NCJ Number
191391
Journal
Jane's Intelligence Review Volume: 12 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2000 Pages: 10-11
Date Published
September 2000
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article identifies various patterns of state corruption that facilitate the activities of transnational organized crime.
Abstract
Organized crime uses instrumental, or targeted corruption, as a major instrument of influence. Its efforts can range from operational corruption -- designed to facilitate its illegal activities -- to systemic corruption that not only reduces a state's defenses, but seeks to transform attitudes and policies toward organized crime from hostility to acquiescence or even collusion. There are different targets in various categories of states. Most transnational criminal organizations want a home base from which they can operate with a high degree of impunity. Home states are, therefore, the most likely to be targeted with systemic or pervasive corruption designed to transform the state into a safe haven. Since transnational organized crime groups generally operate from a home base, many of their activities involve the trafficking of illegal goods and services across national borders to a host or market state. This may involve passing illegal goods through one or more transshipment states. In these states, corruption, at least in its early phases, is more selective and designed simply to facilitate the movement of illicit commodities through the state. A service state is a state with a financial sector that provides essential services for criminal organizations and that can be used to move, hide, and protect the proceeds of illegal activities. Criminal organizations will seek to corrupt these governments for the purpose of resisting efforts to counter money laundering. Host or market states have lucrative markets or other attractive targets for criminal activity. Although it is difficult for criminal organizations to establish the pervasive corruption in host states that characterize the home state, some inroads can be made, particularly at the local level. Many transnational criminal organizations operate within ethnic enclaves in host countries, thus making it difficult for law enforcement to penetrate because of language and cultural barriers. The interplay between corrupt states and those that counter corruption will do much to determine the future of organized crime.