Chapter 7 - Changes in Organized Crime: From Local to Transnational

Abstract

This chapter shows how changes in the nature of organized crime have occurred since the 1967 President’s Crime Commission Report, which focused on illegal gambling and Italian-American organized crime and the need for new legislation to combat it effectively. The 1987 President’s Commission reflected the emergence of non-Italian organized crime and focused attention on the overlapping problems of drug trafficking, money laundering, and corruption. Since then, dramatic political and technological changes around the world have expanded opportunities for criminal conduct in ways that attempt to evade local and national jurisdictional boundaries. Organized crime groups are increasingly operated by networks of individuals not necessarily bound by ethnicity or race, and new schemes continue to evolve to avoid apprehension and exploit new opportunities for trafficking people and goods illegally around the world. The response to these new forms of organized crime will require significant cooperation both within and among nations to deal effectively with stolen vehicle smuggling, drug smuggling, human trafficking, computer and Internet crimes, hijacking, and other crimes.