Karen Bullock, Ronald V. Clarke, Nick Tilley (eds.)Situational prevention of organised crimesWillan Publishing, Cullompton, UK, 2010, 222 pp

Marco Zanella

Published online: 22 September 2010# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Research on organised crime has for decades aimed primarily at understanding theoffenders or groups of offenders involved in such crime, as well as the forms orstructures that they assume when committing cross-border, national or local crimes.Even though recent years have seen an increasing number of studies on organised crimeconducted from a rational choice perspective, quite surprisingly the academic literaturehas almost entirely disregarded the possible application of situational crime prevention(SCP). This is an approach based on the proposition that opportunities influence thenature, location and amount of crime. Relying upon in-depth analysis of specific crimesand their facilitating circumstances, SCP seeks to identify interventions able to reducecrime opportunities by increasing the efforts and the risks related to a given crime, aswell as by reducing the rewards, the provocations, and the excuses related to the crime’scommission. SCP has been successfully applied in preventing a wide range ofconventional high-volume crime, such as theft or car crimes. It has even been appliedin preventing terrorism, but not organised crime.

Bullock, Clarke and Tilly’s impressive book on the Situational prevention oforganised crimes builds upon previous works to argue the theoretical case for thesituational prevention of organised crime (e.g. Felson 2006; Natarajan and Clarke2004; Bouloukos et al 2003; van de Bunt and van der Schoot 2003; Cornish andClarke 2001; Ekblom 2000), and it opens up a completely new perspective. In fact, itconcretely demonstrates how SCP can be employed to reduce the opportunities whichenable organised crime to take place. In doing so, the book brings together revisedversions of invited papers presented by leading scholars in the field of SCP and oforganised crime at a conference on “Situational Crime Prevention and OrganisedCrime” held at Cumberland Lodge in Great Windsor Park (UK) on 23–25 March2009, and which was organised by the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science (UK)with the support of Rutgers University (USA).

Trends Organ Crim (2010) 13:365–368DOI 10.1007/s12117-010-9112-y

Ph.D. candidate on the XXIV cycle of the International Ph.D. in Criminology of the Catholic University ofMilan (Italy).

M. Zanella (*)Catholic University of Milan, Milan, Italye-mail: marco.zanella1@gmail.com

The book commences with a theoretical introduction describing the core idea ofthe text and defining the basic concepts of the research, such as “situational crimeprevention” and “organised crime”. To be stressed in this regard is the concernshown by Bullock, Clarke and Tilly to replace the often misleading concept of“organised crime” with that of “organised crimes”. This choice, though it could havebeen better justified, is of great importance. It immediately clarifies that theapplication of SCP in this domain is not based on analysis of “who” commits thecrime—hierarchical mafia syndicates or loose networks—but rather of “how” the“specific” organised crime is committed and what are the facilitating conditions thatenabled its commission. Guided by this introduction, the book addresses a widerange of issues, including: research techniques that could be employed whilestudying organised crime for SCP application (e.g. the contributions by Hancock andLaycock; Savona; von Lampe); data sources that might be exploited in conductingresearch in this domain, like large-scale surveys, analysis of court/police records, in-depth interviews with offenders, victims or officials (e.g. the contributions byFinckenauer and Chin; Kleemans et al); as well as concrete applications ofsituational preventive techniques applied to organised crime (e.g. the contributionsby Graycar and Felson; Nelen).

The book is the result of a conversation among scholars. The presence of severalcontributors, which often represents a limit in terms of the continuity of analysis anda re-proposition of concepts and ideas, is the added value of this volume. All thecontributors, in fact, seek to inform the debate on a “novel” application for SCP bybringing their own research experiences and knowledge and sharing them in anappropriate and consistent way. Each contribution, in fact, sheds light on the natureof certain organised crimes and highlights the pros and cons of the application ofSCP in this complex field. In this regard, the contributions can be grouped accordingto their focus.

Four contributions discuss the application of SCP in dealing with cross-borderorganised crimes. Kleemans, Soudijn and Weenink, drawing on research carried outin the Netherlands, explore to what extent and under what circumstances SCP maybe employed to prevent cross-border crimes related to drug (ecstasy and cocaine)production and trafficking, money laundering and human smuggling. Similarly, vonLampe examines cigarette smuggling with a specific focus on the German situationin the 1990s. He analyses the potential of SCP in this domain, considering thisapproach effective in tackling the trafficking of contraband cigarettes. In the field ofcross-border organised crimes, Finckenauer and Chin discuss sex trafficking as atarget for SCP. Drawing on data from three different studies on sex traffickingvictims, they single out information on the push factors behind sex trafficking,victimisation, as well as the process followed by crime groups when selecting theirvictims. In addition, they employ these data to determine whether and how SCPtechniques could be used to tackle the crime. Differently, the contribution by Kirbyand Penna, conducted within the “new mobilities paradigm”, focuses on the UK andanalyses changes in the policing of transnational organised crimes from a SCPperspective.

