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

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...

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...

Das Schlagwort "Kokainschwemme" macht derzeit die Runde, es beschreibt den gestiegenen Zufuhrdruck der Droge in Richtung Europa. Dabei betreiben Gruppen der organisierten Rauschgiftkriminalität den Einfuhrschmuggel von Kokain meist über europäische Containerhäfen, in deren Logistikbereichen...

In 2023, ransomware attacks, child sexual exploitation (CSE) and online fraud remained the most threatening manifestations of cybercrime in the European Union (EU). The cybercriminal landscape remained diverse, comprising both lone actors and criminal networks offering a wide range of expertise...

Since 2022, the EU, Finland, France, Germany, and Sweden have joined up in a Team Europe Initiative to support Africa fight illicit financial flows and related transnational organised crime. To date, Africa's EU partners have raised more than EUR 450 million in more than 75 projects and...

Since 2022, the EU, Finland, France, Germany, and Sweden have joined up in a Team Europe Initiative to support Africa fight illicit financial flows and related transnational organised crime. To date, Africa's EU partners have raised more than EUR 450 million in more than 75 projects and...

Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) - such as corruption and money laundering - have a significant negative impact on the enjoyment of human rights. Combating IFF is an integral part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. SDG 16 explicitly promulgates the relation between the rule of law,...

This article conducts a comparative analysis of Italian and UK legislations concerning the infiltration of organised crime into the economy. Considering (among other things) the concerns about allegedly weakened cooperation between judicial authorities of Italy and the UK in a post-Brexit era,...

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...

This article delves into the organisation of Ivorian cyberfraudsters, known as "brouteurs", who engage in romance scams and sextorsion, and it questions the various structures through which these fraudsters operate. The study's findings are based on data collected through semi-structured...

This study asserts that the repatriation of foreign fighters from the conflict in Ukraine poses a significant threat to the peace and stability of the Southeast Europe within the realm of organized crime. It contends that Southeast Europe serves as fertile ground for foreign fighters during...

Das Schlagwort "Kokainschwemme" macht derzeit die Runde, es beschreibt den gestiegenen Zufuhrdruck der Droge in Richtung Europa. Dabei betreiben Gruppen der organisierten Rauschgiftkriminalität den Einfuhrschmuggel von Kokain meist über europäische Containerhäfen, in deren Logistikbereichen...

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...

What is the long-term effect of organised crime presence on social capital accumulation? By leveraging novel social capital and organised crime data, this study investigates this question within the Italian landscape. In an instrumental variable (IV) setting, we exploit the forced resettlement...

Criminal actors linked to Venezuelan State Organized Crime, be they in or outside the country, profit from Venezuela’s ruling system of “inverted rule of law” and impunity. The present article sheds light on international challenges that have arisen while seeking accountability abroad....

We analyse the risk of mafia capture of firms operating in the legal economy. Specifically, we study the relationship between firm performance and mafia infiltration. To overcome possible endogeneity concerns we exploit the abrupt drop in revenues caused by the (unexpected) Covid-19 related...

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...

The Orinoco Mining Arc (OMA) is in the south of Venezuela, a region rich in minerals and natural resources with a particular social, economic, and security dynamic. Due to its remoteness and difficult access, different actors have found a privileged space to conduct criminal activities....

The lack of understanding of the boundaries of economic criminology and the little agreement on the kind of offenses or deviant acts that fall in its substantive focus have invited an evaluation of the characteristics that criminals and/or crimes have to own in order to qualify as "economic...

Food crimes, including adulteration, poisoning, mislabelling, and misrepresentation of information, have cost billions in the global food industry. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the weaknesses of the food supply chain. Unfortunately, such weaknesses are exploited by actors...

The shadows of a drug paddler may soon be invisible on the street corner as they have moved to online drug marketplaces called 'cryptomarkets'. The criminogenic attributes of drug trafficking on cryptomarkets have attracted organized crime groups (OCGs) to make use of technology to further its...

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,...

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...

What is the long-term effect of organised crime presence on social capital accumulation? By leveraging novel social capital and organised crime data, this study investigates this question within the Italian landscape. In an instrumental variable (IV) setting, we exploit the forced resettlement...