NCJ Number
132583
Date Published
1990
Length
171 pages
Annotation
This study surveyed the opinions of 26 West German experts concerning Europe's growing organized crime problem.
Abstract
The experts were chosen from different professional fields and responded to questionnaires exploring their opinions on the current situation and the future development of organized crime. The majority of experts felt that the current trend toward increased professionalism and the internationalization of organized crime will continue into the future. Especially in Eastern Europe, an unprepared population will face the massive influx of organized crime in search of new markets. In West Germany, new crime networks are emerging that are slowly eroding the population's confidence in the criminal justice system. However, few experts believe that large-scale crime organizations will create mafia like circumstances in Germany; at least for the moment, the high standard of professional ethics among the West German police and other government employees makes massive corruption unlikely. In addition, recent countermeasures and legal changes in the West German criminal justice system will help prevent an uncontrollable spread of organized crime. However, prompt international solutions to organized crime problems (for example, legal reforms, highly trained teams of crime fighters, concerted preventive efforts, and a European information system) were listed as the most effective ways of fighting organized crime. A list of experts and the questionnaires are appended.