit are geared towards making money and that is the key attraction. This means redesigning products and services so they can't be hijacked or converted.
The real strategic partners are likely to not be any government department, crime fighting agency or intelligence service. Its likely to be the victims themselves who can provide the information required to assess the true harm, the way organised crime proliferates and who are at the heart of gangs/networks/associations. It's difficult to get to these people because they may be socially excluded, in jail/custody or abroad. The difficulty is circumventing these hoops that have to be jumped through.
There may be a serious credibility that in the past, the agencies meant to be engaged in addressing organised problem have spent more time attempting to do 'empire-building' and gain bigger budgets instead of addressing the problems or informing policy makers.