NCJ Number
190953
Date Published
June 2001
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This paper provides an update on the status of organized crime in Australia and assesses its strategic implications, with attention to the methodologies for effectively policing it.
Abstract
Australian organized crime is pervasive and multifaceted. It encompasses a myriad of complex activity that includes illicit drug importation, manufacture, and distribution; large-scale organized fraud; revenue evasion; money laundering; bribery; extortion; and violence. It seeks to corrupt public officials, and it brings enormous social and economic costs. Illicit drugs are currently the most lucrative commodities for organized crime in Australia. Organized crime constitutes a major threat to society and to the national interest. Contemporary organized crime in Australia does not generally conform to a hierarchical, familial structure. Rather, it is characterized by opportunistic, entrepreneurial, and fluid affiliations of criminals; syndicates form and dissolve for particular activities. Strategic alliances are forged between various groups as entrepreneurial activity aimed at maximizing actual profit and the opportunity for profit increasingly overrides the perceived safety provided by dealing with kin or known associates. Regarding effective countermeasures for organized crime, traditional law enforcement powers and strategies are unlikely to achieve lasting results. The pervasiveness and energy of organized crime requires law enforcement agencies to combine forces to produce concentrated anti-crime capabilities, able to be sustained over the long term. Investigative teams must be flexible, adaptive, disciplined, and multi-skilled. Investigative agencies must be resourced with state-of-the-art equipment that must be regularly updated. Physical surveillance is an indispensable resource. The legal platforms that support criminal investigations must be designed for the kind of operations an informed society wants law enforcement agencies to conduct against contemporary criminal networks. Due to its transnational nature and the damage it can do to Australia's social and economic well-being, an entire government approach is required. The National Crime Authority (NCA) has been created by the Federal Parliament in cooperation with each State and Territory Parliament as a single entity to serve the national interest, encompassing the interest of all jurisdictions by investigating criminal conduct that pays no regard to State borders. Recommendations are offered for how the NCA can more effectively address organized crime in Australia. 19 notes