Organised Crime - International

Question 1

How can you define organised crime

Answer 1

1) Contains at least 3 people
2) Criminal activity is prolonged or indefinite
3) Motivated by profit or power
4) Commit serious criminal offences

Question 2

What are the categories of organised crime in the UK

Answer 2

A = Drug trafficing , Excise fraud, VAT fraud, immigration crime
B = Drug trafficing, child pornography & Paedophilia, Vehichle theft, counterfeit
C = Art Theft, benefit fraud, enviromental crime, counterfeit

Question 3

Media impact on organised crime

Answer 3

• 33% of all articles are on immigration crime which is responsible for 3.4 billion £ loss
• 27% of all articles are on drug trafficing which is responsible for 13.6 billion £ loss

More focus on immigration crime ergo more media focus = more govt. focus?

Question 4

Overview of the Sicilian Mafia

Answer 4

• In 2007 their turn over was 128 billion euro - 7% of Italy’s GDP
• 80% of businesses in some cities pay for protection
• Originally came to Sicily in 1860 to resent rule from Turin
• Took over the policing role

Question 5

Structure of the Sicilian Mafia

Answer 5

Boss -> Consigliere -> Underboss -> Group leaders -> Men of Honour

Many “steps” to get through makes it difficult to get to the god father

Question 6

Russian Mafiya overview

Answer 6

• Extremely Violent -> Former KGB (Due to economic collapse of the USSR, a lot of former special forces & KGB turned to organised crime)
• Independant to societies / Communities around them (Unlike Sicilian Mafia)

Question 7

Growth of Russian Mafiya

Answer 7

1990 - 785 gangs with 60,000 members by 2000

50,000 companies owned by Mafiya, 60% of them are state-owned.

Russian Mafiya accounts for 40% of Russian GNP

Foreign companies pay up to 20% to Russian Mafiya groups

Question 8

Features of Russian Mafiya

Answer 8

• Systemic use of Violence
• Hierarchal Structure + Exclusive membership
• Miltiary Style Discipline
• Possess high tech military grade equipment

Question 9

Structure of the Russian Mafiya

Answer 9

Boss -> Brigadier -> Soldier

Less ground for police to cover when making arrests

Question 10

Yakuza power structure

Answer 10

Supreme Boss -> (Senior Advisor -> Advisor, Accountants, Secretaires), No. 2 Man, No.3 Man -> Senior Bosses -> Junior Leaders

Much more complicated system, makes it a lot harder for police to climb up the hiearchal tree

Question 11

Key concepts of the Yakuza

Answer 11

• Giri = Idea of duty, responsibility and loyalty
• Dyabun-Kobun = Mentor relationship + Loyalty
• Sokaiya = Focus on disrupting stockholder meetings
• Yubitsuma = Self-mutilation ritual
• Links to Genyosha (Far right extremists)
• Membership is on a steady decline (down to 20,000 in 2020 - Statista)

Question 12

Media impact on the Yakuza

Answer 12

• Very protective of their media image
• Prevet negative Coverage
• Robert Maxwell tanked a book on the Yakuza as a favor to the chairman of Sony
• Juzo Itami was murdered after making 2 films with negative depiction of the Yakuza