Three contributions deal with the application of SCP to local organised crimes. Inthis framework, in light of the experience of three Dutch local initiatives (i.e. VanTraa Project, Bureau for Screening and Auditing, Integrity Bureau), Nelen analyses

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the so-called “administrative approach” to dealing with organised crime in the Cityof Amsterdam. The author points out that a variety of interventions enforced underthese local initiatives have successfully emphasised preventative actions aimed atincreasing efforts and risks, and at reducing the rewards for organised crime. Savonain his chapter employs the script method to analyse three court cases by focusing onthe different stages that characterize the infiltration of the Italian local publicconstruction industry by the Mafia, ‘ndrangheta and Camorra.

Korsell and Skinnari draw on research projects previously carried out in Swedento consider how SCP techniques can be adopted against unlawful influencesexercised by organised crime, such as harassment, threats, violence, maliciousdamage, and corruption.

Two contributions focus on the application of SCP to economic organised crimeslike organised timber theft and the related corruption, and mortgage frauds. Graycarand Felson concentrate on organised thefts of timber and analyse how corruptiveagreements are reached at every stage of timber harvesting and selling. In thisframework they review SCP techniques—like the improved tracing of timber—thatmight be brought into play to prevent organised timber theft from expanding, and tocontain public corruption. In the area of economic organised crimes, van Gestelanalyses twelve completed Dutch police investigations dealing with mortgage fraudsin order to explore the modus operandi of real estate agents and brokers, thefacilitating conditions which make such frauds possible, and the role played byfacilitators like civil-law notaries.

Finally, the contribution by Hancock and Laycock builds a theoretical frameworkon “crime scripts” as an instrument that could be adapted and concretely employedin studying organised crime for a SCP application.

All the twenty contributors to the book recognize the potential of SCP if appliedin the field of organised crimes. It could open up a wide range of crime controlstrategies in terms of preventing organised crimes or disrupting their commission,rather than responding to them through the criminal justice system. However, all thecontributors seem at the same time to be fully aware of the difficulties that theadoption of SCP may encounter, especially in terms of knowledge on “how” eachorganised crime is committed. In fact, whilst it is well known that SCP must rely ondetailed knowledge about the modus operandi, it is also well known that it isextremely difficult to obtain detailed and updated information on organised crimesthat, owing to their complexity and plasticity are like ‘flags moving in the wind’(Brantingham and Brantingham 1993). In this regard, future research will have toaddress this knowledge gap and determine how to achieve a satisfactory trade-offbetween the needs for accuracy and speed in collecting data on organised crimes.This will be the conditio sine qua non for the concrete application of SCP in thisfield.

The book by Bullock, Clarke and Tilly does not comprehensively address theissue of the evaluation of the efficacy and efficiency of SCP measures applied toprevent organised crimes. This will probably be the next “challenge” for SCPresearchers, for two main reasons. First, it will require the development of tailoredmethods able to assess—in a field shaped by “dark figures”—the outcomeeffectiveness of SCP and able to estimate the causality between the measure andthe effect. Second, the evaluation of SCP techniques applied to organised crimes will

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have to be particularly focused on assessing the extent of organised crime“displacement” (i.e. the possible relocation of organised crimes from one time,place, target, modus operandi to others as a result of the application of SCP) and thepossible “diffusion of organised crimes control benefits” (i.e. the reduction causedby SCP of organised crimes not targeted by the responses themselves).

In general, this book has the merit of starting a debate on a “novel” application forSCP, and of establishing a different way to look at organised crime—rectiusorganised crimes. This new approach to studying and dealing with such an issue maybe criticised; nevertheless, as Locke put it, “new opinions are always suspected, andusually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not alreadycommon” (Locke 1995). This book is certainly a welcoming addition in the field oforganised crime.

References

Bouloukos AC, Farrell G, Laycock G (2003) Transnational organised crime in Europe and North America:the need for situational crime prevention efforts. HEUNI, Helsinki

Brantingham PL, Brantingham PJ (1993) Nodes, paths and edges: considerations on the complexity ofcrime and the physical environment. J Environ Psychol 13:3–28

Cornish D, Clarke RV (2001) Analyzing organised crimes. In: Piquero AR, Tibbetts SG (eds) Rationalchoice and criminal behaviour: recent research and future challenges. Garland Science, Hamden

Ekblom P (2000) Preventing organised crime: a conceptual framework. Presentation at Europol workshopon Organised Crime, The Hague, May 2000

Felson M (2006) The ecosystem for organised crime. HEUNI, HelsinkiLocke J (1995) An essay concerning human understanding. Prometheus Books, New YorkNatarajan M, Clarke RV (2004) Understanding and controlling organised crime: the feasibility of a

situational approach. Presentation at the annual Environmental Criminology and Crime AnalysisSeminar, Wellington, July 2004

Van de Bunt H, van der Schoot C (2003) Prevention of organised crime. WODC, The Hague

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