Description

Organised crime involves groups or operations run by criminals. Organised crime is commonly motivated by a desire to generate money, and includes activities such as drugs-trafficking, trafficking in people, extortion and kidnapping for profit. The term also refers to highly organised groups involved in activities motivated by political rather than monetary gain, such as terrorism. White-collar crime is "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Sutherland, E., 1949,White Collar Crime). Our work on this topic includes working on intervention strategies to prevent organised crime and we are currently working closely with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) on organised crime prevention.

Our Wider Community

International Market in Illicit Antiquities (Simon Mackenzie)

Simon Mackenzie has conducted two empirical research projects into looted antiquities to date which have made a significant contribution to our understanding of how the antiquities market functions.  Most recently this has resulted in a co-edited book (with Penny Green) entitled Criminology and Archaeology, which considers the interdisciplinary nature of the field.

Key Findings from the Research
The relationship between law and social action is a complex one. In the antiquities market, as elsewhere, there has tended to be an assumption that by passing restrictive laws, the illicit behaviour of dealers in cultural property will be curtailed, and cultural property around the world will be protected against trafficking. The empirical studies mentioned in the research suggest that this legalistic interpretation of the regulation of market behaviour is flawed. The research conducted has consisted of interviewing key players in the market, including high level dealers, in order to understand their mindsets and trading routines, and to find out how they actually change their behaviour (if at all) in light of new laws attempting to criminalise dealing in looted antiquities. The findings have been that the current regulatory structure, although extensive, contains many loopholes which allow the illicit trade to continue to function.   
 
Impact
This work has made a contribution to academic criminology on various levels. First, it has brought to attention an under-researched and little-understood transnational criminal market, and through simply uncovering and detailing the mechanics of the trade, it has added to criminology’s understanding of how transnational criminal markets work. Second, it has contributed to our understanding of the ‘crimes of the powerful’ in its suggestion that antiquities dealers can be considered white-collar criminals, and its analysis of how these powerful wrongdoers influence the definitions of crime used by the criminal law. Third, it has expanded our understanding of the importance of discursive ‘techniques of neutralisation’ in allowing people to do things that they know, on some level, are wrong. And finally, by applying regulatory theory to the question of the governance of the market, it has tested some of the claims of that theory to the provision of a workable net of control. 

As a consequence of Simon’s knowledge and expertise on the topic, he was invited to act as an expert adviser to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in November 2009 in respect of an intergovernmental meeting on protection against trafficking in cultural property.  Simon also provided a background discussion paper to set the context for that meeting and was involved in drafting recommendations which were then negotiated among the national delegates, agreed, and will be put before the 19th UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in May 2010. Simon will be part of the delegation of the International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council of the UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme (ISPAC) at the 12th UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Brazil in April 2010 where he will present a discussion of the recommendations. He will be back in Vienna in May at the 19th Crime Commission with ISPAC to discuss the recommendations and their crime prevention aims.

For details of Simon’s recent publications on this topic see http://www.sccjr.ac.uk/pubs/Criminology-and-Archaeology/157

Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency
SCCJR’s Simon Mackenzie is collaborating with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency to develop new intervention strategies to prevent organised crime.