Can Organized Crime Simultaneously Modernize While Staying Constant?

• In Event: Trends in Organized Crime

Abstract

This paper examines how policy discussions and the business of organized crime appear to evolve and adapt to new opportunities, threats, environments, and technologies. While at the same time, actors are still trafficking in drugs, humans, gold, and cigarettes, engaging in extortion, and laundering their proceeds. The paper will then discuss how understanding the constants and lessons learned can better predict future manifestations and inform society's responses to organized crime.

Author

• Sharon Melzer, George Washington University