Organised Crime in the UK: New Challenges?

Organised crime manifests itself in different forms and guises from street drug gangs to shell companies. Some organised crime is purely local and contained within a confined national or even much smaller environment; other types are international and link countries from around the globe. Fighting organised crime today therefore means police need to distinguish different types and be equipped with the means and resources to counter very different kinds of threats. This workshop focuses on organised crime in the UK and, in particular, how it affects the UK, and seeks to address whether law enforcement agencies are able to both distinguish different types of organised crime as they exist today and the challenges involved in countering them effectively. The social, economic and political forms and effects of organised crime are assessed, in particular by investigating the potential social costs, economic losses and political partnerships that might affect British citizens.

The workshop is structured around two sessions focusing first on the vulnerabilities of the UK to organised crime and second on how organised crime groups, native, traditional and non-traditional, function in the UK. The morning session will focus on the economic vulnerabilities (money laundering activities and counter money laundering policies), and the afternoon session will focus on more general vulnerabilities (drug trafficking, human trafficking, counterfeit goods and gangs).

This event is organised by the Criminal Justice Centre (CJC), Queen Mary University of London, and the Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies, University of Bath.

For more information please visit the event website here.