The application of the framework of Situational Crime Prevention to ‘organized crime’

This essay and review examines to what extent the conceptual framework of Situational Crime Prevention can be meaningfully applied to the phenomena variously labelled ‘organized crime’. Several approaches are identified which in different respects imply modifications to the situational framework in order to accommodate assumed specificities of ‘organized crime’, including ‘organized’ criminal activities transcending space and time, and ‘organized’ criminals being capable of selecting and shaping crime settings. It is argued that while a situational approach to the study of ‘organized crime’ is useful in some respects, in other respects the conceptual framework of Situational Crime Prevention needs to be modified to a point where its universal applicability is called into question.