Confiscation of Property Obtained From a Criminal Offense as a Measure to Fight Against Organized Crime

Abstract

An analysis of most definitions of organized crime point to the fact that its main goal is the acquisition of financial profit. That is why one of the basic measures that most affects organized crime is confiscation of illegally acquired property. The purpose of that confiscation, through different historical epochs, was to punish the perpetrator of a criminal act, to compensate the injured party, or to prevent and deter others from committing criminal acts. The goal of this paper is to review scientific literature and analyze the content of various legal acts and documents, with the application of the comparative method, and to point out the specifics of the institute of confiscation of property acquired through criminal activities as one of the measures in the fight against organized crime. Property confiscation as a special measure in the fight against crime has encountered numerous criticisms and controversies in domestic and foreign literature, which will be the subject of a separate part of this paper. Seizures differ from country to country due to different legal qualifications, making it difficult to apply this institute in a uniform manner, on a global level. We point out the results that this measure gave at the international level and the success and criticism of its application in domestic legislation and practice.