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STRUCTURE OF ORGANIZED CRIMINAL GROUPS
ORIGINATING FROM THE BALKAN PENINSULA:
MODELS OF TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS CRIMINAL GROUPS
Stanojoska Angelina, PhD1
Petrevski Blagojce, MSc in Criminology and Criminalistics (PhD Student)2
Shushak Ivona, MA in Criminal Law (PhD Student)3
angiest22@gmail.com
blagojcedugal@yahoo.com
susak.ivona@gmail.com
Abstract
The Balkan territory through the years has been and is known for the violence that has
happened and it’s happening on its soil. Known by the permanent war conflicts, the Balkans
are still in the role of path of crime, with every criminal path going through it, but also as a
nest of crime, an origin place of many criminal groups that are active here, but also in the
other regions of the European continent.
Albanian, Bulgarian and Serbian criminal groups are the ones that rule the Balkan territory,
and commit several of “modern”, organized crimes. The model of trafficking in human beings
on the Balkans is known as a model of violence, because of the use of violent methods as
instrumentum operandi.
The paper will try with a comparative analysis to build the structure of organized criminal
groups on the Balkans, make the difference between the vertical and horizontal division of
roles, and try to explain their modus operandi and its fluctuation through the years.
Key words: model, network, organized criminal groups, role, structure, trafficking in human
beings.
1. INTRODUCTION
Organized crime groups are the core of modern crime, carrier of its complexity. Through their
organizational frame, their structure, we can research and connect different models of groups
1 Stanojoska Angelina, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University “St.Kliment Ohridski” - Bitola,
Republic of Macedonia
2 Petrevski Blagojce, MSC, is a PhD student at the Faculty of Security - Skopje, University “St.Kliment Ohridski” - Bitola,
Republic of Macedonia
3 Shushak Ivona, MA, is a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Law and a PhD student at the Faculty of Security - Skopje,
University “St.Kliment Ohridski” - Bitola, Republic of Macedonia
with different kinds of crimes, mark their territories although organized crime does not know
about boundaries.
Trafficking in human beings through years has changed and adjusted to every change in
society. The criminal groups working in this area have built models whose frame is defined
by the territory of their action and the vertical or horizontal way of relations between their
members.
The paper will give an overview of the possible structures of organized crime groups, their
hierarchical placement and the individually divided roles between members.
2. STRUCTURE OF ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS: SOCIAL NETWORK OR
INTEREST
Beginning in the mid-1950s, anthropologists studying urbanization found that a sufficient
understanding of the behavior of individuals in complex societies could not be achieved via
the traditional sociological and anthropological approach of describing social organization in
terms of institutions (economics, religion, politics, kinship, etc.). As these anthropologists
studied complex societies, they recognized a need for new concepts to describe the fluid
social interactions of individuals and groups which they observed during ethnographic field
research. (Jeffrey Scott Mcillwain, 1999, 304)
Stanley Wasserman and Katherine Faust defined social networks as “the relational structure
of a group or larger social system consisting of the pattern of relationships among the
collection of actors.” (Jeffrey Scott Mcillwain, 1999, 304)
Although it is possible to distinguish the various characteristics of the relationship between
two people analytically, these are the characteristics that are often difficult to distinguish in
practice. Most social relationships show various characteristics simultaneously (they are
multiplex). Thus at work we find mostly instrumental and hierarchical relationships, but a
different kind of content is also attached to them: the other person is regarded as more or less
pleasant, there is more or less frequent social intercourse, or there are continuous arguments
or one manages to resolve conflicts or learns to live with them. From this great variety of
social relationships it can be assumed that our social world is vibrant. People and their mutual
relationships form the building blocks of which social networks are constructed. (Gerben
Bruinsma. Wim Bernasco, 2004, 81)
In addition to persons and relationships, both elements of social network, there are three other
aspects that are important when it comes to analyzing social relationships: the characteristics
of the network structure as a whole, the characteristics of the position that a person occupies
in the network structure, and relationships between networks. (Gerben Bruinsma. Wim
Bernasco, 2004, 81)
Social networks have form which can be hierarchical or central. The first one often can be
found in business relations or politics, while in the second members bring with them the
characteristics and positions which they already had in other networks. Those characteristics
can culminate with either central or marginalized position into the network.
