Transnational organised crime in Europe and North America: towards a framework of prevention

Previous volumes of the HEUNI regional reports have paid little or no attention to transnational organized crime. Although the literature on transnational organized crime (hereafter TOC) is expanding rapidly, there remain fewstandardized measures of the problem. There is even less of a formal framework for thinking about how to prevent TOC in its various forms. The present chapter begins to address these issues, with an emphasis upon practical aspects of the latter. In the following section, TOC is defined and set in a global context, a broad overview of factors relating to recent changes is given, and international legislative responses are described. This is followed by the presentation of a framework that is frequently used in discussions of more general crime prevention efforts. It is proposed that its utilization in this context will help inform the analysis of efforts to prevent TOC.