Why has Organised Crime Increased?

The reasons for the increase in organised crime are many and varied. One of the most important reasons for the sudden increase in organised criminal activity was the signing of the SEA (Single European Act) in 1986 and its introduction and provision, through Article A, of '...an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured...' also provided a favourable situation for organised crime. The wholesale removal of frontiers across Europe meant that organised crime from the East could collude with those in the West, particularly organised criminal groups from Holland. They very quickly moved into the East and Russia in order to provide assistance in the methods of sophisticated criminal techniques, to tap into the newly emerging markets for drugs and luxury consumer goods and also to secure their position in the important drugs trafficking routes coming through Turkey from Asia, into East Europe and Russia. The lack of 'internal frontiers', essentially, resulted in the free movement of increasingly sophisticated organised criminal groups from both the East and the West.

Another important reason for the sudden increase was the collapse of communism in 1989. Although it is widely held that organised crime existed in a form during the Communist years, the end of Communism provided greater and increased opportunities for organised criminal groups. Because of the very nature of Communism, that of a high level of state control and intervention in people's lives, largely carried out through the coercive powers of a secret police who forced the ideological, party line, large scale organised crime was stifled. Within these constraints organised crime could not flourish in the way it had been able to, for years, in the Western capitalist states. America and the Cosa Nostra provides a good example of how powerful organised crime can become within the favourable political and economic conditions. Capitalism and the concept of private property ownership seem to go hand-in-hand with widespread criminal activity.

It is thought that organised crime in pre-1989 Eastern Europe and particularly Russia was largely carried out through the movement of raw materials, by so called 'Blat' men, from one factory to another. The 'Blat' men came into being in the 1930s, as a result of the failures of a highly centralised system as devised by Stalin; this was largely inefficient and easily exploited by early Russian organised criminals. They also exploited the fact that Russian food production was often inadequate, and provided food stuffs that were not readily available on the market. These included fish, probably caught off the Western seaboard, and fruit shipped in from the Caucasus into Moscow, for instance. 'Risk takers stepped in to provide a market.' (Tupman, 1996, pp.30-41). This 'shadow economy', operated by these illegal entrepreneurs, created profits that had to be concealed from the authorities, and this obviously led to money laundering; a criminal activity that was being practised well before 1989.

When Gorbachev effectively dismantled Communism in 1989, the pre-existing Organised criminal network, both of Eastern Europe and Russia, were quick to take advantage of the new opportunities that the politically and economically weak situation afforded. The process of transition meant that there was a fundamental change in the role of the state in East European countries and Russia. The state now had a diminished role in the economy and society as a whole, which is synonymous with the limited interventionism of the liberal, laissez-faire, capitalist economics that were embraced by Gorbachev.

The coercive tendencies and strict monitoring of civil society, that characterised the communist state, were greatly weakened, and the state's role in regulating the behaviour of the citizens was considerably lessened. The re-introducing of the concept of private property rights through the privatisation of 'national' property and the re-privatisation of property taken unlawfully from the owners by the state in the communist period, was also a factor in the increase in crime. The freedom for people to engage in private business enterprise, and the opening up of borders between the former communist countries, which allowed for the relatively free movement of people and goods, all facilitated organised criminal activities. Jerzy Jasinski points to the fact there was a fundamental turn around in attitudes to the law. He says that 'Under communist rule, what was permitted by law was often also forbidden; during the period of transition, in the practice of everyday life, what is forbidden is also allowed: the weak state has no effective means and its functionaries do not have the political desire to enforce the law.' (Jasinski, 1996, pp.40-50).

This point is an important one to make. Many of the police forces of the new CIS countries and Russia have been left somewhat in the wilderness, and are ineffectual because of the lack of resources, proper training and low morale. Because of their former role as agents of the state, there to enforce ideology, their public and self-image is confused, and far from the 'service' role that has been fostered by the UK police, for instance.