The criminal macro network is present before the actual illegal activity commences, and it
remains in place after the criminal business process is completed. Furthermore, members of
active criminal collectives will usually also maintain relations with individuals with whom
they are, at that specific time, not involved in criminal acts. Social relations are essential for
bringing together the skills and resources required for executing a specific illegal activity.
Before individuals are able start a criminal business process or participate in one, they need to
establish a connection with like-minded counterparts who possess qualities additional to their
own or have access to specific resources. Such links, however, are not equivalent to normal
social relations, their raison d’etre being primarily to exchange information about potential
illegal activities. Consequently, a criminal relation requires a degree of like-mindedness and
trust. Before one can talk freely about potential criminal activity, one must be sure that the
other party does not sees this as reason for immediately ending the relation and that, in any
case, he or she will keep the secret. How then are criminal relations established? (Toine
Spapens, 2010, 196-197)
The social system of organized crime, he explained, refers to the notion that organized crime
is a phenomenon recognizable by reciprocal services performed by professional criminals,
politicians, and clients. Organized crime is thus understood to lie in the relationships binding
members of the underworld to upper world institutions and individuals… Organized crime is
not a modern, urban, or lower-class phenomenon; it is a historical one whose changes mirror
changes in civil society, the political economy. That is why, naturally, organized crime is
increasingly taken to represent a series of relationships among professional criminals, upper
world clients and politicians… (Jeffrey Scott Mcillwain, 1999, 307)
One central component of popular imagery of organized crime is the link-up between
underworld and upper world. This so-called illegal-legal nexus has been discussed with regard
to business as well as politics. In both cases a broad spectrum of (isolated or widespread)
relationships can be discerned, ranging from the victimization of legal businesses and the
intimidation and infiltration of government by criminals to mutually beneficial arrangements
between legal and illegal actors, and to the instrumentalisation of criminals for the furtherance
of business and political interests, as exemplified in the case of post-Soviet Russia. Finally,
criminal practices may be adopted by businesses and political actors without recurrence to the
proverbial underworld. (Klaus von Lampe, 2008, 13)
Monzini distinguishes between: small and loosely connected criminal groups (type 1), in
which recruitment, transport and exploitation are undertaken by the same individuals,
normally friends or acquaintances of the victims; middle-sized groups (type 2), which
function as supply channels to the prostitution markets in foreign countries and therefore draw
profits, as well as sophisticated middle-sized groups (a variant, organizing mobile prostitution
based on international transfers and which therefore presuppose a high degree of integration
of all the actors involved); and transnational criminal networks (type 3), in which each sector
has a delineated task from the recruitment to the exploitation phase. (Johan Leman. Stef
Janssens, 2008, 435)
The closed gangs in profile 1 (the small and loosely connected ones as well as the
sophisticated middle-sized groups) resemble perfectly the clans that Waldmann refers to when
he describes the Kanun-related ‘friend/enemy discourse’, which was characteristic of the
Albanian clans of the 1990s and which led directly to ‘a strict group solidarity toward the
inside, forced with the aid of hard sanctions, linked with great closeness toward all third
parties’. A second profile is based on trust in abstract systems, i.e. ‘where criminal groups
manage to establish some level of control over a territory or market, and to set and enforce
certain rules’. The area of recruitment and application is more complex than under profile 1
and encompasses several countries, but the management, even though it can be transnational,
is culturally homogeneous. Only three middle-sized files (Monzini’s type 2) fit easily here
(that is, the integrated supply networks) which have a transnational field of application, in
other words where mutual tasks are distributed by sector. The third profile is based not on
clan ties and not on control over a territory but on mutual recognition and trust in mutual
reputations a function of joint venture actions: ‘trust based on reputation’. Although
collaboration between the managers in the network is not based on clan ties or control over a
territory, it is possible that individual managers in their own sectors employ a specific,
diverging management strategy. What is transnational, though, is the territory of action and
what happens afterwards (e.g. money laundering). (Johan Leman. Stef Janssens, 2008, 437)
The form of criminal networks in the trafficking in women can generally be typified as a
“chain” with at both ends some smaller clusters: one rounds up the women and the other
draws them in and exploits them or sells them on to other persons in our country. The clusters
are isolated from each other: the persons at both ends of the chain networks do not know each
other or only superficially and the links between the cluster are made by a few persons who
maintain what are principally instrumental relationships with each other. The cohesion of the
criminal network is extremely low, as is the density of the network. In addition the criminal
networks are not usually large. The persons who take care of the links between the clusters
occupy a strategic bridging position. They link the clusters to each other by pairing up the
market parties. The mutual social relationships are, on the whole, restricted and are
characterized by low frequency of contract, absence of affective relationships, the domination
of instrumental relationships and absence of multiplex relationships between the members.
