Community experiences of serious organised crime in Scotland: research report

1. Definitions, background and context

Overview

Serious organised crime ( SOC) has a significant impact on the social and economic wellbeing of Scottish communities. SOC is estimated to cost the Scottish economy up to £2 billion annually (Scottish Police Authority 2013), and results in a number of harms to local communities.

To date, SOC has largely been approached as a policing issue, particulary involving specialist units and covert tactics. As a result, there are significant gaps in knowledge relating to the broader community experiences of organised crime. The community experience of SOC therefore represents a key gap in knowledge in the formulation of effective social policy that seeks to challenge both the direct and indirect forms of associated harm in Scottish society.

This document reports the findings of the first in-depth study undertaken to explore community experiences of organised crime in Scotland. The study aimed to move beyond the prevailing perceptions of police and law enforcement and instead engage with a wider range of voices drawn from communities with an established SOC presence. The report provides information relating to the nature and extent of the impacts of SOC on everyday life in the community, as well as identifying gaps in knowledge and offering suggestions for future policy.

The current chapter provides background and context for the study, covering: definitions and policy context; background and literature; organised crime in Scotland; and the structure of the report. Subsequent chapters will introduce the methods, data and findings of the study.

Definitions and policy context

Definition of the term 'organised crime' is subject to wide-ranging debate ( e.g. Maltz 1976; Hagan 2006). A recent overview determined more than a hundred different definitions, with variations between academic, policy and law-enforcement approaches (von Lampe 2015). Organised crime is also a topic that is subject to a great deal of public interest and stereotype, and at times glamorisation in popular culture (Penfold 2004; Levi 2008).

Issues commonly associated with organised crime are the existence of hierarchy, continuity, violence, restricted membership, illegal enterprises, penetration of legitimate business, and corruption (Finckenaeur 2005). Debates focus on the distinction between youth gangs (Hagedorn 2015), 'mafia-style' organisations (Varese 2010), and other forms of organised crime (Wright 2006).

Scholars have however also emphasised the idea of 'disorganised' crime (Ruggiero and South 1997; Hobbs 2001). As opposed to a coherent hierarchy, this approach considers shifting alliances between criminal actors who form networks according to evolving opportunities alongside familial or cultural connections (Hobbs 1998). Recently, approaches have emphasised connections between local markets and transnational aspects of organised crime (Varese 2013; Marmo and Chazal 2016).

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime defines an organised criminal group as 'a structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offences established in accordance with this Convention, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit' (United Nations 2004: 5).

In 2015, the Scottish Government reoriented the policy focus toward serious organised crime which: (a) involves more than one person; (b) is organised ( i.e. involves planning or the use of specialist resources); (c) causes (or has the potential to cause), significant harm; and (d) involves some benefit, financial or otherwise, to the individuals involved (Scottish Government 2015a). The current Serious Organised Crime Strategy focuses on four principal strands: Divert, Deter, Detect and Disrupt. This classification represents an effort to emphasise the role of other statutory agencies and community organisations in responding to the harms associated with organised crime.

In this report the term 'organised crime' is used generally to refer to planned, group-based criminality with significant financial reward. While the terms 'organised crime' and 'serious organised crime' ( SOC) are used interchangeably in the report, it is notable that the term 'organised crime' had more traction with community respondents, while the term SOC was more familiar to statutory interviewees. In both cases, however, the terminology was left open to interpretation.

A recent overview of research on the concept of 'community' distinguished three components of a definition: (a) a social group who interact on a regular basis; (b) often within a closed geographical area; (c) involving some degree of commonality of values or interests (Neal and Neal 2014).

These components are subject to intense debate. Sociological approaches to the concept of 'community' stress its partial, contingent and constructed nature (Sibley 1995; Delanty 2010). While the idea might conjure an 'image of a warm and comfortable place' (Bauman 2001: 1), in reality the construction of community frequently results in exclusion, as well as disputed boundaries (Elias and Scotstoun 1994; Back 1996). It is therefore recognised that there can be multiple 'communities' co-existing within the same neighbourhood, as well as those that form and sustain across long distances, including 'virtual' communities (Delanty 2010).

In 2015, the Scottish Government introduced the Community Empowerment Act which defined communities as 'any community based on common interest, identity or geography' (Scottish Government 2015b). In this report, the term 'community' will be used according to this broad definition, with a particular emphasis on geography.

