By Alex Cobham and Petr Jansky

Illicit financial flows constitute a global phenomenon of massive but uncertain scale, which erodes government revenues and drives corruption in countries rich and poor. In 2015, the countries of the world committed to a target to reduce illicit flows, as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. But five years later, there is still no agreement on how that target should be monitored—to say nothing of how it will be achieved. The term ‘illicit financial flows’ covers a range of corrupt practices, aimed at obtaining immunity or impunity from criminal law, from market regulation and from taxation. Illicit flows occur through many different channels, whether they involve laundering the proceeds of crime, for example, or shifting the profits of multinational companies. There are two consistent features. First, illicit flows are deliberately hidden. These cross-border movements of assets and income streams depend on a set of common tools including opaque company accounts, legal vehicles for anonymous ownership, and the secrecy jurisdictions that provide these services. Second, the overall effect of illicit flows is to reduce the revenue available to states, and to weaken the quality of governance—so there is less money to support human development, and it is less likely to be spent well. In this book, two of the economists most closely involved in the process to develop UN indicators of illicit financial flows offer a critical survey of the existing data and methodologies, identifying the most promising avenues for future improvement and setting out their own proposals.

Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. 224p.

By Simone Haysom and Mark Shaw

Over the past 15 years, there has been significant growth in awareness that environmental crime constitutes serious organized crime. There has also been a development of laws and policies to accompany that. However, despite the urgency and importance of the issue, responses still fall far short of what is needed. Leading scientists have contributed to these shifts in awareness by producing major syntheses that delineate the vast scale of global risk that environmental damage is unleashing.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have both released dire warnings, with the landmark 2019 IPBES report concluding that over a million species are at risk of extinction in the coming decades. IPBES has also warned that environmental crisis undermines progress towards 80% of the assessed targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Environmental crime has a key and underappreciated role in this developing crisis.

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  Our analysis shows that all of the contributing factors identified by IPBES have both direct and indirect connections to criminal networks and transnational criminal flows. We also know that, at its worst, environmental crime is intimately bound up with threats to global peace and stability. It provides a soft entry point into global illicit flows for traffickers, and is often accompanied by widespread human rights abuses and dispossession by criminal networks and actors.

  The corruption related to environmental crime can be so damaging that it creates political instability and entrenches systems of patronage or the elite capture of democratic institutions. While there has been a significant increase in multilateral investments in responding to wildlife and timber crime, some of these interventions are themselves producing harms that outweigh or undermine their benefits. Human-rights abuses, such as torture, rape and displacement, are also bound up in militarized responses to environmental crime. All of this points to the conclusion that the international community is still failing to support effective, sustainable ways of combatting environmental crime. There is still much to do and much to learn – all within a narrow window of time. The severity of these problems and the pressing time constraints on responding are linked to their intersection with other crises – a broader global failure to address the drivers of climate change; the rapid growth of organized crime and illicit trade over the past two decades; and the fall-out of the enormous shifts wrought by the greater social and economic integration of globalization, particularly through the changes introduced by digital communication and commerce on virtual platforms. The latter is having a transformative impact on all sectors, not least of which is the illicit trafficking of multiple commodities.

Geneva; Global Initiative Against Transnational organized Crime, 2022. 44p.

By Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

This report builds on the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC’s) ‘Forest crimes in Cambodia’ study (March 2021) by further exploring the networks of state and military control that facilitate the illegal timber trade. High-volume logging and trafficking of luxury wood continue unabated despite years of legislation, export bans and high-profile crackdowns. Examples abound. ‘Forest crimes in Cambodia’ presented compelling evidence of this in Prey Lang.1 Hong Kong SAR customs officials seized 211 tonnes of endangered Cambodian timber in May 2021.2 COVID-19 border closures failed to prevent 27 498 cubic metres of high-risk Cambodian sawn timber making its way through official Vietnamese customs in 2020.3 Moreover, the resilience, mutability, earning power and scale of the illicit industry is evidenced by decades of rigorous investigation, monitoring and analysis by Cambodian NGOs, grassroots activism networks and international NGOs.4 Benefiting from, and expanding on, this wealth of evidence, this report adds to the existing knowledge on Cambodia’s illegal logging by shedding light on the actors behind this vast trade and the practices they employ. The emerging picture is one of complex and interdependent networks.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2022. 61p.

By Théo Clément and Sam Inglis

Vietnam is known for its highly diverse tropical fauna and is considered to be a major hub for wildlife trafficking in South East Asia – and globally for certain highly trafficked species, such as rhinoceros and tigers. The country has a globalized, export-driven economy with extensive trade links and has been identified as a key node in the wildlife trafficking chain in previous research. Vietnamese networks abroad have been found to be involved in the poaching of at least 18 000 elephants, 111 000 pangolins and nearly 1 000 rhinoceroses since 2010. However, these investigations have led to only a few prosecutions.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. 2022. 26p.

