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Citation: Farrand Carrapico, Helena (2013) The European Union’s fight against cybercrime: ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime newsletter. Standing Group on Organised Crime Newsletter, 10 (1). pp. 8-9.

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January 2013Volume 10, Issue 1

Editorial noteTransnational Organised NewsThe Editors

Page 2

In the Spotlight: The EuropeanAntimafia CommissionThe Editors

Page 3

Beyond the Statitics…by Filippo Beatrice

Page 3

Methodology Series: ResearchingOrganised Crime in Southeast Eu-rope by Fabian Zhilla

Page 4 - 5

A new partnership against crimedoes not mean police privatisa-tion.by William Hughes

Page 6-7

The European Union’s fightagainst cybercrimeby Helena Carrapico

Page 8-9

Is there a role for the private sec-tor and academia in tackling orga-nised crime?by Roger Aldridge

Page 10

In ThIs Issue

In a pub at Paddington Station in Lon-don at the end of October 2012, somesenior and new members of the SGOC,in an informal and yet productive atmos-phere, have set and agreed upon new di-rections for the Group starting from 2013,beginning with 9 panels at the ECPRGeneral Conference inSeptember 2013 in Bor-deaux and including ex-citing news on the verypopular thematic sum-mer schools. Interest-ing, innovative andchallenging plans willunfold ahead of us thisyear and this newsletter,with new editors, newideas and new coloursand layout, is part of the plan, in continu-ation with the brilliant work done by theGroup so far.

The newsletter, from this issue, willaim at challenging mainstream notionsabout research on OC by reflecting uponpartnership between academics andpractitioners from public and private sec-tors. Themes of the newsletter will pro-

mote maturity, reliability and relevance ofresearch methods for OC research andwill engage in communication with differ-ent sectors in order to reach more realis-tic scenarios. Example of communicationamong sectors are the articles and reflec-tions by William Hughes, Former Director

General of the Serious Or-ganised Crime Agency inthe UK and by RogerAldridge, Former Director ofForensics at KPMG in Lon-don. Two very differentvoices for very similar calls.A contribution from FilippoBeatrice, from the DirezioneNazionale Antimafia inRome, also calls forchanges in the way results

are read in investigations, while, last, butnot least, a contribution from Dr. FabianZhilla introduces a theme which is verydear to us. The production of comprehen-sive knowledge on Organised Crime hastraditionally known one key enemy:scarcity of data, borne out of the percep-tion of close-up empirical research on thematter as unfeasible and prohibitivelyrisky.

Due to its paramountimportance for under-standing OC, thisnewsletter will feature,over the coming issues, aseries of reflections sur-rounding the (unrealized)potentials and constraintsof research on OC. Basedon contributors’ divergentbackgrounds, this serieswill put the spotlight oncontextual methodologi-cal adaptations as well asthe impact of disciplinaryand professional perspec-tives.

New Year, New Directionsby FALKO A. ERNST and ANNA SERGI, Centre for Criminology, University of Essex

Building from the pre-vious hard work of theSGOC excutive mem-bers and editors, thisnewsletter is part ofthe restyling of the

group’s organisation.

ECPR General Conference 2013

Page 10

Newsletter

2 ECPR Standing Group on Organised CrimeJanuary 2013, Volume 10, Issue 1

Transnational Organised News

Can terrorism be prevented bymeans of situational crime preven-tion and perhaps even be a relevanttool for tackling Organised Crime? Astaggering 81% of German Populationwould opt, according to a survey, for“Brit-style CCTV”, as Der Spiegel putsit(http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/bonn-bomb-triggers-calls-for-greater-use-of-cctv-surveillance-in-ger-many-a-873185.html). Significantly less attention is mean-while being paid to German firearmsmanufacturer Heckler & Koch’s allegedillegal shipping of arms to conflicted,embargoed regions of Mexico. Mexi-cans themselves are currently more fo-cused on changes promised byPresident Enrique Peña Nieto, sworninto office on the 1st of December2012. The latter prominently includedthe announcement to address thecountry’s security issues by prioritizingthe reduction of kidnapping and extor-tion whilst remaining rather silent withregards to questions of TransnationalOrganised Crime and the cooperationwith the neighbour to the north(http://mexicoinstitute.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/president-pena-nietos-secu-rity-strategy-the-expert-take/). Although this raises concerns amongstdedicated drug-warriors, arguments fora change in drug policy recently camefrom within, as Le Monde puts it, the“United States of Marijuana”(http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/201 2 / 1 2 / 2 6 / u n i t e d - s t a t e s - o f -marijuana_1810454_3232.html) inform of legalization measures passedin Colorado and Washington. Promi-nent (elder) statesmen from across theAmericas have been praising the di-smantling of the prohibition regime asthe way to go for quite a while(http://www.drogasedemocracia.org/Arquivos/declaracao_ingles_site.pdf).Whether or not this would in fact proveto be the desired effective weaponagainst the regional drug-fueled vio-lence is being doubted, however. Toodiversified, the argument goes, are in-come-generating activities by regionalillicit actors, making them sufficiently in-vulnerable. The trend for organised criminal groupsto diversify their fields of activity hasfurthermore produced a worrisome

scenario for wildlife protection activists.Illegal poaching and wildlife traffickinghas undergone a significant professio-nalization in southern Africa and is nowbeing carried out with the help of mili-tary grade equipment. Not only doesthe rising demand (mainly) from South-East Asia and China for goods such asrhino-horn powder endanger certainspecies, an estimated overall volumeof 12 billion USD (http://www.guar-dian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/12/wildlife-trafficking-national-security-wwf)in illegal wildlife trade furthermore tran-slates into a threat for political stability,as US secretary of state, Hillary Clin-ton, recently reiterated (http://www.huf-fingtonpost.com/dr-cristian-samper/the-connection-between sp_b_2220725.html). Experiencing a strong momentum in anumber of European countries, crystal-line methamphetamine – better knownas crystal meth or ice – is continuingwhat looks like an eventual globaltriumph. Formerly confined mainly tothe US and subsequently popularizedin Asia, its relatively uncomplicated pro-duction and high profit margins makethe drug known for its grave health ef-fects appear to be the next big thing tohit European drug markets(http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Cry-stal-Meth-drug-set-to-wreak-havoc-in-Ireland-say-experts-there--148165755.html;http://www.france24.com/en/20121119-germany-europe-drug-trafficking-cry-stal-meth-methamphetamine).Not amongst the next big things for re-gular consumers are Blackberry devi-ces, appearing outdated in comparisonto the omnipresent I-phones and simi-lar devices. A certain clientele is, howe-ver, likely to remain true to the brand,as Australian police recently complai-ned (http://www.smh.com.au/techno-logy/security/organised-crime-gets-smar t -wi th- technology-20121230-2c1iy.html). Relying on wiretaps tomake cases against organised crimi-nals (much like scholars who often re-digest official records), the codingsystem used by the company makes ittough to impossible to intercept com-munication via blackberry. As so often,one man’s meat is another man’s poi-son.

