Previous systematic reviews have focused on youth gang membership and interventions (Hodgkinson et al. 2009;Klein and Maxson 2006). The Campbell Collaboration, for example, has published two systematic reviews on the involvement of young people in gangs (Fisher et al. 2008a, b), and more recently one on predictors of youth gang membership in low-and middleincome countries (Higginson et al. 2014). These reviews did not consider the factors relating to membership in other types of groups involved in crime, namely OCGs.'Organized criminal' group shall mean a structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offences established in accordance with this Convention, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit.

This paper provides a narrative synthesis of the results of a systematic review of the social, psychological and economic factors leading to recruitment into organised crime. This is based on the analysis of evidence emerging from 47 qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method studies published in or before 2017. While the selected studies varied markedly in method and quality, several factors emerged as particularly important in understanding recruitment into organised criminal groups. These included the role of social relations (family, kinship, friendship and work-relations), criminal background and criminal skills.

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Background: Studies from multiple contexts conceptualize organized crime as comprising different types of criminal organizations and activities. Notwithstanding growing scientific interest and increasing number of policies aiming at preventing and punishing organized crime, little is known about the specific processes that lead to recruitment into organized crime.Objectives: This systematic review aimed at (1) summarizing the empirical evidence from quantitative, mixed methods, and qualitative studies on the individual-level risk factors associated with the recruitment into organized crime, (2) assessing the relative strength of the risk factors from quantitative studies across different factor categories and subcategories and types of organized crime. Methods:We searched published and unpublished literature across 12 databases with no constraints as to date or geographic scope. The last search was conducted between September and October 2019. Eligible studies had to be written in English, Spanish, Italian, French, and German.Selection Criteria: Studies were eligible for the review if they:• Reported on organized criminal groups as defined in this review.• Investigated recruitment into organized crime as one of its main objectives.• Provided quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods empirical analyses.• Discussed sufficiently well-defined factors leading to recruitment into organized crime.• Addressed factors at individual level.• For quantitative or mixed-method studies, the study design allowed to capture variability between organized crime members and non-members.Data Collection and Analysis: From 51,564 initial records, 86 documents were retained. Reference searches and experts' contributions added 116 additional documents, totaling 202 studies submitted to full-text screening. Fifty-two quantitative, qualitative,

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