ABSTRACT
After the so-called Velvet Revolution in 1989, the Czech Republic underwent profound political, economic, and social changes. Although the character of crime before this change has not been fully comparable with the new trends in crime, the rapid growth of the crime rate in connection with emerging new forms of crime was evident. Among other new forms of crime, we face the infiltration of organized crime activities and groups from abroad, as well as the development of organized criminal activities of domestic origin. In this chapter, the reasons and domestic and international factors that influence this development - partly in comparison with neighboring countries such as Poland and Hungary - are mentioned, also with regard to the possibility of explaining this development using theoretical models of the phenomenon of organized crime. The overview on the current state and character of organized crime in the Czech Republic regarding criminal activities and structures in the international context is presented. The nexus between economic and organized crime as one of the characteristic features of modern organized crime is analyzed. There is also an attempt to formulate some forms of prediction.