Background and literature

Criminological research on community experiences of crime has traditionally focused on the idea of the 'criminal area' (Morris 1957: 9; Rock 1973: 30). Reiss (1986) coined the term 'community crime careers', focusing on the ways in which an area may sustain or support pro-criminal tendencies. In recent research in Scotland which has illustrated how 'high crime' areas are not only associated with more established offender residences than other areas, but also with the production of higher levels of new offending groups (Livingston et. al. 2014). It is notable however that criminality can also cluster in more affluent communities (Lashmar and Hobbs 2017).

Local communities can provide a known set of resources and 'recruits' for SOC groups, as well as a ready market for goods and services. In this context, reputation, social ties, and access to specialist resources define the successful 'project criminal' (Klerks 1999; Von Lampe and Johansen 2004). The denser and more flexible these resources and networks are, the more resilient SOC can be to any law enforcement activity (Cope and Kazmierska 2006).

Up until the 1990s, criminal entrepreneurialism was categorised as 'professional' rather than 'organised' crime, where criminal actors were presented as those who had learned their trade like 'physicians, lawyers or bricklayers' (Sutherland 1937). This does not suggest large-scale organisation, so much as 'a community of small operators' (Low 1982) or an 'everyman performance' (Hobbs 2013).

Research on organised crime careers (Van Koppen et. al. 2010; Francis et. al. 2013) suggests that the presence of criminal opportunities in marginalised communities may offer alternative career opportunities. Such opportunities can be compared to those that in more affluent communities may be associated with success in the legitimate economy (Kleemans and de Poot 2008). Less serious criminal networks in a community, in particular youth gangs, can provide a training ground for offenders to develop criminal capital (Hagan 1997).

Research has established that area reputation, stigma, socio-economic exclusion, and under-investment can strengthen and sustain criminal traditions within communities (Bottoms 1994). Such factors also increase the likelihood that residents will perceive their neighbourhood as having a problem with organised crime (Tilley and Hopkins 2008; Ipsos MORI Scotland 2013). Such reputations can create a self-fulfilling prophecy that has implications both for how residents feel about themselves and their community, but also for how external service providers view the area.

A general perception that organised crime is present, or is an issue, in a community, does not necessarily equate to having an experience of it. Attempts to measure community experiences and perceptions to date have repeatedly found that most residents, and indeed most local businesses, do not recognise or associate the majority of visible crimes that they witness or experience, with organised crime (Tilley and Hopkins 2008; Bullock et. al. 2009; Hamilton-Smith and Mackenzie 2011; Ipsos MORI Scotland 2018).

Research has further demonstrated that community wellbeing and feelings of safety and belonging can be negatively impacted by certain types of crime and incivilities, which to the community at large can signal 'disorder', 'insecurity' and a lack of community 'control' (Innes 2004). When low-level concerns are mapped against police intelligence, however, there can be a strong correspondence with organised crime activity (Hamilton-Smith and Mackenzie 2011). A recent report found that 17% of police recorded crime was linked to organised crime, mostly involving drug-related offences, vehicle crime, and fraud (Crocker et. al. 2017).

SOC groups may launder profits in the form of cheap 'self-loans'; for instance, setting up local firms and services with low-capital costs, thereby in turn undercutting legitimate local entrepreneurs and businesses (Murray 2010). Similarly, the accumulation of criminal capital under otherwise legitimate guises by SOC poses an ongoing threat to the integrity of economic markets (Murray 2018). The net impact of this form of activity may re-enforce economic marginalisation and a low-skill, low-wage economy in deprived areas.

It is important to recognise that community resources can also mobilise forms of resistance and resilience to the harms associated with SOC. Even in instances where two proximate communities share many similar characteristics, they can nevertheless exhibit distinctly different trajectories when it comes to offending and crime (Baldwin and Bottoms 1976). Evidence shows that even where there are high crime/high offender communities, most are overwhelmingly populated by law-abiding citizens (Stark 1987). Additionally, research indicates that even among those citizens who engage in some criminality, many will still mostly be characterised as having conventional aspirations and a limited attachment to any criminal identity (Hobbs 2013). Recent research carried out in Scotland (Seaman et. al. 2015) has suggested that cohesion and resilience can promote community wellbeing, health and longevity.

Organised crime in Scotland

Historical research suggests that group-based criminality of an organised, entrepreneurial nature in Scotland dates back at least to the 1920s (Davies 2013). In neighbourhoods characterised by severe poverty, illegal forms of money-making – from protection rackets to organised theft, illicit drinking 'shebeens' to money-lending – formed an aspect of everyday life that enabled communities to survive during times of economic hardship (Damer 1990). Urban centres with major ports represented important points in stolen goods networks, and cities such as Glasgow supplied larger conurbations such as London.

