Assessing Organised Crime: The Sad State of an Impossible Art

Abstract

For roughly two decades the issue of ‘organised crime’ succeeded in remaining high on the political law enforcement agenda. This is an astonishing achievement for something we know so little about that we are still struggling with its very def- inition. It is declared to be a serious matter, though that seriousness is semanti- cally not contained in these words. Still, the seriousness is an inherent association, which would make ‘petty’ organised crime sound odd, though that is not a semantic contradiction. Indeed, the study of organised crime is anything but a light-hearted undertaking, though empirical research repeatedly demonstrates that ‘organised crime’ is plagued by much disorganisation (Reuter, 1983; Van Duyne 1993). Therefore one would expect that the efforts to assess this purported phenomenon would be of a thoroughness and a discipline commensurate with its seriousness. Is this expectation fulfilled?