The Editors

Available for Download

Report on Organised Crime in the EuropeanUnion, 06.10.2011http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pu-bRef=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A7-2011-0333+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN

European Commission - Home AffairsOrganised Crime and Human Trafficking, Adop-ted Legislation, International Conventions, Stu-dieshttp://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/e-library/docu-ments/policies/organized-crime-and-human-traffic-king/general/index_en.htm

European Commission - Home Affairs, Confisca-tion & Asset Recoveryhttp://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/po-licies/organized-crime-and-human-trafficking/confi-scation-and-asset-recovery/index_en.htm

Home Office UK - The Contribution of FinancialInvestigation to Tackling Organised Crime: AQualitative Study, September 2012http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-rese-arch/horr65?view=Binary

European Commission - Proposal for a Directiveof the European Parliament and the Council onthe freezing and confiscation of proceeds ofcrime in the European Union, March 2012http://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/news/intro/docs/20120312/1_en_act_part1_v8_1.pdf

UNODC - Manual on International Cooperationfor the Purposes of Confiscation of Proceeds ofCrime, September 2012http://www.unodc.org/documents/organized-crime/Publications/Confiscation_Manual_Ebook_E.pdf

Transparency International - Organised Crime,Corruption, And The Vulnerability Of DefenceAnd Security Forces, Report, April 2012http://www.ti-defence.org/publications/858-organi-sed-crime,-corruption,-and-the-vulnerability-of-de-fence-and-security-forces

Research Institute for European and AmericanStudies - “Illegal Immigration and OrganizedCrime in Greece”, Research Paper No.144, (JohnM. Nomikos, 2010)http://www.rieas.gr/images/rieas144.pdf

The Research Institute for European and Ame-

rican Studies (RIEAS) invites young scholars

to contribute articles for publication into

RIEAS Publications Series. For more informa-

tion, please, contact: Dr. John M. Nomikos,

RIEAS Director at [email protected]

www.rieas.grwww.rieas.gr

3ECPR Standing Group on Organised CrimeJanuary 2013, Volume 10, Issue 1

Sifting through the limited statisticswe’re often forced to work with cansometimes lead to some interesting di-scoveries. For example, that the PublicProsecutor’s Office in Naples asked forand obtained roughly twenty-five thou-sand orders of arrest over four years(2006 – 2010). Add on the some sixteenthousand sanctions issued by judgesafter arrests in flagrante delicto to theprovisional arrests and the number ofpeople imprisoned following finalisedconvictions, and the final figure is sur-prising to say the least: more than fiftythousand people arrested in just fouryears as a result of the coordinated de-tective work of the Neapolitan PublicProsecutor's office.

All of this makes me pause forthought. First of all, I understand thatthe repeated requests of high-rankinglegal officials in Naples (and in the Re-

gion in general) to improve the resour-ces currently available should not beviewed as complaints, since they arebased on the very real and concreteneed to strengthen the necessary fightagainst crime. In fact, our colleagues(who are often forced to work in condi-tions that are tough, to say the least)should be given due credit for alwaysthinking about the future.

But this is not what I want to reflecton. Such large numbers give the im-pression of a police state, a mass roun-dup and ultimately (if this is the case)that there are very few survivors leftamong the criminals living in a forest-turned-desert. But is this really howthings are? In fact, in spite of a range ofprecautionary measures and confisca-tions of mafia assets, there is undenia-bly still a strong and constant Camorrapresence in Naples and in Campania.

This means that weare facing a pheno-menon that needsto be interpretedcorrectly before itcan be fought suc-cessfully.

In other words, and leaving asidemore complex issues for now, we can-not deny that the fragmentation of Ca-morra clans has increased the numberof places where important decisions oncriminal strategies are taken. This ex-plains why it has become difficult tomaintain that removing the leaders of aclan is a way of dislodging others in asort of domino effect. Furthermore, theorganisational structures adopted bythese groups are very flexible, so muchso that Camorra organisations oftenemploy the criminal services of mem-bers of other clans, thereby making theCamorra particularly well-representedin the legal markets and in society.

All in all, it seems that the ‘metaphorof liquidity’, thought up by one of thegreatest living thinkers, Polish philoso-pher Zygmunt Bauman, can be appliedto the Camorra. According to Bauman,modern human relationships are cha-racterised by a certain fluidity, which –for example – makes power indepen-dent of a specific locality. Looking at theCamorra from this unique perspective,we can perhaps try to construct newways of fighting organised crime, len-ding particular attention to its continualgrowth rather than its seemingly stablestructures.

*Direzione Nazionale Antimafia,Rome

Translation by Pheobe Murray.

Beyond the statistics …by FILIPPO BEATRICE*

In March 2012, the Euro-pean Parliament plenarysession in Strasbourg esta-blished a parliamentary com-mission to investigate theextent of infiltration and theharms caused by organisedcrime, mainly of Italian ori-gin, to EU countries.

The work of the Euro-pean Antimafia Commission,called CRIM Commission,began in April 2012 whenMP Sonia Alfano has beenappointed chair for one year,renewable. Alfano’s father, ajournalist, was assassinatedin 1993 by the Mafia andSonia Alfano has always

been very active in the fightagainst organised crime,especially as president ofthe National Association ofMafia victims in Italy. Shehas been very proactive inpushing forward the idea ofthe special committee to theEuropean Parliament, afterestablishing how Mafias costthe EU more than €500 bil-lion a year, of which €140billion in Italy.

Alongside Alfano, fourvice-chairs have beennamed: Italian Socialist Ro-sario Crocetta, Governor ofSicily who had already de-clared war to Cosa Nostra in

Sicily when Mayor of Gela in2003; Rui Tavares (Greens-EFA, Portugal), Timothy Kir-khope (ECR, UK) and SorenBo Sondergaard (EUL-NGL,Denmark).

