3 discussion questions.. 3 student responses.. 1 short criminal justice assignment

CRJ 330: Comparative Criminal Justice

Week 8 Discussion

Part 1: Please respond to the following:

Compare and contrast the prevalence of organized crime in two of the following global regions: North America, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

Determine each global region's response to organized crime, and examine the correlation between this response and the prevalence of organized crime in the region.

Part 2: Student Response

Amber McCoy

RE: Week 8 Discussion

Hello everyone,

In Europe, the impact and influence of organized crime within European Union has increased over the past fifteen years. Many non-European groups operate in Europe because it is a highly developed continent and has a high demand and money to provide illegal goods and services. Unlike other countries, these criminals do not specialize in anything specific, they operate by seeking opportunities where supply and demand warrant. In Asia, it is quite different. Corrupt governments and a geographical location between major drug producing regions place Asia at high risk for organized crime problems. One of the major issues/crimes in Asia, is kidnapping and human trafficking, and unfortunately many officials seen it as only smuggling and is not seen as a high priority in Asia, only because there was little to no coercion, the authorities do not take it seriously. Even though they agreed that the human trafficking was indeed organized, they did not believe it was a form of organized crime, because the operations were small in size. Fortunately, many countries saw organized crime as a real problem area and decided to establish different organizations to help combat organized crime and the groups who participate in these illegal activities. In 2003, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime was implemented. In Canada, they opened an integrated operational center of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit/Integrated National Security Enforcement, which permits many agencies to work together and share information which helps agencies take down transnational organized crime. In Japan, a joint effort launched by the government agencies and private citizens came way where they shut down shops that were not legitimate and replaced them with businesses that were.