Organised crime and public sector corruption: A crime scripts analysis of tactical displacement risks

For present purposes, organised crime will be defined in accordance with article 2 of UNTOC (UN 2004a), which is also the definition adopted by Australian law enforcement and government agencies following the Convention's ratification in 2004, namely: * a structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time, acting in concert with the aim of committing serious criminal offences in order to obtain financial or material benefit [where]; * a serious crime is defined as an offence punishable by at least four years' imprisonment; and * a structured group is one that is not randomly formed, but has some existing internal structure and exists for some period of time before and after the commission of an offence. Using information from some of the few publicly available cases in Australia, it is contended that first, enhanced legislative and law enforcement responses to organised crime may lead to a tactical displacement effect, such that organised criminals may increasingly attempt to gain 'insider knowledge' through the corruption of public officials to reduce the risk of apprehension as they commit crimes.