By Gavin Hayman and Duncan Brack.

This paper summarizes the discussions and conclusions of a workshop on the nature and control of environmental black markets held at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London on 27–28 May 2002. Thanks to generous support from the European Commission (DG Environment) and UNEP Ozone Secretariat, some eighty participants from over thirty different countries were able to attend.

Rather than simply collect and repeat what is known about the extent of the illegal activities in specific jurisdictions – a traditional indulgence of the regulatory community – the workshop was intended to provide a more systematic understanding of the driving forces behind international environmental crime. Efforts to tackle the smuggling of environmental contraband have been dogged by an ad hoc and unsystematic approach where individual enforcement agencies attempt to headhunt environmental criminals without reducing the size of the illegal market in which they operate. The failure of the international ‘war on drugs’ suggests that this policy is doomed: as long as demand and supply pressures that shape profit-making opportunities remain, other operators will expand their operations or new operations will enter the international market. Thus, the workshop raised the need to think beyond simply increasing enforcement effort to minimize overall levels of environmental harm by addressing the demand and supply of the contraband.

Copenhagen: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2002. 42p.

By Wilson K. Korir

The objective of the study was to determine the effectiveness of environmental crime management in Kenya. Specifically, this included determination of factors affecting environmental crime management, causes of environmental crime, establishment of the nature and extent of environmental crime. All these assisted in understanding the effectiveness of environmental crime management in Kenya. Research questions which the study attempted to answer include what factors affect environmental crime management, the causes of environmental crime, the nature and the extent of environmental crime and the effectiveness of environmental crime management in Kenya. A conceptual framework was used to simplify the relationship between variables in the study. The relationship shows that environmental crime management in Kenya faces several challenges that in varied ways hinder proper environmental crime management. The methodology adopted during the study included desktop review of existing scholarly materials for secondary data and focused questionnaire tool for primary data. The respondents were also made aware of the purpose of the research and informed on how and when they will get feedback on the study. The questionnaire was administered to key respondents and their profiles captured so as to give a picture of their understanding of their background and input to the study.

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  The study concludes that lack of understanding of the long term effects of environmental crimes among key stakeholders has led to crimes being treated as misdemeanors thus attracting low penalties if any, hence resulting in poor management of the crime. The study recommends that the process of enacting legislation on environmental crime should be all inclusive, adopting a wider consultative approach. The study encourages the strengthening of environmental crime management policies. At the moment environmental crime management is a loose concept with weak policy. Environmental crimes should be addressed by policy and legislation that ensures that local communities benefit from the country‘s natural resources so that they value and protect them. Environmental crime management should be greatly enhanced by improving the capacity of the environmental law enforcement officials and other stakeholders through training

Nairobi: University of Nairobi, 2014. 146p.

By Duncan Brack

This paper summarizes the discussions and conclusions of a workshop on the nature and control of environmental black markets held at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London on 27–28 May 2002. Thanks to generous support from the European Commission (DG Environment) and UNEP Ozone Secretariat, some eighty participants from over thirty different countries were able to attend. Rather than simply collect and repeat what is known about the extent of the illegal activities in specific jurisdictions – a traditional indulgence of the regulatory community – the workshop was intended to provide a more systematic understanding of the driving forces behind international environmental crime. Efforts to tackle the smuggling of environmental contraband have been dogged by an ad hoc and unsystematic approach where individual enforcement agencies attempt to headhunt environmental criminals without reducing the size of the illegal market in which they operate. The failure of the international ‘war on drugs’ suggests that this policy is doomed: as long as demand and supply pressures that shape profit-making opportunities remain, other operators will expand their operations or new operations will enter the international market. Thus, the workshop raised the need to think beyond simply increasing enforcement effort to minimize overall levels of environmental harm by addressing the demand and supply of the contraband.

London: Royal Institute of International Affairs (RUSI), 2002. 42p.

By Claude-Hélène Mayer

This brief explores wildlife crime and its international and culture-specific combat in South Africa from a green psychology perspective, focusing on a specific method of forensic trace recovery by analysing and evaluating the use of gelatine lifters. It provides theoretical and applied insight into visualising and sequential processing of finger-, shoe- and footprints, and environmental traces. It allows the reader in-depth insight into effective methods of international wildlife crime combat, based on the South African perspective. This brief gives theoretical and applied recommendations for international, regional and local actors for successful cooperation on wildlife protection.

