The organization of 'organized crime policing' and its international context

Harfield, Clive

doi:10.1177/1748895808096472

Cited by 25 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Clearly, if we wish to present a truly comprehensive picture of OC risks, then simply risk-assessing those OCNs already known to law enforcement for committing particular types of criminality is inadequate (Sheptycki 2007, Harfield 2008a). The marketplace for criminal opportunities is a complex and fast evolving one; as new forms of business and enterprise arise, new technologies are developed and new laws are enacted, so too do new criminal opportunities emerge.…”

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confidence: 99%

The geometry of shadows: a critical review of organised crime risk assessments

Hamilton-Smith

Mackenzie

2010

Policing and Society

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This article reports on a research project that aimed to review existing law enforcement approaches to assessing the risk posed by organised crime, as well as to examine the experience of law enforcement officers in using some of these approaches in different parts of the UK. We first outline the background to the project, before discussing some of the theoretical issues that all organised crime risk assessment approaches must typically grapple with. We then discuss some of the types of risk assessment approaches that are currently in use. Finally, drawing on the experience of officers and analysts using different approaches in the field, we consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of different extant assessment 'tools'

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confidence: 99%

The geometry of shadows: a critical review of organised crime risk assessments

Hamilton-Smith

Mackenzie

2010

Policing and Society

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“…The circularity of these information processes results in self-perpetuating priority-setting processes in which certain issues or organisations are repeatedly targeted because more is known about them [35] or because the state allocated considerable resources in the past but did not achieve its goals ([8]: 15). Some issues designated as priorities are so broad and generic (e.g., financial crime) that they are undisputable as priorities ( [17]: 497) but are relatively meaningless in terms of directing decision-making and should therefore be treated with some skepticism [9].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring organised crime-related harms: exploring five policing methods

Tusikov

2011

Crime Law Soc Change

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Many law enforcement agencies around the world have adopted risk assessment methodologies to analyse organised crime. These assessments, which are intended to provide law enforcement management with rigourous analysis to enable rational and objective decision-making processes, are an integral part of intelligenceled policing. Despite the prevalence of these assessments, as the assessments and their methodologies are often tightly restricted within the law enforcement community, it is often unclear how law enforcement defines, analyses and makes decisions about organised crime. While the use of risk assessment methodology in policing to analyse organised crime is generally under-evaluated, critics point to serious methodological weaknesses. Another less-explored aspect in the scholarly literature is how law enforcement conceptualises and measures the impact of "harm" from organised crime and uses this analysis to inform priority-setting processes. This article explores how law enforcement assesses organised crime-related harm by examining five policing methods-one each from Australia and the Netherlands and three from the United Kingdom. The article finds that the methods have significant shortcomings: the main concepts are generally ill-defined and the operationalisation of these concepts is problematic. More importantly, the problems evident in the harm methods raise several critical questions, specifically whether measuring organised crime-related harms is empirically feasible and, if so, can be undertaken in a manner that meaningfully informs law enforcement's decision-making and limits undue political interference.

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“…The accountability to elected representatives of such national policing bodies has been considerably circumscribed (Harfield, 2006). As Savage et al (2000) note in Britain, developments toward national oversight and management have not resulted in a straightforward concentration in the power of central government.…”

Section: The Institutions Of Democratic Police Governancementioning

confidence: 97%

Democratic police governance in comparative perspective

Jones

Steden²

2013

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies &Amp; Management

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to compare the specific institutional arrangements for realizing democratically accountable policing in England & Wales and the Netherlands. It assesses each accountability system against a set of "democratic criteria" and considers the implications for democratic policing of the current reform trajectories in both jurisdictions. Design/methodology/approach -The paper adopts a cross-national approach exploring the relationship between policing and democratic institutions by comparing the democratic credentials of the police governance systems in England & Wales and the Netherlands. Findings -Current reforms to the police governance system in England & Wales aim to increase local elected influence over policing. By contrast, the Dutch system deliberately limits the degree of local electoral control over policing. The paper argues that there is a range of elements to democratic policing, and that "democratic accountability" should not be conflated with control of policing by elected bodies. Whilst the trajectories of reform in England & Wales and the Netherlands are going in opposite directions, each raises a number of "democratic" concerns.Research limitation/implications -The research is limited to only two developed European parliamentary democracies in the European Union. Further comparative research on democratic policing is required to expand the analysis to a wider variety of democratic contexts. Originality/value -To date, there has been little attention paid by policy makers or by academics to the form and nature of police governance in continental European countries. By drawing comparisons between England & Wales and the Netherlands, the paper aims to provide a democratic assessment of the two police accountability systems (and their current reform trajectories) and discuss some broad policy implications for police governance in each jurisdiction. Practical implications -Comparative analysis of police accountability in both England and Wales and the Netherlands provides potential for policy learning in each jurisdiction. The analysis suggests that both systems, in different ways, are currently at risk of over-emphasizing particular ...

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The organization of 'organized crime policing' and its international context

Abstract: , 'The organization of 'organized crime policing' and its international context' (2008) 8 (4) Criminology and Criminal Justice 483-507.

Cited by 25 publications

References 45 publications

The geometry of shadows: a critical review of organised crime risk assessments

The geometry of shadows: a critical review of organised crime risk assessments

Measuring organised crime-related harms: exploring five policing methods

Democratic police governance in comparative perspective

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