Responding to organised crime through intervention in recruitment pathways

The essential components of an organised crime group are defined in article 2 of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as 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 some financial or material benefit (United Nations 2004). As such, organised crime requires three or more persons to come together for the execution of their common purpose. This paper examines the processes involved in recruitment and the opportunities and incentives that make participation in organised crime attractive for suitably motivated individuals. Armed with a sophisticated understanding of how recruitment takes place, it is possible to develop appropriate intervention strategies that would seek to disrupt recruitment pathways and to make it difficult for organised crime groups to secure the services of potential collaborators.