A policy of zero tolerancewill inform and inspire thework of the Commission, ac-cording to Alfano, especiallyby targeting those white-col-lar criminals who infiltratepublic institutions and consti-tute a tremendous help toMafia criminals. Some bestpractices from Italian Anti-mafia successes will be pro-posed, like for example the

reallocation of confiscatedMafia assets to social uses,as is done in Italy. The Com-mission has started its workfrom Italy with public hea-rings of experts in October2012. Alfano seems verycommitted to the cause andthe CRIM will aim to presenta plan to the EU Parliamentas a single Antimafia docu-ment, able to coordinate ac-tivities across the MemberStates and to provide a uni-que response to the threat,which needs not to be unde-restimated.

The Editors

IN THE SPOTLIGHTThe European AntimafiaCommission


In the present issue, Dr.Fabian Zhilla commences the

series with a reflection -aimed mostly but not only at(perspective) PhD students -

on challenges he faced whilstconducting field work in Alba-

nia from 2008 to 2012

Researching Organised Crime in post-communist societies is a challenge.Methodological literature being limited ingeneral, this is even more so for casestudies conducted in Southeast Europe.Also, classical criminological researchmethods echo themes such as the studyof prisons, gender, and restorative justiceand are not necessarily relevant for thestudy of Organised Crime. Furthermore,the structure and terminology of method-ologies is overloaded with technical terms,definitions, and intricate field-work strate-gies which may even prove counterpro-ductive for probing Organised Crime inSoutheast Europe.

Both quantitative and qualitative re-search into Organised Crime is generallyvery expensive and time consuming. A re-searcher does not have the luxury of con-ducting several ‘experiments’ beforedeciding which research strategy worksbest. Complying with the deadline is alsoa challenge. Both field work and post-fieldwork need to be carefully prepared, thelatter may take twice as long as the timespent collecting the data. The organisa-tion, assessment, analysis and validationof data are an on-going process whichagain can be difficult to keep on schedule.If data are in a different language from thatof the thesis, then the process of dataanalysis becomes even more difficult andtime consuming. There being little spaceto ‘experiment’, the researcher has to becreative, efficient and he needs to optimisehis data collection instruments.

Ethical barriers are another obstaclethat can be unpredictable in terms of tim-ing a research plan. Studies of OrganisedCrime are considered ‘high risk’ by almostall prestigious universities. The nature ofthese projects requires the researcher tobe very well organised and to considervery carefully every potential hazard.Studies of Organised Crime deal with sen-sitive data and human participants. All rea-sonable steps to ensure that his safetyand that of his respondents are not com-

promised need therefore to be taken. Theresearcher also has to be informed of thelegal consequences of any breach of dataprotection laws. He should consider rele-vant criminal laws that oblige the re-searcher to report any information that heuncovers during his field work. Many PhDstudents often neglect ethical constraints.They are then surprised how difficult andhow much time it may take to comply withthis issue. The thorny rule is that you can-not collect data without getting ethical ap-proval first, and that any data assembledbefore can be dismissed. Ethical clear-ance for a high risk study can take fromtwo to six months. And this is only the be-ginning.

The next challenge is how to mitigatethe difficulties generated by ethical re-quirements while embarked on the fieldwork. Indicators of the progress of the ruleof law in Southeast Europe are not verypromising and it does not take too long torealise how complex the relationship is be-tween society and legal institutions. Insuch a context, it is very hard to follow eth-ical rules practically and encourage peopleto talk. For instance, it is difficult to askjudges, prosecutors or state police to signa consent form beforehand for a projectthat explores the role of corrupt judgesand prosecutors in the fight against Or-ganised Crime. It is also risky to interviewa criminal and ask him to sign his consentfor questions that may deal with the struc-

ture of both his criminal activity or typologyof his criminal organisation. All these par-ticipants may immediately think that youare an investigative journalist. The criminalmay also suspect that you are part of acover-up investigation wanting to collectevidence that can be used to prosecutehim. In both scenarios, the researchermay risk harming the data. He may alsobe risking his professional career, even hislife.

Another concern to be considered ishow to access participants, and this phaseof the project can also be unpredictable.My strategy of studying Organised Crimewas based on interviewing judges, prose-cutors, investigative journalists and NGOs,and a review of secondary data.

I avoided formal interviews withcrimi-nals because my research objective wasnot Organised Crime per se. My projectprobed the interplay of Organised Crimewith judicial corruption. If you plan to in-terview prisoners, the clearance proce-dure from the authorities can take a longtime. However, I did conduct some spon-taneous and informal conversations withformer drug dealers, without mentioningthat I was a researcher. I kept notes butcould not include them as quotes in mythesis because of the ethical barriers. Yet,I used these notes to sharpen my inter-view questions with prosecutors andjudges. These notes also helped me toform a better idea of the typology of crim-inal networks. I also cross-checked for-mer criminals’ opinions with the datacollected from other participants. Some-times, criminals want to ‘show off’ andtheir statements can be filled with unnec-essary embellishment, often about their‘lavish lifestyle’. So, first, you need todraw a line between reliable data and an-ecdotal data. A second problem I facedduring those informal conversations wasthat most of these criminals’ activitieswere conducted outside Albania, while Iwas more interested in probing patternsand typology of Organised Crime groupsactive inside the country. Their interplaywith judges or prosecutors was minimal.At least one of them was running a suc-cessful business and his relationship withcourts was like that of a normal business-man. Third, the structure and organisingpatterns of criminal groups might havechanged from the time when the inter-viewed former drug dealers were active;thus my data could risk being outdated.

Fabian Zhilla (source:http://www.acade-mia.edu)

Researching Organised Crime in Southeast Europeby Fabian Zhilla*

Methodology SeriesMethodology Series


Another unpredicted research chal-lenge was access to different categoriesof participants. Based on some pilot inter-views in Albania, I initially thought judgeswould be the hardest to approach. Theylacked official contacts such as telephonenumbers or email addresses. Theirschedules were very busy and most oftheir court sessions were held in their of-fices. The only way to meet them was ei-ther in coffee shops or in their offices. Sotaking all these factors into account, I al-located more time to judges in my re-search plan.

And it proved right. However, the mostdifficult participants to access were pros-ecutors which took me more time than ex-pected as an informal ‘clearance’ by chiefprosecutors was needed. In addition, inpractical terms, it was difficult to find pros-ecutors in their offices as they were eitherin court sessions or dealing with state po-lice in interrogating criminals or wit-nesses. It was also hard to rely on ascheduled meeting with them because asudden criminal case would require themto go and investigate the crime scene.Sometimes, my interviews were inter-rupted due to urgent phone calls. This ofcourse affected the flow of the interviewand the schedule. I faced the same prob-lem when interviewing judges in their of-fices. It’s hard to realise how much timethese obstacles can take. And if not prop-erly thought through in advance they canseriously limit the number of participants,

weaken the interview (by not asking allplanned questions), and as a result thereliability of the data (cross-checking).

