Combating organized crime

Abstract

This thesis presents empirical evidence on two counterstrategies to organized crime in the Netherlands: the criminal justice approach and the financial approach ('follow the money'). For the criminal justice approach, it focuses on a specific method of criminal investigation: undercover policing. For the financial approach, it looks into what organized crime offenders actually do with their money as well as the efforts of law enforcement agencies to confiscate criminal earnings. CONTENT: 1. General introduction 2. Undercover policing: assumptions and empirical evidence Infiltrating organized crime groups: theory, regulation and results of a last resort method of investigation 3. Profitability, power, or proximity? 4. Organized crime offenders investing their money in legal economy 5. Explaining attrition: investigating and confiscating the profits of organized crime 6. Conclusion and discussion