Future for Organized Crime
Assoc. Prof. Ercan EKMEK?IOGLU

Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of the future for organized crime. There are quite a number of issues that ought to be taken into account. For instance, the reader must understand what organized crime refers to and the current situation on the same. Organized crime may be defined as a conspiratorial entity where criminals engage in illicit operations so as to generate income. The main activities in organized crime involve illegal gambling, frauds on credit cards, insurance, smuggling, ransom kidnapping, prostitution, gun running, drug trafficking, money laundering, and vehicle theft. Organized crime also involves the coming together of individuals with the potential of committing grave offenses on a long term basis. In addition, such activities would involve aspects of planning, coordination, and control where the main motivation would not necessarily be financial gain. Evidently, mafia activities as well as corporate crimes have been reported in different parts even in third world nations. Increased growth of organized crime in other regions derives from weak and collapsing governments, ethnic tension, wars, widening poverty and economic instability, faulty privatizations, and incidences of high level corruption. Wealthier nations have the highest rate of consumption of illicit drugs as well as trafficking of poor people. In the same vein, motor vehicles and firearms are ferried from developing nations to poorer ones but then the people do not manage to buy such commodities at the market price. There will be more use of new technologies by groups involved in organized crime as a way to boost their operations. Moreover, advancement of communications technology would assist in providing new targets as well as improved security for perpetrators of organized crime. EUROPOL has been involved in monitoring the trends in organized crime across Europe. In its findings it discovered that there are approximately 3600 groups engaged in organized crime in the EU.

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