Assessing the Effectiveness of Organized Crime Control Strategies ...

Assessing the Effectiveness of Organized Crime Control Strategies:
A Review of the Literature
not serve as a rigorous evaluation, it was thought that the experiences of those utilizing various
OC control measures should carry some weight.
Witness protection programs were also rated as “moderately to highly” effective. These
programs are not without their critics, who voice their concerns about their costs, abuses by
career criminals, difficulties in building new identities and in the relocation of witnesses. These
programs nevertheless received this rating because of the considerable evidence, from more than
one country, of their value in saving the lives of witnesses and in facilitating the prosecution of
many key OC figures who otherwise might not be convicted due to witness intimidation.
Finally, enhancing regulation and the establishment of public benefit corporations have received
some strong, if limited, endorsements. While caution must be exercised in avoiding excessive
regulation, strong regulation in sectors prone to OC infiltration eliminates the loopholes that
invite this penetration. The use of licensing powers has prevented tarnished companies and
individuals from operating in areas in which OC’s infiltration in legitimate businesses has been
problematic. Public benefit corporations have also been successful in competing with OCdominated
cartels and have thereby lowered prices for consumers. Here again, the highest
effectiveness rating was not provided because the available evidence was limited.
Some Final Remarks
It is evident from the previous section that much research is needed in assessing the impact of
OC control strategies. Limited evidence exists in relation to most measures and the evidence that
does exist is largely descriptive in nature. Also, most of this evidence has been generated in one
country—the United States.
Very little evaluative work, that is available to the public, has been done in Canada despite the
flurry of federal legislation in recent years. Canadian initiatives also include such measures as
the targeting of the upper echelon of criminal organizations, civil asset forfeiture in Ontario, an
agency dedicated to combating OC in British Columbia, and municipal bylaws prohibiting “biker
bunkers”. These measures were not described in length, because the review did not find any
non-classified studies examining their impact on OC activities or groups. The above analysis
also indicates that Canada may need to invest more in witness protection programs, as well as in
remedies that use local regulatory powers and other tools that might divest tainted organizations
and individuals of their interests in legitimate businesses, where this is considered to be a
problem.
In addition, some scholars note that the largely punitive approach to preventing OC (e.g.,
prosecuting members and confiscating assets) is limited in its efficacy due to new realities, such
as increasing global economic integration, that facilitate multinational crime (Hicks, 1998).
Such realities require multilateral solutions that take into account the growing mobility of money
and contraband across national borders, as well as attention to the elastic supply and demand
structure of illicit goods and services.
Before further research is done, however, scholars need to address the definitional chaos
prevailing in the field. Performance measures, too, must be carefully considered. Simple body-
60 | Research and Statistics Division / Department of Justice Canada