Criminalistics - State-of-the-Art in Recent Decades (From Bestandanfnahme und Perspektiven der Verbrechensbekaempfung, P 17-30, 1982 - See NCJ-89221)

• NCJ Number: 89222
• Author(s): W Burghard
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: German
• Country: West Germany (Former)
• Note: Paper delivered at Workshop of Bundiscriminalamt in Wiesbaden (W. Germany) 9-12 November, 1981

Annotation

Although organized crime in the scope of American crime syndicates is not a problem in West Germany, many offenses evidence organizational characteristics against which existing law enforcement strategies are inadequate.

Abstract

Gradations of criminal organization involve increasingly complex levels of planning and coordination, ranging from incidental offenses perpetrated by amateurs, to criminals specializing in skilled crime forms, professionals running cycles of specialized criminal jobs, and finally to crime managers who direct complex operations with the scope of large business enterprises. Enforcement planning and coordination should be at a level equal to the criminals. However, police efforts at combatting organized crime are limited by legal, political, circumstantial, and administrative constraints. Criminal police activities are stymied by constitutional limits, specific laws regulating information and evidence collection, conflicting priorities in policework, outdated hierarchical authority structures, impeding bureaucratic and administrative arrangements, and inadequate training for both managerial and investigative functions. Proactive techniques of investigation and more liberal interagency cooperation regarding information exchange with the police must be established.