Markets in high value goods such as cigarettes and whisky were established during the rationing of the Second World War, and in the 1950s professional criminals started to build individual reputations both inside and outside of Scotland. From the 1960s onward these localised activities developed into more organised, cohesive criminal associations that extended beyond the immediate locale. Particularly in Glasgow, organised crime came to be associated with crime 'families' and 'firms' with bases in particular urban communities (Wilson and Findlay 2012; Findlay 2012).

Autobiographical accounts from the 1970s onward depict a relatively consistent picture of organised crime, in which known families came to represent an embedded, normalised, and mundane aspect of daily life in urban communities experiencing severe, long-term and multiple disadvantage (Boyle 1977). In these accounts, local crime firms represent a longstanding and visible presence in the community, operating as an alternative form of local governance, fulfilling functions such as money-lending, debt-collection, dispute-resolution, and protection.

In this context, reputations for violence could lead to opportunities for employment in the illicit economy (Davies 2013). Territorial youth gangs formed part of the same street culture that more organised criminal enterprise grew out of, and in some cases provided a pathway into more organised forms of criminality (Fraser 2015). In the context of de-industrialisation – including the decline in manufacturing and the embedding of long-term unemployment – local crime firms represented a source of employment, income and status.

SOC presence remains strongly rooted in de-industrialised urban and semi-urban neighbourhoods, particularly in the west of Scotland. A SOC mapping exercise carried out in 2016 found that of the groups operating in Scotland, 65% were located in the west of Scotland, 21% in the east and 14% in the north (Scottish Government 2017b). The majority of these groups were identified as ethnically White Scottish, with approximately 6% foreign nationals. There is nonetheless a need to be aware of the different forms of exploitation and vulnerability between Scottish groups and those based elsewhere.

New supply routes and the increasing involvement of organised groups from outside of Scotland indicate the ways in which the market for illicit goods and services is adapting and transforming. For example, in 2007 a high-profile individual was convicted of laundering £1m generated through trafficking heroin and cocaine after a four year surveillance operation by the police in Scotland which led them over time to expand their observations to the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal.

While 'elite' organised crime actors may be transnational in activity and scope, they form part of domestic networks that extend down to more localised groups. A recent study of offending patterns of individuals identified by the police as being involved in SOC (Scottish Government 2017a) demonstrated that the majority (54%) were recorded as unemployed and resided in the most deprived communities in the country, with 2% based in least deprived areas.

A 2016 threat assessment from the agencies co-located at the Scottish Crime Campus suggested that the principal areas of concern are: drug supply and distribution; acquisitive crime; counterfeiting; immigration crime; environmental crime; fraud; extortion; cybercrime; human trafficking; and child sexual exploitation. A survey of public perceptions of SOC in Scotland (Ipsos Mori 2018) indicated that the main perceptions of the impact of organised crime were broader than these issues, incorporating not only drug taking or increased drug use (28%) but also fear in the community (23%), damage to victims' health (18%), a reduction in money for public services (13%), and violence in the community (12%).

The survey showed that the majority of respondents, almost seven in every ten (67%), did not think that organised crime was a problem in their area, with 30% saying it was very or fairly serious. However, for people living in the most deprived areas over half (57%) regarded it as a serious problem, compared to 15% of people in the least deprived areas (Scottish Government 2018a: 11). Based on a sample of 1,088 people, the study showed that only one in ten had personally been affected by SOC; the majority of whom, (74%), said they had been victims (Scottish Government 2018a).

A recent review of research by the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice ( CYCJ 2018) has demonstrated that there are a range of risk factors for young people being recruited into organised criminal activity. Findings highlight a range of ways in which vulnerable young people can be 'mentored' into criminal activity by adults. Although some of these risk factors were similar to that involving participation in other forms of offending, there were issues that were particular to SOC activity. In Scotland, one of these factors is consistent involvement with social work services from a young age.

Summary

This chapter has outlined the background and context for the study. It introduced broad definitions of the terms 'organised crime' and 'community', drawing attention to the role of 'disorganised' crime and the fact that many 'communities' may co-exist in the same geographical area. The chapter then discussed previous academic studies on the topic of communities and organised crime, demonstrating a range of reasons why organised crime groups might wish to establish a base of operations within a community context, while also noting the divergence between 'seen' and 'unseen' forms of organised crime.

To date, there has been no dedicated effort to recognise and understand the direct and indirect impacts of organised crime on local communities. The chapter also offered a brief overview of the history and context of organised crime in Scotland, drawing on academic and policy literature, to contextualise the study. This overview suggests that while organised crime remains rooted in specific community contexts, there is a need to consider the more diffuse impacts that organised crime might have at a national level.