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Organized Crime in Foreign Legislation:
In this context it is interesting to look at foreign experience in dealing with organized crime, particularly, in the field of legislation. The Italian criminal code states, for example, (article 416-2) that "the association of a mafia kind is ranked as a criminal one when its members practice the removal and intimidation of other persons in order to ensure a cover-up and observe the law of silence and thus make it possible to commit crimes, and win, directly or indirectly, posts allowing the management or control of business activities, the distribution of concessions and permits of all kinds, the signing of contracts, and communal services, as well as making illegal profits or securing illegal privileges for themselves and other persons." The American approach seems to be slightly different. While the Italian Criminal Code lists features of organized crime, American Federal Legislation (USC-par. 3781), though naming certain features of organized crime, attributes concrete actions to it, namely, "unlawful activities by members of a well-organized and disciplined association supplying illegal commodities and offering illegal services, which include but are not limited to, gambling, prostitution, usury, the spread of narcotics, racket and other unlawful actions by such organizations." Organized crime has broad opportunities for carrying out unlawful deeds but the choice of these opportunities is mainly determined by the level of expected profit, the minimum degree of possible risk of being caught and exposed and the absence of concrete victims. It is this particular factor that comes to the foreground in crimes related to narcotics whose users are not interested in reporting to the police. The specific choice of a "specialization" for this or another criminal group is a factor guaranteeing it, to a large degree, a high level of conspiracy and a free hand in committing crimes. Along with the previously mentioned "specialization" of criminal associations there also exists what is termed as an "internal specialization", i.e. the division of labor among criminal association members.
Organized Crime and Drug Related Crime: Features in Common:
These features include:
- clearly defined organizational and managerial structures with a hierarchy which ensures the protection of leaders from punishment since their actions usually remain outside the confines of the criminal code;
- uniform norms of behavior and responsibility;
- planned unlawful activities and common goals aimed at making large profits;
- a system aiming to neutralize all forms of legal control and development of counter measures;
- common finances invested in various areas of criminal activities, which are used for bribing the necessary people, providing material support to members of criminal associations and financing crimes;
- monopolization and expansion of areas of criminal activity, cooperation between criminal associations in various branches of a national economy, the introduction of commodities and services to the black market, exploitation of women through pornography, and prostitution;
- the use of legal methods to launder drug money.
In sum narcotics are a negative social phenomenon posing an extreme danger to society. This danger is expressed in such ill-effects as the destruction of people's health as a result of drug addiction, drug-related crimes, the totality of which forms an independent crime branch (narco-crime), and the ability to turn the most dangerous and well-organized part of narco-crime into a variety of organized crime.
Par. 2. Tendencies of Development
Some tendencies of development can be traced by using the statistical method, whereas others, which are not clearly evident, can be discovered by sociological studies, expert evaluations, interviews, studies of documents or by content analysis of mass media publications.
The Structure of Narco-crime:
In the structure of narco-crime, the predominant criminal actions are the illegal preparation, acquisition, storage, transportation and dissemination of narcotics by mail. The percentage of such crimes is high and is increasing all the time. It varies between 87 and 96%. Actions not with the intent to sell constitute an overwhelming share (from 96 to 99%).
Реферат опубликован: 14/12/2009