The Private Sector and Organized Crime: Criminal Entrepreneurship, Illicit Profits, and Private Sector Security Governance

This book explores the complex relationships between organized crime and legitimate businesses, highlighting how criminal organizations misuse or penetrate these businesses for their own gain. It considers a range of industries and sectors, including transportation, wholesale and retail trade, and gambling, and examines how private companies can fight back against these threats. The book will appeal to students, academics, and policy practitioners with an interest in organized crime and transnational security issues.

Format: Hardback
Length: 326 pages
Publication date: 02 September 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive book delves into the intricate dynamics of how criminal organizations exploit and penetrate legitimate businesses, adding valuable insights to the existing literature on organized crime. By examining a diverse range of industries, including bars, restaurants, labor-intensive sectors like construction and waste management, as well as sectors susceptible to illicit activities such as transportation, wholesale and retail trade, and businesses governed by fragmented legislation like gambling, the book sheds light on the significant role the private sector can play in combating organized crime.

Organized criminal groups exploit vulnerabilities in legitimate businesses, driven by economic downturns, government regulations, natural disasters, societal conflicts, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Some private companies, in survival mode, have even resorted to partnering with criminal organizations, blurring the lines between licit and illicit activities. These complex relationships between legal businesses and organized crime manifest in various ways, ranging from victimization to collusion and even exploitation by the private sector, often with arrangements that provide plausible deniability.

In essence, the articles presented in this book explore the multifaceted and intricate nature of these relationships, providing a deep understanding of the complex reality faced by businesses and policymakers alike. The book appeals to a wide audience, including students, academics, and policy practitioners interested in organized crime, transnational security issues, transnational organized crime, international criminal justice, criminal finance, non-state actors, international affairs, comparative politics, and related fields. It serves as an essential supplementary reading for undergraduate and graduate courses covering these topics, enriching the academic discourse and contributing to informed policymaking.

Weight: 820g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032056609