• E4J University Module Series: Organized Crime

• Module 1: Definitions of Organized Crime

• Introduction and learning outcomes

• Key issues

• Defining organized crime
• Definition in the Organized Crime Convention
• Similarities and differences between organized crime and other forms of crime
• Activities, organization and composition of organized criminal groups
• Summary
• References

• Exercises

• Case studies
• Thinking critically through fiction
• Excerpts of legislation

• Possible class structure

• Core reading

• Advanced reading

• Student assessment

• Review and assessment questions
• Quiz 1
• Research and independent study questions

• Additional teaching tools

 

Published in April 2018

Regional Perspective: Eastern and Southern Africa - added in April 2020

 

 

  This module is a resource for lecturers  

 

Core reading

 

This section provides a list of (partly open access) materials that the lecturer could ask the students to read before taking a class based on this Module.

Legal

Articles in United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto :

• Article 1. Statement of Purpose
• Article 2. Use of Terms
• Article 3. Scope of Application

Legislative Guides for the Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto :

• Use of terms
• Scope of Application
• Protection of sovereignty

 

Academic Literature

• Finckenauer, James O. (2005). Problems of Definition: What is Organized Crime? Trends in Organized Crime, vol. 8, 63-83.
• Van de Bunt, Henk, Siegel, Dina, and Zaitch, Damián (2014). The Social Embeddedness of Organized Crime. The Oxford Handbook of Organized Crime. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Paoli, Letizia and Tom Vander Beken 2014. Organized Crime: A Contested Concept. In L. Paoli (ed.), Oxford Handbook on Organised Crime. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Reports

• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2012). Section " The Importance of Territorial Groups in Central America" (pp. 21-31), in Transnational Organized Crime in Central America and the Caribbean: A Threat Assessment. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Vienna: UNODC.
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2010). The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment. Vienna: UNODC.

 

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