Another factor to reckon with is thatnot all interviewees will be willing to coop-erate. In my case study, I would usuallyspot within ten minutes when a judge orprosecutor felt uncomfortable talking tome as they showed signs such as: shortanswers of ‘yes’ or ‘no’, repeated check-ing of their watch and frequent mention-ing of the law (‘the law says this, the legalprocedure is that’). In contrast, interviewswith advocates/solicitors, NGOs and es-

pecially with investigativejournalists were more re-laxed and friendly and someof them were also willing tosuggest further sources.Timing with ‘criminals’ is,however, not a problem.They too want to speak andtell their stories. But withthem the main issue is tokeep the discourse calmand smooth.

To conclude, there is noblueprint methodology that aresearcher of OrganisedCrime in Southeast Europecan strictly rely on. It is advis-able that at least two re-search trips be made beforeembarking on the field work,to establish a layout of theresearch challenges, and to

conduct pilot interviews. He should also beprepared for ‘unpleasant’ surprises and beflexible with the timing. Although not dis-cussed in this article because of its shortformat, the researcher should also be fa-miliar with the customary norms of his re-search site.

Southeast Europe is known for its va-riety of customs and cultures which arecondensed in a small territory. And finally,a researcher should be creative and havea plan B in advance on how to overcomeresearch challenges.

* Completed his PhD at King’sCollege London.

Albania (source: http://data.un.org)

Intersections of Crime and TerrorEdited by James J.F. ForestPublished November 29th 2012 by Rou-tledge

Corruption and Organized Crime inEurope Illegal partnershipsBy Philip Gounev, Vincenzo RuggieroPublished 20th May 2012 by Routledge

Illegal Markets and the Economics ofOrganized CrimeEdited by Martin Bouchard, Chris WilkinsPublished 7th May 2012 by Routledge

An Introduction to Transnational Cri-minal Lawby Neil BoisterPublished September 2012 Oxford Uni-versity Press

Situational Prevention of OrganisedCrimes

Edited by Ronald Clarke, Karen Bullock,Nick TilleyPublished March 2012 by Routledge

Fighting Corruption in Eastern Eu-rope. A Multilevel PerspectiveEdited by Diana Schmidt-Pfister, HolgerMoroffPublished 31st May 2012 by Routledge

Criminal Insurgencies in Mexico andthe AmericasThe Gangs and Cartels Wage WarEdited by Robert BunkerPublished 3rd September 2012 by Rou-tledge

Deconstructing the Mafia: An Histori-cal and Theoretical Study of Organi-zed Crimeby Joseph L. Albini and Jeffrey ScottMcIllwainPublished by McFarland & Co. in 2012

Transnational Crime and HumanRights. Responses to Human Traffic-king in the Greater Mekong SubregionBy Susan Kneebone, Julie DebeljakPublished by Routledge, September2012

Traditional Organized Crime in the Mo-dern WorldEdited by Dina Siegel, Henk van de BuntPublished by Springer, 2012

Special Issue: Organized Crime andSituational Crime PreventionTrends in Organised Crime Volume 15,Issue 2-3 – September 2012Springer

Lush Life: Constructing OrganizedCrime in the UKby Dick HobbsPublished by Oxford University Press,January 2013

Publication Monitor 2012Publication Monitor 2012


The police service in the UK is facingsignificant funding reductions that arelikely to last until the next election at least.Demands for service from the police havenot reduced, based upon the growing bre-adth of police involvement in society thathas developed over the last 30 years. Inmany cases, other agencies have step-ped back from their duty leaving the po-lice to pick up the responsibility.

Many forces initially sought to dealwith this funding shortfall by adopting “sa-lami-slicing” throughout their budgets, butquickly began to realise that cannot beapplied year on year without a significantimpact upon services provided, especiallyby the smaller units, or in particular seg-ments of the police portfolio. Some reali-sed that there was little merit in a systemof 43 forces in England and Wales all du-plicating support services that could beprovided regionally or nationally at farless cost. However, government so farhas rejected the idea of rationalising thislocal system, except in Scotland, whichnow has one police force replacing the 8previous ones.

Many in government appear to wantto see more “outsourcing” by the police ofmany of their tasks, and in some circles,this became a rush towards “privatisation”of the police. Inevitably this has led to po-larisation between those who favour thetype of approach to the public sector thatthe present government has advocated,and those who fear that the change willdegrade the public service ethos of thepolice. Of course, others see this as a re-duction in numbers of members of policeand related staff associations.

In this article, I want to talk primarilyabout the impact upon the way in whichserious organised crime is dealt with inthe UK and to how we consider alternati-ves which may reduce the burden uponthe police service, upon the courts andprisons, but especially upon the citizensof the UK. Public opinion on how seriousorganised crime should be combatted willinvariably refer to it as a “police issue”.That is also the case for government Mi-nisters and officials, and tidily “pigeon-holes” the problem. Now all that isneeded is for the police to do more and

become more effective at doing it, and theproblem will be solved.

Unfortunately, the police are actuallydoing as much as they can now, or atleast in so far as the current orthodoxy al-lows. Intelligence identifies those who canbecome targets for surveillance and intel-ligence-led operations; teams are taskedand assemble evidence. Arrests aremade and cases presented in court lea-ding to convictions and sentencing. Someasset recovery and proceeds of crimework then takes place, before all move onto the next operation.

But whilst the police teams concen-trate upon the small proportion of criminalenterprises that are a) in the UK, b) arecommitting crime in any of the gover-nment selected target crime sectors, andc) that resources exist that can deal withthe operation against them, there is anarmy of serious organised criminals goingabout their business with impunity.

Latterly attempts have been made todevelop strategies aimed at high volumeapproaches, seeking to disrupt, destabi-

lise and dismantle organised crime enter-prises without necessarily involving pro-secution. This reduces considerably theamount of work that is needed, but it in-volves police in an area that is beset bydifficulties and constitutional minefields.

For centuries, the position in the UKis that all should have the right to hear thecase against them properly presented inan impartial court, subject to challengeand with the right to present their own de-fence. The new approaches rely uponother means to tackle criminal enterprise,including the civil courts and novel ap-proaches that are still in their infancy andmay well be challenged in due course.

