ABSTRACT
The scope and typology of organised crime in Slovenia are strongly influenced by its geographical characteristics (Maver, 2003) and (economic) history. Before gaining independence, Slovenia was a socialist country where harsh and totalitarian investigative institutions and their extensive powers – though used less strictly than in other socialist countries (Šelih, 2012) – prevented organised crime from developing into a major threat. After the fall of the regime in 1991, Slovenia wanted to distance itself from its legacy of totalitarian governance and began to embrace high standards of human rights, thereby significantly increasing the requirements related to lawfulness of all actions taken in pretrial and criminal proceedings (Maver, 2000). Combined with re-establishment of the judicial system (Šelih, 2012) and legislative and organisational changes in policing (Gorkič, 2012), these increased requirements had an immense impact on success rates in investigation and prosecution of organised crime.
