• E4J University Module Series: Organized Crime

• Module 7: Models of Organized Criminal Groups

• Introduction and learning outcomes

• Key issues

• Models and structure of organized crime
• Hierarchical model of organized criminal groups
• Local, cultural model of organized crime
• Enterprise or business model of organized crime
• Focusing on groups versus activities
• New forms of organized crime: networked structures
• Summary
• References

• Exercises

• Case studies and exercises
• Thinking critically through fiction

• Possible class structure

• Core reading

• Advanced reading

• Student assessment

• Review and assessment questions
• Quiz 7
• Research and independent study questions

• Additional teaching tools

 

Published in May 2018

Regional Perspective: Pacific Islands Region - added in November 2019

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

 

 

  This module is a resource for lecturers  

 

Summary

 

Organized criminal groups are characterized by their ultimate purpose, which is to obtain a financial or other material benefit. With this aim, some organized criminal groups are connected by shared ethnicity or friendship and family ties, but many others are organized as less formal networks.

The models of organized criminal groups can be grouped into three general types: those that adopt a hierarchical structure, those that emphasize local cultural connections, and those that emphasize the economic, business nature of organized crime. There is some degree of overlap among the models. But in all cases, organized crime functions as entrepreneurial activity in which economic criminal opportunities are exploited based on their availability, the demand for an illicit product, competition from other groups, and the regulatory and enforcement capacity of the jurisdictions involved.

Less formal, more fluid networked connections among members of organized criminal groups have developed, given the changing nature of the criminal marketplace, the changing nature of cyber communications and the illegal products available via the Internet and the Darknet. This situation enables offenders to avoid face-to-face contact with each other - and in many cases with their victims -, causing changes in the way that organized criminal groups are structured.