NCJ Number
157998
Journal
Bulletin on Narcotics Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Dated: (1994) Pages: 9-24
Date Published
1994
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article identifies the key environmental factors that foster the development of transnational criminal organizations and explores the intrinsic relationship between these organizations and their home and host states.
Abstract
Transnational criminal organizations both contribute to and are a consequence of political and economic upheavals globally and nationally. Inequalities, instability, and the disintegration of authority structures provide conditions that stimulate the rise of these criminal organizations. Transnational criminal organizations also have a serious exacerbating effect on instability and negative consequences for their home and host states. They can threaten the integrity of government institutions, increase the level of violence and corruption in the society, undermine the democratization process, and discourage foreign investment in societies. Moreover, their capacity to circumvent national regulations and restrictions on the provision of illicit goods and to traffic in people, arms, and drugs across national borders is a threat to the capacity of states to exercise the traditional prerogatives of sovereignty. Yet these criminal organizations also have some positive effects. Drug trafficking, for example, contributes to foreign exchange for states such as Bolivia and Colombia; the criminal organizations provide job opportunities that would not otherwise be available and supply a safety net should there be a downturn in the licit economy. A comprehensive strategy to prevent the emergence and strengthening of criminal organizations should reduce opportunities for illicit profitmaking, minimize pressures and incentives, and diminish the resources of organized crime. 7 references