The fundamental problem is that therehas to be a new partnership between civilsociety, academia, government and thepolice in order to deal with serious orga-nised crime.

This will enable the UK to be moresuccessful in dealing with serious organi-sed crime, and will also require less re-sources and inflict less damage uponsociety, resulting in reduced ancillary coststo victims, the courts and commerce.

When we started SOCA, we called to-gether academics from all over the UK toget an idea of the type of activity they sawas being effective and to generate newareas for research and development. Wewanted SOCA to lead the way againstcrime, seeking to “design it out” and toenable commerce and individuals to pre-vent themselves becoming victims, andindeed, to go further and become activeopponents of crime and criminals.

A new partnership againstcrime does not meanpolice privatisation

by WILLIAM HUGHES*



That attempt faded for want of resour-ces, time and effort, and a distinct lack ofofficial support. However, the initial mee-tings that were held produced severalgood ideas that were incorporated withinSOCA to significant effect. This includeda formalised system for alerting when cri-minals sought to exploit vulnerabilities,and to demonstrate the methods of ope-ration so that better systems could bebuilt to withstand them.

Formalised policing structures cannotsell their services, or provide focussed ac-tivity for revenue, in the way that privatesecurity organisations can. For many inbusiness, the cost of the private securitycompany is a small percentage of theamount it saves by investigating and con-centrating on fraud and theft for example.Insurance companies and financial busi-nesses regularly use such facilities, whichmakes a sound business case for them,at no cost to the taxpayer and no impactupon police resources. Police FraudSquads hardly exist now outside of Lon-don and this is an area that the policehave withdrawn from already.

There are some in business and so-ciety who feel that as they pay tax andrates, the full services of the police shouldbe available to them without cost. This is

a point that has to be addressed, and go-vernment to date has been particularlypoor at so doing. Their message of fun-ding reductions for the police, but still ex-pecting the police to do everything foreveryone is an exercise in dissembling. Itcould be argued that central governmentnow has two “fall guys” when services failto satisfy, with a Chief Constable and nowa Police and Crime Commissioner.

However, it remains the case that theprivate sector can alleviate much of thedemand upon the police and reduce theimpact of crime upon society, without en-croaching upon the police role in maintai-ning public order and protecting citizensfrom robbery and assault. The privatesector will have to expect greater publicaccountability and better regulation ofwhat has been a very mixed ability classuntil now in private security organisations,and the infiltration of organised crime hasto be recognised and dealt with.

So improving the situation recognisesthat the police service is there to providepublic protection and support in recogni-sed areas of need, that the private sectorcan provide cost effective approaches totake serious organised crime out of theequation or reduce its impact considera-bly, and there has to be a greater concen-

tration on research and methodology todevelop crime-cutting techniques for thefuture. I am not talking about developingbetter radios for the public services or thebetter use of technology. There has beenprecious little fundamental theorisingsince the days of Jeremy Bentham, butthat is not to say that the capability is notthere in the UK. On the contrary, I havebeen fortunate to see excellent examplesof how academic research can benefit so-ciety in more radical ways. This requiresconcentrated effort and commitment towhole new approaches across public andprivate sectors. It will not be achieved bysimply privatising the police or by allowingthe private sector to “cherry-pick” profita-ble opportunities.

There is a proper way that we can ad-dress the resolution of the budget deficitand provide better service to the citizensof the UK, but it requires dedication andcommitment over the long-term from allsectors of society. I hold out no greathope that will occur, but if it did, what adifference could be made.

* Former Director General Serious Or-ganised Crime Agency, UK

Intrenational Directior Buelight GlobalSolutions Ltd.

Bill Hughes (source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk)



The importance of cyber security, in itsdifferent facets, has grown exponen-tially, accompanying the digital revolution inindustry and households. From personalcomputers to smartphones and cloud com-puting, the range of devices interconnec-ting individuals and allowing them totransfer data has become considerably di-verse. Simultaneously, the number of on-line users has increased beyondexpectations, revealing a dramatic changein the way we conduct business, developour professional activities, and interact withothers. According to a RAND study, onethird of EU citizens was already using on-line banking in 2010, and, in 2011, 73% ofEuropean households had access to theInternet (European Commission, 2012a).Such technological and social revolution,however, carries the seeds of potentialrisks.

Given Europe’s advanced degree ofdependence in the area of online commu-nications and transactions, policy-makers,and citizens in general, have come to per-ceive the digital world as in need of protec-tion from possible abuse. The latter maytake various forms, including crimesagainst individuals (harassment, hate spe-ech, and unauthorized access and usageof personal data), crimes against property(computer vandalism and data intercep-tion), and crimes against States (attacksagainst Estonia’s critical information infra-structure). From this perspective, the con-cept of cybercrime designates a set ofspecific crimes related to the use of com-puters and networks. It can also be emplo-yed to refer to the facilitation of traditionalillegal activities through information and te-chnology means (such as the exchange ofchild pornography images, or money laun-dering). According to the Council of Eu-rope, cybercrime can be defined as a“criminal activity including offences againstcomputer data and systems, computer-re-lated offences, content offences and copy-right offences” (2001).

The concept, however, remains consi-derably elastic, with substantial differencesacross national legislations, which rendersits quantification almost impossible (Euro-pean Parliament, 2012; Valeri et Al., 2006).On the one hand, industry evaluates thetotal yearly bill for cybercrime at $388 bil-lion, with one and a half million victims perday (Symantec, 2012, estimate based on24 countries). Certain authors even go asfar as referring to figures such as $400 bil-lion per year in the US alone (Kshetri,

2010). On the other hand, official bodiesfind incidences to be considerably more li-mited (European Commission, 2012a).Such disparity in numbers is essentiallydue to two factors: firstly, industry figuresare calculated on the basis, not only of thereported losses with cybercrime, but alsoon the basis of the estimated lost time andresources used to prevent and fight cyber-crime (Symantec, 2012). Such methodo-logy has resulted in impressive lookingfigures. Secondly, cybercrime reporting, onthe part of the population, is still far frombeing systematic, as many individuals lackthe necessary preparation either to under-stand that they are being victims of cyber-crime, or to know where to report it.

Independently, from the accuracy of cy-bercrime figures, however, one importanttrend has become widely apparent: cybersecurity, and cybercrime more specifically,are now understood as a high priority field.Such trend has become visible, not only atpolicy-making level with a large panoply ofinstruments being proposed, but also at thelevel of the general population, with mediaattention and citizens’ awareness increa-sing steadily. In the case of the media,major news sources now have dedicatedsections for cybercrime, as can be seenfrom the example of the Guardian newspa-per (http://www.guardian.co.uk/techno-logy/cybercrime).