As global and local programs, actions and law enforcement strategies to combat wildlife crime are gaining strength, forensic trace evidence is a useful method for investigative and preventive success. This brief will be useful for students and researchers in forensic science, wildlife crime, green criminology, as well as for law enforcement and international actors combating wildlife crime practically on both international and local levels.

Cham: Springer, 2019. 90p.

By John M. Sellar

The UN's Lone Ranger tells of law enforcement and diplomacy. It is also the first book, written from an international perspective, about a subject that warrants much greater attention, if the world's most threatened species are to be safeguarded for future generations. John Sellar describes why organized crime has turned to robbing nations, especially in the developing world, of their animals and plants and how this is bringing several species to the brink of extinction. It illustrates, in words and images, how criminal networks recruit, equip and direct poachers and wildlife contraband couriers; arrange the smuggling of species and products, often involving transportation across many borders and several continents; use bribery and violence against law enforcement personnel; and the nature of the markets in which illegal-origin wildlife is being consumed.

Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland: Whittles Publishing, 2014. 201p.

Edited by Gary R. Potter, Angus Nurse, Matthew Hall

This book critically examines both theory and practice around conservation crimes. It engages with the full complexity of environmental crimes and different responses to them, including: poaching, conservation as a response to wildlife crime, forest degradation, environmental activism, and the application of scientific and situational crime prevention techniques as preventative tools to deal with green crime.

Through the contributions of experts from both the social and ecological sciences, the book deals with theoretical and practical considerations that impact on the effectiveness of contemporary environmental criminal justice. It discusses the social construction of green crimes and the varied ways in which poaching and other conservation crimes are perceived, operate and are ideologically driven, as well as practical issues in environmental criminal justice. With contributions based in varied ideological perspectives and drawn from a range of academic disciplines, this volume provides a platform for scholars to debate new ideas about environmental law enforcement, policy, and crime prevention, detection and punishment.

London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 246p.

By Tanya Wyatt

The global illegal wildlife trade is a burgeoning black market which is threatening the survival of numerous species. Wyatt's unique analysis provides new theoretical conceptualisations of the victims and offenders of wildlife trafficking, and furthers the discussion of these crimes through a distinctive green criminological perspective. This book begins with essential background information into the scale and scope of the smuggling of animals and plants bringing to light the often unknown magnitude of this black market. Wyatt considers the threats posed to the environment, people and the economy and evaluates the reasons behind wildlife trafficking by exploring the demand for wildlife.

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 216p.

Edited by William D. Moreto

The editors and contributors toWildlife Crimeexamine topical issues from extinction to trafficking in order to understand the ecological, economic, political, and social costs and consequences of these crimes. Drawing from diverse theoretical perspectives, empirical and methodological developments, and on-the-ground experiences of practitioners, this comprehensive volume looks at how conservationists and law enforcement grapple with and combat environmental crimes and the profitable market for illegal trade. Chapters cover criminological perspectives on species poaching, unregulated fishing, the trading of ivory and rhino horns, the adoption of conservation technologies, and ranger workplaces and conditions. The book includes firsthand experiences and research from China, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania, and the United States. The result is a significant book about the causes of and response to wildlife crime.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2018. 330p.

By A.M. Lemieux, R.S.A. Pickles and D. Weekers

This guide equips analysts to support decision-makers in preventing wildlife crime by applying a problem-oriented approach. It sets out how to make the analytic process work and offers methods to examine a problem from multiple angles to identify a suitable response. The guide provides analysts with techniques to assess whether or not the response worked and communicate findings with purpose.

Phoenix, AZ: Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, Arizona State University, 2022. 160p.

By Alexandria Reid and Mark Williams

This paper examines the illegal wildlife trade in West Africa, and provides recommendations on how to combat it. In the last five years, West Africa has emerged as a major source and transit hub in the global illegal wildlife trade (IWT). The industrial scale of the multi-tonne, multi-product seizures originating from West Africa clearly demonstrates that profit-driven organised crime groups are running the trade. Yet, while the significance of the region in global IWT flows is increasingly recognised, very little is known about the financial aspects of these criminal operations. This paper begins by analysing IWT trends in West Africa, with a focus on high-grossing trafficking in elephant ivory, pangolin scales and rosewood. Second, it identifies key challenges that currently prevent the use of financial investigation in IWT cases, with a view to establishing baseline levels of awareness and capacity to combat IWT as a financial crime among financial intelligence units in the region. Third, it provides recommendations to support the implementation of the Financial Action Task Force's guidelines in the region.

London: RUSI, 2021. 54p.

