International cocaine trafficking from South America has increased significantly over the past decade. Based on mixed-methods research, we hypothesize that this change has been driven primarily by the globalization of its logistics, which has led to relevant technical and political changes along...

This study examines how dismantling Mafia-connected firms affects banks' lending practices. Using a unique dataset of 667 such firms and loan-level data from the European Central Bank, our analysis shows that anti-Mafia operations precede an increase in bank loans to businesses that operate in...

Infiltration of the legal economy by criminal organizations (OCGs) is potentially significant, though how pervasive remains uncertain. Beyond the volume, the motives driving infiltration are of serious policy concern. We introduce a conceptual framework to differentiate between OCGs' motives for...

Infiltration of the legal economy by criminal organizations (OCGs) is potentially significant, though how pervasive remains uncertain. Beyond the volume, the motives driving infiltration are of serious policy concern. We introduce a conceptual framework to differentiate between OCGs’ motives...

When does organized crime resort to assassinating politicians? In narcocracies, criminal groups co-opt political elites through bribery in exchange for protection to traffic illegal drugs. When criminal groups compete, they may also resort to political violence to influence which candidate wins...

We investigate the impact of childhood exposure to organized criminal violence on sociopolitical attitudes in Mexico, where an entire generation of youths has been raised amid the country's most violent conflict over the past century. We fielded an in-person survey to nearly 3,000 urban youths,...

This is a review of the 2020 IASOC Prize Winner Intimate Crimes: Kidnapping, Gangs and Trust in Mexico City by Rolando Ochoa. Ochoa provides a masterful account of how private citizens understand risk, as kidnapping continues to be a significant problem in Mexico, and manage their private...

Organised crime tightens its corrupting influence on politics through violent intimidation. Anti-crime measures that increase the cost of corruption but not of the exercise of violence might accordingly lead mafia-style organizations to retaliate by resorting to violence in lieu of bribery. On...

This study examines how dismantling Mafia-connected firms affects banks' lending practices. Using a unique dataset of 667 such firms and loan-level data from the European Central Bank, our analysis shows that anti-Mafia operations precede an increase in bank loans to businesses that operate in...

Europol is the EU's law enforcement agency, supporting the 27 EU Member States in their fight against serious international crime and terrorism. Europol also works closely with non-EU partner countries, other EU agencies and international organisations, strengthening global security through...

This article analyses the expansion of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) across the Sahara-Sahel, using the transplantation framework from criminology to explore how the group relocated. By focussing on this case study, the article offers an examination of how JNIM strategically embedded...

The author, Stephen Schneider, undertakes a holistic analysis of the numerous definitions, descriptions, and concepts that represent the criminological construct referred to as "organized crime." He provides a critical analysis of those researchers who have trafficked in ethnic and racial...

As the incidences of traditional crime rates have begun to decline, there has been a surge and shift in the kinds of criminal activities perpetuated by individuals. The recent shift in criminal activities includes organized crime, white-collar crime, and cybercrime.The increased use and access...

Based on empirical evidence, this research: highlights the timeline of changes in Ukrainian agricultural sector since the onset of the full-scale war in 2022 and the maritime blockade affecting exports; examines the relevant transformation of the illegal grain market amid these extraordinary...

Environmental crime, ranked as the fourth-largest criminal enterprise after drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and human trafficking, encompasses illegal activities such as mineral extraction, land clearance, and waste trafficking. These crimes are closely linked to financial crimes due to their...

This analysis uses known corruption cases, serious enough to be prosecuted by governments, to develop an empirical description of the nature of corruption and its connections to organized crime. More than 200 cases from the U.S. covering an entire year are compared with nearly 300 corruption...

Traditional 20th century public responses to Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) were oftentimes singular, siloed, and exclusive; state entities and resources were used to detect, deter, and combat the issue. The expansion and emergence of new types of organized crime in the 21st century has made...

ADVANCE COPY: This chapter is an advance excerpt from the upcoming World Bank report "Organized Crime and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean" which will be released on Monday, April 28th, 2025

Data for this year's IOCTA has been collected from a variety of sources. These include an analysis of cases supported by the Europol European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3), interviews with Europol operational team experts, and input from members of Europol EC3 Advisory Groups. The report is also...

We show that the War on Drugs launched by the Mexican President Felipe Calderón in 2007 pushed drug cartels into large-scale oil thefts. Municipalities that the presidential candidate’s party barely won at the local elections in 2007-2009 exhibit a larger increase in illegal oil taps over the...

This paper used publicly available data, such as the analysis of 103 court cases to make a profile of those convicted for cannabis cultivation in Albania. There are multiple reports on drugs and organized crime in Albania which provide information on the seizures of illicit substances, law...

Between 2003-2017, multiple state and non-state factions fought for control of Baghdad, Iraq. Government-sanctioned armed groups and illegal militias each constructed and appropriated defensive architecture for their own purposes. This article argues that licit and illicit armed groups...

Organized crime affects security, development, and democracy worldwide, but not much is known about its social consequences. We study how exposure to the presence of organized crime groups shapes the social capital of Italian citizens, including political participation, civic engagement, and...

Organized crime reinforces its corrupting influence on politics through violent intimidation. Anti-crime measures that increase the cost of corruption but not of the exercise of violence might accordingly lead mafia-style organizations to retaliate by resorting to violence in lieu of bribery. On...

This paper examines how firms in an emerging economy are affected by violence due to drug trafficking. Employing rich longitudinal plant-level data covering all of Mexico from 2005–2010, and using an instrumental variable strategy that exploits plausibly exogenous spatiotemporal variation in...

This study provides a dynamic analysis of illegal drug trafficking in the Italian region of Sardinia, using the Local Labour Systems (LLS, ISTAT) framework. Data from major regional newspapers (January 2017 - De-cember 2022) were validated through institutional reports. A multivariate biplot...

Infiltration of the legal economy by criminal organizations (OCGs) is potentially significant, though how pervasive remains uncertain. Beyond the volume, the motives driving infiltration are of serious policy concern. We introduce a conceptual framework to differentiate between OCGs' motives for...

Infiltration of the legal economy by criminal organizations (OCGs) is potentially significant, though how pervasive remains uncertain. Beyond the volume, the motives driving infiltration are of serious policy concern. We introduce a conceptual framework to differentiate between OCGs' motives for...

Grounded on an extensive literature review derived from evidence-based studies (e.g., scientific articles, institutional and technical reports, journalistic evidence, academic books, and book chapters), our article develops a qualitative analysis to address the following question: to what extent...

This is a review of the 2023 IASOC Prize Winner Trying to Make It: The Enterprises, Gangs, and People of the American Drug Trade. By R.V. Gundur. Gundur offers a masterful account of the inner workings of the illicit drugs trade from the Mexico-US Border into the USA. His ethnography examines...