Where the population is concerned, Eu-robarometer surveys clearly indicate thatindividuals are extremely concerned withcybercrime, as 74% of the inquired popu-lation believes that the risk of becoming avictim continues to rise, and 89% claim toavoid sharing personal data online (Euro-

pean Commission, 2012b). It is also intere-sting to notice that this perception of cyber-crime as a very serious concern is notdirectly related to levels of victimization, asonly 12% of the population has admitted tohaving experienced online fraud, and 8%identity theft (European Commission,2012b).

Regarding policy-making in this area,European governments and bodies’ con-cerns can be traced back already to themid-1990s.

Although the first development in thearea of computer crime in Europe was the1976 Council of Europe Conference on Cri-minological aspects of Economic Crime,with the proposal of creating different cate-gories of computer crime, serious attentionwould only start to be devoted to this areawith attempts to complete the single market(Schjolberg, 2008). The rational behindsuch move was that if Member Statesadopted diverging regulatory approachesto the digital world, criminals might take ad-vantage of legal loopholes, such as the dif-ferences in legal definitions and sentences.Largely basing itself on the work developedby the Council of Europe and the OECD,the European Community started to hi-ghlight the need to address computer se-curity in order to remove obstacles to thepursuit of an e-common market, in its 1993White Paper on Growth, Competitivenessand Employment (Porcedda, 2011). Untilthe end of the 1990s, such efforts weremainly focused on self-regulation, focusingin particular on the protection of intellectualproperty and personal data.

It was only in 1998 that the Commissiontook the decision to become more active inthis field and to undertake a comprehen-sive study on cybercrime (Sieber, 1998).The results of the latter were rapidly tran-slated into an attempt to develop a com-mon approach to this issue, including theharmonization of national definitions, theapproximation of legislations, and the de-velopment of joint instruments (Mendez,2005).

Among the latter, we find the CouncilFramework Decision 2005/222/JHA on At-tacks against Information Systems, the Re-gulation of the European Parliament and ofthe Council No 460/2004 establishing theEuropean Network and Information Secu-rity Agency, and the Communication fromthe Commission Towards a general Policyon the Fight against Cyber Crime(COM(2007)267 final).

The European Union’s fight against cybercrime

Helena Carrapico

by HELENA CARRAPICO*


This common approach has resultedessentially in the shifting of the cybercrimefight coordination to the EU level, the en-hancement of police and judicial coopera-tion among Member States, the developingof stronger links between public bodies andindustry, and increased cooperation withextra-EU countries and bodies.

The European Union’s most recentstep in the fight against cybercrime hasbeen the creation of a European Cyber-crime Center(EC3), whichwill have a firstpilot phase du-ring 2013 andis expected tobecome fullyoperational in2014. With itsbasis in Euro-pol, the EC3hopes to en-sure a coordi-n a t e dresponse tocybercrime, toserve as theEuropean cy-bercrime infor-mation focalpoint, to gatherEuropean ex-perts on this topic, to provide support toMember States in their cybercrime investi-gations, and to become the collectivevoice of cybercrime investigators acrosslaw enforcement (European Commission,2012c). Such tasks, however, will not beparticularly easy to carry out given the in-stitutional complexity of the European fieldof cyber security, and the perceived lackof visibility of Europol across the nationallaw enforcement spectrum. These deve-lopments will thus be very interesting toobserve over the coming years, not onlyfor those concerned with the developmentof efficient responses to cybercrime, butalso for those interested in how policy-ma-king in this area comes about. Further-more, it will be particularly fascinating toobserve whether Europol, as a EU secu-

rity agency, will be institutionally reinforcedby the official creation of the Center, andwhether this will have consequences on itsfuture mandate and capacity to influencepolicy-making in this area.

References

Council of Europe (2001) Convention onCybercrime, EST nº185, Strasbourg.

European Commission (2012a) FeasibilityStudy for a European Cybercrime Center,prepared by RAND Europe for the Euro-pean Commission, DG Home Affairs, Fe-bruary.

European Commission (2012b) Cyber Se-curity- Special Eurobarometer 390, July.

European Commission (2012c) Communi-cation from the Commission to the Counciland the European Parliament on TacklingCrime in our Digital Age: establishing aEuropean Cybercrime Center, COM(2012) 140 final, 28th March.European Community (1993) White Paperon Growth, Competitiveness and Employ-ment- the Challenges and ways forwardinto the 21st century, Bulletin of the Euro-

pean Communities, Supplement 6/ 93,COM (93) 700, 5th December.

European Parliament (2012) FightingCyber Crime and Protecting Privacy in theCloud, Directorate-General for Internal Po-licies, Policy Department C, Citizen’sRights and Constitutional Affairs, October.

Kshetri, N. (2010) The Global CybercrimeIndustry. Economic, Institutional and Stra-tegic Perspectives, New York: Springer.

Mendez, F. (2005) ‘The European Unionand Cybercrime: insights from compara-tive federalism’, Journal of European Pu-blic Policy, 12: 3, June. Porcedda, M. G. (2011) ‘Transatlantic Ap-proaches to cybersecurity and cyber-crime’, in P. Pawlak (Ed.) The EU- USSecurity and Justice Agenda in Action,Chaillot Papers, December, EuropeanUnion Institute for Security Studies.

Schjolberg, S. (2008) The History of Glo-bal Harmonization on Cybercrime Legisla-tion- the Road to Geneva, available athttp://jmsc.asia/6047/wp-content/uplo-ads/2009/11/cybercrime_history.pdf

Sieber, U. (1998) Legal Aspects of Com-puter-related Crime in the Information So-ciety- the COMCRIME Study, prepared forthe European Commission, 1st January,available at http://law.scu. edu/internatio-nal/File/Sieber_final.pdf

Symantec (2012) Norton Cyber Crime Re-port 2011.

Valeri, L., G. Somers, N. Robinson, H.Graux and J. Dumortier (2006) Handbookof Legal Procedures of Computer and Net-work Misuse in EU Countries, Santa Mo-nica, CA: RAND Corporation.

* Newton International Fellow, Univer-sity of Dundee, School of Humanities

Curiosities

PILLS OF OPTMISM: AN ANTI’NDRINA REMEDY IS BOXED!

