The Harm Assessment Framework: Applying an Innovative Tool to Explore the Harms of Organized Crime and Related Policies

• In Event: Measuring and Evaluating the Impact of Serious and Organized Crime Policies and Interventions

Abstract

In this presentation, we use the Harm Assessment Framework, a systematic and empirically-based methodology that we have been developing over the past decade, to explore the harms of organized crime and related policies. We start by introducing the framework and then discuss past and ongoing applications of the framework to several organized crimes in different geopolitical contexts—ranging from cocaine trafficking, cannabis cultivation and human trafficking in Belgium to piracy worldwide.

On this basis and with an eye to policy, we show how the framework enables not just an evaluation of the severity and incidence of the harms associated with organized crime, but also the investigation of the causes of each harm. When we turn to the latter, we show that many harms are due to policy choices and specific interventions. We argue that failing to account for the underlying cause of a harm can lead to ineffective and even harm-inducing policy responses.

Lastly, referring to findings from our prior assessments, we consider how the framework can support evaluations of current policies and related interventions to address crime and then feed into deliberations about future policies and interventions. Specifically, we argue that it can be used to assess and compare the impact, including the unintended consequences and distributional effects, of different types of policies, including the interventions that support it, and to inform a notional benefit-cost analysis of alternative policies and interventions.

Authors

• Letizia Paoli, KU Leuven Faculty of Law and Criminology

• Victoria A. Greenfield, George Mason University