By Joseph F. O'Brien , Andris Kurins

Paul Castellano headed New York's immensely powerful Gambino crime family for more than ten years. On December 16, 1985, he was gunned down in a spectacular shooting on Manhattan's fashionable East Side. At the time of his death, Paul Castellano was under indictment. So were most of the major Mafia figures in New York. Why? Because in 1983 the FBI had hidden a microphone in the kitchen of Castellano's Staten Island mansion. The 600 hours of recordings led to eight criminal trials. Agents Joe O'Brien and Andris Kurins planted that mike. They listened to the voices. Now they bring you the most revealing look inside the Mafia ever ... in the Mafia's own words.

New York: Island Books, 1992. 382p.

Edited by Karen Bullock, Ronald V. Clarke and Nick Tilley

Situational crime prevention is the art and science of reducing opportunities for crime. Despite accumulating evidence of its value in reducing many different kinds of crime – such as burglary, fraud, robbery, car theft, child sexual abuse and even terrorism – little has previously been published about its role in reducing organised crimes. This collection of case studies, by a distinguished international group of researchers, fills this gap by documenting the application of a situational prevention approach to a variety of organised crimes. These include sex trafficking, cigarette and drug smuggling, timber theft, mortgage fraud, corruption of private professionals and public officials, and subversion of tendering procedures for construction projects. By moving the focus away from the nature of criminal organisations to the analysis of the crimes committed by these organisations, the book opens up a fresh agenda for policy and research. The book will be of interest to those tasked with tackling organised crime problems as well as those interested in understanding the ways that organised crime problems have manifested themselves globally and how law enforcement and other agencies might seek to tackle them in the future.

Cullompton, Devon, UKWillan Publishing,

By Federica Varese

Running a business in Russia is every bit as unsavory as you might imagine, according to Federico Varese's thoroughly researched look at that nation's organized (but not very organized) criminals. Even the lowliest shopkeeper faces shakedowns from drug addicts and teenage thugs, as well as bribe demands from tax collectors and police. In this chaotic climate, the protection racket thrives. Pay the right person, and not only will the shakedowns end - you might even gain a business partner and a fishing buddy. But the penalties for making the wrong move can be severe. One shopkeeper who refused to pay up was burned to death in his store. Varese offers an intricately detailed look at the realities of the Russian Mafia. His excellent reporting is undermined only by his frequent academic writing style.

Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001. 305p.

By Federico Varese

We see mafias as vast, powerful organizations, harvesting billions of dollars across the globe and wrapping their tentacles around everything from governance to finance. But is this the truth? Traveling from mafia initiation ceremonies in far-flung Russian cities to elite gambling clubs in downtown Macau, Federico Varese sets off in search of answers. Using wiretapped conversations, interviews, and previously unpublished police records, he builds up a picture of the real men and women caught up in mafia life, showing their loves and fears, ambitions and disappointments, as well as their crimes. Mafia Life takes us into the real world of organized crime, where henchmen worry about bad managers and have high blood pressure, assassinations are bungled as often as they come off, and increasing pressure from law enforcement means that a life of crime is no longer lived in the lap of luxury. As our world changes, so must mafias. Globalization, migration, and technology are disrupting their traditions and threatening their revenue streams, and the Mafiosi must evolve or die. Mafia Life is an intense and totally compelling look at these organizations and the daily life of their members, as they get to grips with the modern world.

New York; London: Oxford University Press, 2018. 288p.

Edited by Jude McCulloch and Sharon Pickering

Considers the growing importance of the border as a prime site for criminal justice activity and explores the impact of border policing on human rights and global justice. It covers a range of subjects from e-trafficking, child soldiers, the 'global war on terror' in Africa and police activities that generate crime.

Houndmills, Basingstoke. UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 214p.

By Ulrik Boesen

The crafting of tax policy can never be divorced from an understanding of the law of unintended consequences, but it is too often disregarded or misunderstood in political debate, and sometimes policies, however well-intentioned, have unintended consequences that outweigh their benefits. One notable example of this is the ever increasing tax rates on tobacco products. A consequence of high state cigarette excise tax rates has been increased smuggling as people procure discounted packs from low-tax states and sell them in high-tax states. Growing cigarette tax differentials have made cigarette smuggling both a national problem and, in some cases, a lucrative criminal enterprise. Each year, scholars at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan think tank, use a statistical analysis of available data to estimate smuggling rates for each state.1 Their most recent report uses 2019 data and finds that smuggling rates generally rise in states after they adopt cigarette tax increases. Smuggling rates have dropped in some states, often where neighboring states have higher cigarette tax rates. T

Washington, DC: Tax Foundation, 2021. 8p.