Pills of Optimism in Calabria, South of Italy, for Christmas. It is a gift ideated by Salvatore Ma-garò, President of the Commission against the ‘Ndrangheta, the powerful local mafia, withinthe Regional Council. The box resembles a very common aspirin box, it contains chocolatesand a very accurate leaflet - prescribing posology, indications, active principle and so on. It iscalled Anti’ndrina, as ‘ndrina is the name of mafia clans in Calabria. The gift is part of a marke-ting campaign promoting legality and countering evolution and diffusion of all mafia forces andcould be distributed in schools and among citizens just as a reminder that Mafia is a virus ofsociety and as such, it needs powerful medicines, not only the ones in marketing campaigns.


HISTORICALLY law enforcement havefocused on the tried and tested me-thods of infiltration, surveillance and te-chnical tracking to get to a point at whichthe bad guys have their hands “dirty” andan arrest is effected. This sounds simpleand yet it may take months if not yearsand the results can be mixed. Taking outthe lower level criminals may be the bestachieved, and even where “controllingminds” are convicted, a prison sentencemay not prevent the criminal organisa-tions from continuing, whilst time is ser-ved, or in the worst cases whilst thecriminal continues to effectively operatefrom within prison.

The Proceeds of Crime Act in 2002was meant to create a new approach inEngland and Wales. Criminal organisa-tions operate as businesses with complexstructures and arrangements for importa-tion of illicit goods, distribution and sales(usually in cash) and the laundering of theproceeds. By striking at the operatingfunds and assets the “lifeblood” can beremoved and organisations dismantledwhilst opportunities for criminal convic-tions are considered in parallel.

Evidence suggests that after earlysuccesses performance has plateauedand with reductions in law enforcementbudgets, also recoveries are in decline.Resourcing is not the only issue, thesematters can be complex, involve civil legalprocedures and require the use of profes-sional expertise, usually both legal and inforensic accounting, which law enforce-ment lacks, but which lies largely in theprivate sector. Whilst the recent G4S fia-sco has dented confidence in private sec-tor companies, in these issues there canbe no arguing that the good guys need thebest and most capable professionals ontheir side. The biggest problem then isthat they lack the experience and maturityto know how to engage with those profes-sionals.

At the same time the lack of under-lying research to evidence the effective-ness of such an approach means there isgap between the political aspirations ofgovernments to talk tough on tackling theworst types of organised crime, and theunderstanding of exactly what you needto achieve this. Yet the prize is there forall to see. The Home Office estimates thatthe wealth of organised crime is measu-red in billions, whereas the value of as-

sets seized is measured in tens of mil-lions at best.

While wondering why can’t this beachieved, I believe the principal reasonsare around the failure in senior law enfor-cement and government officials to seethe bigger picture, aligned with culturaldifferences in the way the public, privatesector and academia operate.

The private sector is viewed as beingexpensive, overpaid and lacking in appre-ciation of the pressures of the public sec-tor. Academia is regarded as distant, tootheoretical or irrelevant. Decision-makersin one area rarely have experience of theother which breeds distrust. Operatingmethods are significantly different. In theprivate sector you start with no budget, goout and win some work from a client; de-livering work is (relatively speaking) theeasy bit. In the public sector you are givena budget and then argue over what youcan deliver with it. The private sector runsincredibly light on operating costs; thereis real time monitoring of time spent onwork and a total focus on client satisfac-tion. The client gets what the client wants,if satisfied the client buys more of it. In thepublic sector you are bombarded with de-mands, driven by constant changes of po-

litical priorities (and in some cases me-thods), such that a mindset sets in that“you get paid anyway”, driving away theurgency of work. If the user of your ser-vice complains there are lots more wai-ting to take the same place. Public sectormanagement spends most of their timerationing service provision, as there sim-ply isn’t enough to go around.

Finally, academics biggest challengeis often relevance and therefore data ac-cess, once a problem, as starting point foranalysis, is identified. Furthermore, thechallenge is to present the research asbeing both operationally relevant andclient driven. Too much academic outputis seen as being “conference” material ofinterest only to fellow academics but of lit-tle value in the real world.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Someyears ago I reviewed motorway policingin the midlands. Within the area I wasexamining there was a new motorwayservice station being constructed. Historysuggests that in any motorway servicearea the “community” using it suffers highlevels of crime and little is detected. I en-gaged an academic who analysed exactlywhat happened on motorway serviceareas, his findings were realistic and rea-dable as a novel. Prostitution, drug dea-ling, violence, organized vehicle thefts, alloccurring in a transient community with lit-tle ownership of the problems. His solu-tions were pragmatic, evidence-basedand self-evident. Most of all, they had thepotential for the commercial operators tocreate a safe and crime-free environmentwhich means more business.

We should be operating in this “tri-par-tite” arrangement far more frequently. Itcan work within a tight business model.My example of seizing the profits of orga-nised crime is the easiest one for me tofocus on. Organised criminals makemoney, significantly increasing resourcesto catch them means engaging the pri-vate sector. The recovery can pay for thecost, the risks can be shared and the me-thodology can be underwritten by soundacademic testing. It just requires the vi-sion and leadership to create it, recogni-tion by all parties of one another’sdifferences, and transparent proactivemanagement of the work. What’s not tolike?

*Former Director KPMG ForensicLondon

is there a role for the private sector

and academia in tackling organised crime?by ROGER alDRiDGE*

Roger Aldridge (source: http://www.tele-graph.co.uk)


THE EUROPEAN SERIOUS & ORGANISEDCRIME CONFERENCE 2013 EUROPOL & BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCEBELGIUM 28 February 2013Renaissance Brussels Hotel

INVESTIGATIVE COLLABORATION AND BESTPRACTICESFRAUD AND ORGANIZED CRIME TRAININGCONFERENCEMarch 4-7, 2013Banff, Alberta, Canada

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TRANSNA-TIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME & TERRORISMINTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ASIAN OR-GANIZED CRIME & TERRORISM35TH INTERNATIONAL ASIAN ORGANIZEDCRIME CONFERENCEHilton Logan Airport HotelBoston, Massachusetts 02128April 07 - 12, 2013

ASIAN CRIMINOLOGICAL SOCIETY ANNUALMEETINGApril 14 - 16, 2013Mumbai, India

THE 14TH CROSS-BORDER CRIME COLLO-QUIUM - ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITYSHADY BUSINESS AND GOVERNANCE IN EU-

ROPE

CROSS-BORDER SLEAZE AND CRISIS

12-14 May 2013Cambridge

BRITISH SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY ANNUALCONFERENCE 2013University of Wolverhampton 2-4 July 2013 with thepostgraduate conference 1-2 July 2013.

