Mortgage fraud and organized crime in Canada: strategic intelligence brief

Natasha Tusikov, Acting Manager, National Research and Methodology Development Unit, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada - Central Bureau, Intelligence Analysis and Knowledge Development Branch, November 2007     

2006 Annual report on organized crime in Canada

In 2006, the CISC criminal intelligence community identified nearly 800 organized crime groups operating in Canada. While many of these groups remain concentrated in and around major urban centres, a significant number operate from smaller communities across the country. Organized crime groups can be found virtually everywhere there is profit to be made from criminal ventures.     

Organised crime groups in cyberspace: a typology

Three categories of organised groups that exploit advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) to infringe legal and regulatory controls: (1) traditional organised criminal groups which make use of ICT to enhance their terrestrial criminal activities; (2) organised cybercriminal groups which operate exclusively online; and (3) organised groups of ideologically and politically motivated individuals who make use of ICT to facilitate their criminal conduct are described in this article. The need for law enforcement to have in-depth knowledge of computer forensic principles, guidelines, procedures, tools, and techniques, as well as anti-forensic tools and techniques will become more pronounced with the increased likelihood of digital content being a source of disputes or forming part of underlying evidence to support or refute a dispute in judicial proceedings. There is also a need for new strategies of response and further research on analysing organised criminal activities in cyberspace.

Asian transnational organized crime and its impact on the United States: Developing a transnational crime research agenda

Undertaken on behalf of the National Institute of Justice between July 2003 and August 2004, the research goals of this study were to (a) determine high priority areas for research on Asian transnational organized crime (TOC); (b) assess the impact of Asian TOC on the United States; (3) identify relevant data and information sources in Asia; and (4) identify potential collaborative research partners and institutions in Asia. The aim was thus not to examine in detail the organized crime situation in this region, but rather to lay the foundation for a research agenda and strategy that would accomplish that purpose. In seeking to achieve this aim, the researchers used a variety of techniques as part of an overall exploratory methodology. They included four months of interviews (andfield observations) with experts in eight Asian sites, including law enforcement officials, policymakers, and scholars, as well as American officials in each site. Meetings were also held with Asian crime experts in the United States. Interviews and site visits were supplemented with surveys and analyses done by local Asian researchers, an analysis of U.S. indictments, and the review of a large volume of literature. The sites covered by this research are China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia. The major findings are first, that there is little consensus among the Asian authorities on just wliat their main organized crime problems are. Whereas the Asian authorities give higher priority to traditional organized crimes, e.g., gambling, extortion, prostitution, etc., the American authorities focus more on transnational crimes. Consistent with this view, Asian authorities do not see much linkage between the local or regional crime groups about which they are most concerned, and transnational organized crime. Next, contrary to the views and expectations of some American authorities, the commonly expressed view among the respondents in this study is that there is no collaboration or linkage between transnational organized crime groups and terrorists. Finally, the transnational organized crime networks operating in the region are said to be highly specialized, with any overlapping of criminal activities occurring mostly at the level of transportation of goods or people. It is recommended that future collaborative research efforts focus on trafficking in women and children, human smuggling, and drug production and trafficking. These are likely to continue to have the most impact upon the United States and upon U.S. interests in the region. It is further recommended that these research efforts be both bi-lateral (principally with China) and multi-lateral in nature. A wide variety of potentially willing research partners are identified and their strengths and weaknesses are assessed. Finally, a specific strategy for accomplishing the research agenda is proposed. Support for this research was provided by TDL# 1700-215 from the National Institute of Justice. The opinions are those of the authors and do not reflect the policies or views of the National Institute of Justice.     

