Organized Crime - theoretical observations and empirical befunde

Abstract

The concept of organized crime is marked through myths, estimates and speculations. The concept has stimulated in the last decades the mobilization of the Criminal Policy to an incursion through national, European and international field, specially due two order of factors. By one side, the illegal markets of drug in Europe expanded itself strongly since the 1970´s decade; on the other hand, it concerns to the fall of the Iron Curtain at the end of the 1980´s decade, the increase of the cross-border migration as well as the oversight in the inspection of the borders.