Europol: Defining "organised crime"
01 July 1994
One of the main tasks of Europol, the new police organisation covering the European Union countries, is to tackle organised crime. However, a definition of "organised crime" which can be used both for operational and legal purposes in the 12 EU states continues to elude them. In its last report the Ad Hoc Working Group on International Organised Crime attempted to summarise the different definitions (this Ad Hoc group was part of the old "Trevi" structure; the same people now work through the Organised Crime and Drugs working party under Steering Group 2 of the K4 Committee).
The German definition is:
"the planned perpetration of offences which are substantially important on their own or as a whole, motivated by the aspiration for benefits or power, where: more than two persons involved act together, during a rather long or undetermined period of time, with sharing of work, by using commercial structures, or resorting to violence or other means of intimidation or exerting influence on political life, media, public administration, justice or economic life."
The Netherlands has an operational:
"list of descriptive features rather than a definition" which includes the following elements: "structure organised into a hierarchy, more or less permanent allocations of tasks, internal system of penalties, involvement in money laundering, involvement in illicit payments, involvement in various types of offences, use of companies as a cover for its illicit activity, relatively long activity period, violence against persons within the organisation."
The UK has no legal definition of organised crime. The National Criminal Intelligence System (NCIS, the UK contact agency for Europol) said recently that: "It is easier to discuss the concept of organised crime rather than its definition... we know what is but it is difficult to describe". NCIS's working definition is:
"Organised crime constitutes any enterprise, or group of persons, engaged in continuing illegal activities which has as its primary purpose the generation of profits, irrespective of national boundaries."
Report from the Ad Hoc Group on International Organised Crime to the Council Annex to report from the K4 Committee to the Council of Justice and Interior Ministers 9908/2/93 CRIMORG 1 REV 2, 22.11.93; Memorandum of evidence from the National Criminal Intelligence Service submitted to the Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into organised crime presented on 6.7.94 and dated 30.11.93.