The Organization of Illegal Markets

The Organization of Illegal Markets PDF

Author: Peter Reuter

Publisher: University Press of the Pacific

Published: 2004-10-01

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9781410217837

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It is widely believed that monopoly control, based on violence, corruption or risk-spreading, is characteristic of markets for illegal goods and services, such as marijuana and bookmaking. This essay examines the effects on the organization of a market arising from changing the status of a good or service from legal to illegal. In general, it can be shown that illegal enterprises are likely to be smaller than their legal counterparts. The most important reasons for this are the lack of external credit markets, itself a consequence of the non-existence of audited records, the lack of court enforceable contracts, and the need to restrict knowledge of participation in the enterprise. The inability to advertise or to create goodwill for the enterprise itself, as opposed to goodwill for its agents, is also significant. Corruption is likely to affect the organization of the market only under special circumstances, where there is a single agency which monopolizes enforcement. Though that condition held for most illegal markets thirty years ago enforcement now is fragmented and overlapping, which inhibits an agency from granting a monopoly franchise. The introduction of violence does not in general change this result. The use of violence to acquire market power can occur only where there is a ready focus for that violence. Most illegal markets lack either time or space consistency that would permit exclusion of competition. Some comments about the optimal use of violence are offered. The final section offers some analysis of the plausibility of using illegal market enforcement as an instrument of organized crime control. There have been systematic changes in the set of opportunities available to organized crime members; illegal markets no longer are so central to the power and income of organized crime. The shift from gambling to narcotics markets has also weakened the link between organized crime and illegal markets.

Illegal Markets and the Economics of Organized Crime

Illegal Markets and the Economics of Organized Crime PDF

Author: Martin Bouchard

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 1317987519

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This book showcases recent advances in the theoretical and empirical understanding of the economic aspects of organised crime and illegal markets. It provides new insights into defining and quantifying the influence of organised crime by drawing on innovative approaches to studying criminal networks and organisations such as the Hells Angels. The book includes analysis of the structure of illegal drug markets from international leaders in the field. Finally the text includes empirical case studies of the diverse markets where organised crime is currently active including the illegal market for crystal methamphetamine in Australia, tiger products in China and the falcon and fur trades in Russia. This book was based on a special issue of Global Crime.

The Architecture of Illegal Markets

The Architecture of Illegal Markets PDF

Author: Jens Beckert

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-07-26

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0192514148

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From illegal drugs, stolen artwork, and forged trademarks, to fraud in financial markets - the phenomenon of illegality in market exchanges is pervasive. Illegal markets have great economic significance, have relevant social and political consequences, and shape economic and political structures. Despite the importance of illegality in the economy, the field of economic sociology unquestioningly accepts the premise that the institutional structures and exchanges taking place in markets are law-abiding in nature. This volume makes a contribution to changing this. Questions that stand at the centre of the chapters are: What are the interfaces between legal and illegal markets? How do demand and supply in illegal markets interact? What role do criminal organizations play in illegal markets? What is the relationship between illegality and governments? Is illegality a phenomenon central to capitalism? Anchored in economic sociology, this book contributes to the analysis and understanding of market exchanges in conditions of illegality from a perspective that focuses on the social organization of markets. Offering both, theoretical reflections and case studies, the chapters assembled in the volume address the consequences of the illegal production, distribution, and consumption of products for the architecture of markets. It also focuses on the underlying causes and the political and social concerns stemming from the infringement of the law.

Comparison of Legal and Illegal Markets - in Relation to the Organized Crime

Comparison of Legal and Illegal Markets - in Relation to the Organized Crime PDF

Author: Alexander Bösenberg

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2009-05

Total Pages: 37

ISBN-13: 364032658X

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Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Sociology - Medical Care, grade: 1,7, http: //www.uni-jena.de/ (Soziologie), course: Studies on Mafia and Economic Sociology, language: English, abstract: Cigarettes smuggling, gambling, prostitution, waste disposal, extortion, tax dodging and drug selling sounds like typically characteristics for the Mafia. It's clear, that these "branches" fall automatically into the hands of organized crime because they have nothing to do with legality and fair-play in modern state. But it's also clear, that illegal markets exist and that they work very efficient and profitable. For example the worldwide drug traffic achieved a various volume of ca. 600 to 1000 billion US $ each year (Schneider, 2006). That's more money used for drugs than for public research in the United States. So we can assume that illegal markets have a basis in supply and demand and they are important and present in every economy. On the other side there is a general liability to pure capitalism in every economy - legal and illegal. This mean, that entrepreneurs are stronger confronted by business competition, changing politics and locations, the phenomenon of globalization and fast changing trade conditions everywhere. The main target is still the same: having low costs as possible and a maximum of profit to survive. This paper wants to show the different terms and methods of legal and illegal markets and their entrepreneurs especially the organized crime. It also shows that legal and illegal activities particularly overlap.

Illicit Markets, Organized Crime, and Global Security

Illicit Markets, Organized Crime, and Global Security PDF

Author: Hanna Samir Kassab

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-06-26

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 3319906356

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This book explains the existence of illicit markets throughout human history and provides recommendations to governments. Organized criminal networks increased in strength after the enforcement of prohibition, eventually challenging the authority of the state and its institutions through corruption and violence. Criminal networks now organize under cyber-infrastructure, what we call the Deep or Dark Web. The authors analyze how illicit markets come together, issues of destabilization and international security, the effect of legitimate enterprises crowded out of developing countries, and ultimately, illicit markets' cost to human life.

Crime and Justice, Volume 49

Crime and Justice, Volume 49 PDF

Author: Michael Tonry

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 9780226722832

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For most Americans, The Godfather, The Sopranos, and the Cosa Nostra exemplify organized crime. In Asia the term conjures up images of Japanese yakuza and Chinese triads, in Italy the Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta, in Latin America Mexican narco-gangs and Colombian drug cartels, in the Netherlands transnational drug and human trafficking, and in Scandinavia outlaw motorcycle gangs. Some but not all those organizations are "mafias" with centuries-long histories, distinctive cultures, and complicated relationships with local communities and governments. Others are new, large but transitory and with no purpose other than maximizing profits from illegal markets. Organized crime organizations have existed for centuries. Serious scholarly, as opposed to journalistic or law enforcement, efforts to understand them, however, date back only a few decades. Authoritative overviews were, until very recently, impossible. Rigorous, analytically acute, and methodologically sophisticated literatures did not exist. They have begun to emerge. They have developed in many countries, involve work in different languages and disciplines, and deploy a wide range of methods. Organizing Crime: Mafias, Markets, and Networks provides the most exhaustive overview ever published of knowledge about organized crime. It provides intensive accounts of American, Italian, and Dutch developments, covers both national mafias and transnational criminality, and delves in depth into gender, human capital, and money laundering issues. The writers are based in seven countries. To a person they are, or are among, the world's most distinguished specialists in their subjects. At last, credible explanations and testable hypotheses are available concerning when, why, and under what circumstances mafias and other organized crime organizations come into being, what makes them distinctive, what they do and with what effects, and how to contain them.

Black Market Billions

Black Market Billions PDF

Author: Hitha Prabhakar

Publisher: FT Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 0132180243

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Black Market Billions blows the lid off the world's fastest-growing illicit industry: organized retail crime. Hitha Prabhakar reveals how criminals with ties to terrorist groups around the world are committing huge product thefts, and using the profits to fund terrorist acts. Prabhakar connects the dots and follows the money ... from consumers "dying for a deal" to terrorist cells eager to do the killing.