CRIME & JUSTICE SUMMER RESEARCH INSTI-TUTE: BROADENING PERSPECTIVES & PARTIC-IPATIONJuly 8 - 26, 2013The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZELAND SOCIETY OFCRIMINOLOGY CONFERENCE (ANZSOC)October 1 - 3, 2013Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGYNovember 20 - 23, 2013Atlanta, GA

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY (ESC)13th ANNUAL CONFERENCESeptember 4 - 7, 2013Budapest, Hungary

Conferences and Workshops

Global CrimeCall for papers

SPECIALISSUE

SUBMISSIOND E A D L I N E :NOVEMBER,15TH 2013

Guest Edi-tors: HelenaCarrapico(Universityof Dundee),Daniela Ir-rera (Univer-sity ofCatania) andBill Tupman(Universityof Exeter).

In recent years, the United Nations and Europeaninstitutions have recurrently underlined their growingconcern towards the threat posed by potential and ex-isting collusions between organised criminals andterrorist groups. The European Parliament and Eu-ropol, in particular, have recently alerted to the degreeof dangerousness that both organised crime and ter-rorism currently represent in the world, highlightingthat the cooperation or merger between these twophenomena is of urgent contemporary interest. Aca-demic literature in this area, however, remains scarceand characterized not only by a degree of skepticism,but also by a lack of interdisciplinarity. Bearing inmind this gap in the literature, the guest editors of theSpecial Issue wish to contribute to this field of expert-ise by gathering a number of interdisciplinary case-studies that will engage with the concept ofcrime-terror nexus. The guest editors therefore wel-come articles aiming at: enriching the empiricalknowledge on the nature of the crime-terror nexusand its evolution throughout the world; exploring theimpact of the nexus within different economic, politi-cal and societal contexts; and expanding on its theo-retical conceptualization.

The deadline for the submission of the articles isNovember, 15th 2013. Authors are encouraged to con-tact the guest editors with early expressions of inter-est. Please contact Helena Carrapico through thefollowing e-mail address

[email protected]

Transnational Organized Crimeand Terrorism: Different Peas,Same Pod?


CONTRIBUTIONS!

SUGGESTIONS!

For the newsletter we are looking for short ori-ginal articles (1000-2000 words) on different orga-nised crime-related themes. These contributionscan stem from yur on- going research or from sum-maries of published material, which you might wishto circulate among the organised crime researchcommunity.

You may also contribute to the content of thenewsletter by sending us any announcement ofconferences/ workshops/ literature references youfeel could be of interest to this field.

You are also invited topropose things thatcould improve the qua-lity of the newsletter.

Please send your sug-gestions and articlesto: [email protected]@essex.ac.uk

CALL FOR PAPERS

7th ECPR General Conference

Sciences Po, Bordeaux - 5th - 7th September 2013

We are extremely happy to inform you that a Standing Group section entitled‘Transnational Organised Crime in a Globalised World’ has been accepted forthe ECPR General conference, which will take place in Bordeaux from the 5th tothe 7th of September 2013. It will be composed of 9 panels on the following to-

pics:

1. Transnational Organised Crime and Terrorism: Different Peas, SamePod?

2. Transnational Organised Crime, Corruption and State Infiltration3. Transnational Organised Crime and ‘Gangster Politics’: Exploring Syner-

gies between the Licit and Illicit Worlds4. Organised Crime in Cyberspace: Governing, Controlling and Exploring

Cyber Crime Activities5. Critical Perceptions of Transnational Organised Crime and Human Traffic-

king6. It’s All About the Money: Exploring the Inter-Relation Between Transnatio-

nal Organised Crime and the Economic Crisis7. The Internal/External Continuum in Transnational Organised Crime8. Putting OC in Place: How Situational Crime Prevention can Inform En-

hanced Policy Design9. Transnational Organised Crime and Criminal Mobility

We would be delighted to receive any expressions of interest for any of thepanels. In order to submit your abstracts, please refer to the ECPR websiteor directly here. The deadline for Paper proposals is 1 February 2013.Helena Carrapico (Section Chair/ [email protected])Daniela Irrera (Section co-chair/ [email protected])

The SGOC is a standing group of the European Consortium for Politi-cal Research

Convenor: Felia Allum, University of BathCo-convenor: Francesca Longo, University of Catania

Social Networks Officer: William (Bill) Tupman, University of Exeter, Anglia Ru-skin University

Funding Officer: Daniela Irrera, University of CataniaEvents & Publication Officer: Helena Carrapico, University of DundeeStrategic Communication Officer: Panos Kostakos, University of Bath

Newsletter Editors: Anna Sergi (University of Essex), Falko Ernst (University ofEssex)

Email the Editors: [email protected]; [email protected]

Visit the SGOC Website at: http://standinggroups.ecprnet.eu/crime/index.htm A new website is going to be available soon!

Visit the SGOC blog at: http://sgoc.blogspot.co.uk Join Our Facebook Group Page..and we are also on LinkedIn and Twitter!

Over the last couple of years,the study of organised crimehas become more and morerelevant and for this reasonthe SG has decided to reoga-nise and refocus it activitiesand profile. The current exe-cutive committee's mandateterminated at the end of 2012and a new generation of aca-demics interested in maintai-ning the activities/work of thestanding group, have cometo the fore, bringing newblood to the group.This wasmostly an achievement of thethree Summer Schools orga-nised in 2009, 2010, 2011. Asa result, the standing group isre-elaborating its organisatio-nal structure by putting newmembers on the executivecommittee as well as repre-sentatives outside of Europe.

The main drive of the stan-ding group in 2013 will be torevitalize its activities: in par-ticular, to be more present onthe web (through its newwebsite*, its blog, and itsnewsletter with new editors)and at conferences. This firstnewsletter of 2013 is an initialstep in this direction. We willexplain in more detail in thenext newsletter the differentprojects we are hoping to de-velop so that you can join us.Best wishes for 2013, hopingthat it will be a good year forall.

Felia Allum (University ofBath, UK) Francesca Longo (Universityof Catania, Italy)ECPR SGOC convenors

A Message from the

SG Convenors

The Next Issue of the ECPRStanding Group on Organi-

sed Crime Newsletter will beavailable in May 2013.

The deadline for articles

and contributions

is 14 April 2013.
http://new.ecprnet.eu/Events/PanelList.aspx?EventID=5&SectionID=87

northumbria research linknrl.northumbria.ac.uk/38951/1/sgoc-newsletter_jan2013.pdfpage 3 beyond the...

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