The threat of harm by transnational organized criminals

The notion of a ‘global mafia’ or a criminal ‘conglomeration’ may be a somewhat sensationalized overstatement of recent trends, but clearly globalization has provided more opportunities for and greater ease of criminal networking. Global financial markets, for instance, have provided criminals with an avenue to obfuscate criminal proceeds in various countries, making it much more difficult for law enforcement to trace these funds. Transnational organized crime is considered to be crime committed by criminal organizations that consist of three or more people engaged in criminal activity, that operate across national boundaries and that demonstrate continuity across crimes and across time. The ability to measure the criminal markets that criminal organizations participate in has remained elusive for both practitioners and scholars.