Involvement mechanisms for organized crime

This study aims to illuminate the processes that make individuals engage in organized crime activities. Within the diversity of individual involvement processes, several distinctive mechanisms are discussed. Theoretical ideas are illustrated by empirical data on 15 crime groups, including over 300 offenders. The crime groups differ in size, composition, and the nature of criminal activities. Social capital theory is used to understand the dynamical process of becoming involved in organized crime; on the one hand an individual contributes to a crime group, on the other hand the crime group helps an individual reach certain goals. Case studies reveal several resources, such as knowledge, skills, and equipment, that make offenders suit and contribute to a particular organized crime group. Criminal and conventional histories of organized crime offenders turn out to be diverse. Several joint characteristics that opened doors to organized crime opportunities, like running one’s own business, are discussed. It is confirmed that involvement through family and long-time friends is common; most criminal groups contain at least one or two relatives.     

Partners in organized crime

As Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski maintains, the ultimate cause for the supremacy of Stalinist totalitarianism was the complete lack of respect for the rule of law.1 This brief look at the situation in Bulgaria — a former Communist state — gives us a case in point of the continuing residue from that history.     

Using strangers for money: a discussion on money-launderers in organized crime

In a recent study of Malm and Bichler (Trends in Organized Crime 16:365–381, 2013) it was found that very little professional laundering occurs in illicit markets. That is to be expected because not every criminal will make enough money to have a need for the services of professional money launderers. However, it is less clear to what extent the same outcome applies to those criminals who do make a lot of criminal money. In order to find out, 31 case studies were examined that deal with large scale importation of cocaine in Europe. It appears that professionals are often engaged, as almost half of the files indicate the presence of such specialists. However, that doesn't imply that such specialists are absent in the other half of the files. After examination of the investigative strategy of each police investigation, it turns out that there is a strong correlation between a focus on financial matters at the beginning of an investigation and the finding of professional launderers. This has important implications for the use of Social Network Analysis and qualitative case file research. The nonappearance of certain types of people in the police investigations has as much to do with the investigative strategy as with their real absence.     

Anticipating organized and transnational crime

This paper seeks to identify ways in which governments and lawenforcement agencies might enhance the effectiveness of their efforts toanticipate organized crime. It starts by defining what is meant byanticipation, and differentiating it from the much more difficult task ofprediction. The analysis then identifies some of the methods and modelsthat are generally accepted as part of the existing knowledge base onorganized crime and highlights how these can be used to anticipate futuredevelopments and to develop warnings about how criminal organizationsmight evolve and behave in the future. The knowledge base includespolitical, economic, sociological, strategic, and composite models and showshow they provide a foundation for anticipating future developments inorganized crime. The models are either models about the kind ofenvironment in which organized crime flourishes or models about the waysin which organized crime behaves. What we do, in effect, is to identifyand elucidate `models' in ways that provide propositions about the kindsof developments, innovations or changes we might see in organized crime(both domestic and transnational) in the future. Underlying indicators provide warning about future manifestations of organized crime. Anticipating these manifestations provides a basis for appropriatepreventive, defensive or mitigating strategies. Finally, the article providessome examples of specific techniques of information collection andintelligence analysis that might assist in this task of anticipation.     

Corruption and organized crime: Lessons from history

The intention of this paper is to serve in part as a warning to the international community concerned about corruption, to keep the focus based on the critical analysis of empirically verifiable information. In ways similar to how theorists spoke about organized crime in the 1960's and 1970's, articles today attempt to refer to corruption as if there were one agreed upon definition. However, like the concept “organized crime”, the term “corruption” involves diverse processes which have different meanings within different societies. Corruption (or a focus on corruption), may be the means toward very diverse ends and each may have a different impact on the society. While in some societies corruption may correctly be seen to be the “cause” of forms of social disorganization, in other situations corruption may be the “result” of larger changes. Understanding the processes within a specific context allows one to understand the nature of the corruption. Corruption rhetoric may too easily become apolitical platform for ranking and evaluating nations as to their worth based on criteria that lose meaning when applied across jurisdictions. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Age and aging in organized crime in Israel

The paper explores the relevance of age and aging in the functioning of organized crime groups in Israel, with a focus on group leaders. Age is connected to two social variables, family and ethnicity. Discussed is the role of age in two clusters: 1) Jewish organized crime groups from Europe, the former Soviet Union and Muslim-majority cultured countries and 2) Israeli Muslim Arab organized crime groups. What part age and aging play in both groups is discussed.