How to characterize organized crime from administrative databases? A comparison of detection methods on French security forces data

• In Event: Advances in Quantitative Methods Panel 3: Innovations in Criminal Justice Metrics and Administrative Data

Abstract

Organized crime encompasses criminal activities such as economic and financial offenses, drug trafficking, or human exploitation, all of which have significant economic, financial, and social consequences. Despite growing public concern, no quantitative evaluation of this phenomenon exists in France. This gap calls for the development of a standardized measure of organized crime across the country and overtime to inform policymaking.

The Service Statistique Ministériel de la Sécurité Intérieure (SSMSI) established an interdisciplinary working group to define the scope of organized crime, identify relevant offenses and develop statistical indicators measuring its prevalence using French security services data. This study leverages literature curation, administrative database and the French governance system to identify four methods characterizing organized crime based on administrative data.
The first two methods focus on identifying relevant offenses linked to organized crime, either by relying on offense nomenclatures from international and French sources or by using legal definitions derived solely from French legislation. The third method examines cases managed by specialized law enforcement departments, while the fourth method uses procedural characteristics, such as the number of individuals charged per case, to quantify organized crime.

Preliminary exploratory analysis comparing these detection methods reveals significant differences in the number of identified cases and the scale of organized crime. Methods detects from 12.000 to 200.000 cases in 2024. Further analysis will assess the impact of each method on the resulting indicators, quantifying their influence on crime measures and refining the identification of offenses linked to organized crime. Additionally, this study will explore the evolution of organized crime over the past decade by utilizing French administrative data starting from 2016, providing a longitudinal perspective through time series statistics.
This study offers the first descriptive insights into organized crime based on French administrative data, improving the accuracy of crime statistics for policy and enforcement strategies.

Author

• Romain Cometx, French Minstery of Interior