These relationships are also not necessary, as was noted above, because the financial risks for
every member are limited, even in the event that the women demanded cannot be delivered.
(Gerben Bruinsma. Wim Bernasco, 2004, 88 - 89)
One of the classifications of organized criminal groups was made by the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime and it was based on the existence or non-existence of ten variable
characteristics. In the research that was made were analyzed criminal groups in 16 countries
and the following characteristics of the groups: structure, size, activities, transborder
operations, identity, usage of violence, corruption, political influence, penetration into
economy, cooperation with other groups. (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 16 -
17).
2.1. Standard hierarchy
These organized criminal groups have one leader, severely defined hierarchy, internal
discipline, strong social and ethnic identity, they use violence as instrument for fulfillment of
their goals, and in most of the cases they control part of a territory. Have one leader and
number between 10 - 16 members.
2.2. Regional hierarchy
Same as the previous one, these groups have one leader. He is the one who gives all the orders
and plans. Their autonomy is on regional level, have the same activities as the first one and
they differ from it by the area of influence.
2.3. Clustered hierarchy
This structure is a set of a number of criminal groups, which are working with the right of
equal deciding, but are responsible for their actions before one body. But it is important to
mention that, unlike individual groups, clusters have a stronger identity which is connected in
social or historical context. Although they are rarer than the other groups, they are result of
the dividing process of markets between groups with standard hierarchy.
2.4. Core groups
Core groups are criminal groups surrounded with loose net, with small number of members
(around 20), structure which is closed and flat, without internal discipline, and absence of
social or ethnic discipline. In some cases there is possibility for other members or outsider
criminal network which can be activated when it’s necessary.
One important sub-category of this typology should also be touched upon. Relatively loosely
organized criminal enterprises like those outlined above, can on occasion assume a corporate
structure with a legitimate business front. In effect then, the core group can hold all the
credentials of a legitimate business, yet engage in illegitimate activities. The crimes such
groups engage in are closely related tied to their apparent involvement in legitimate business.
Thus they are dominated by illegal activities such as money laundering or tax and investment
fraud. The number of members making up each group is generally small (less than 20) and
their level of professional know-how often very high. Such groups are non-violent, with close
connections to legitimate economic actors and government authorities. Given their cover as
legitimate economic enterprises, and their integration into the legitimate economy, the
activities of such groups are difficult to detect by law enforcement agencies. (United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, 40).
2.5. Criminal network
Criminal networks are always determined by the activities of their members as individuals,
who are important as such and determined by the capabilities and skills they have had. The
connections inside the networks are managed, because of the rotation around the criminal
projects.
3. MODELS OF ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS: TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN
BEINGS AS A MARKET OR BUSINESS
Schelling looks at how illegal and criminal markets are organized, defines organized crime in
purely economic terms, and believes there are good reasons for doing this: an economic
analysis, he argues could help in identifying the incentives and the limitations that apply to
organized crime, in evaluating the different kinds of costs and losses due to crime, in
restructuring laws and programs to minimize the costs, wastes and injustices that crime
entails, and in restructuring the business environment in which organized crime occurs with a
view to reducing crime or, at least, its worst consequences. (Felia Allum. Jennifer Sands,
2004, 134)
An economic market is a place (physical or virtual) that connects buyers (‘‘demand’’) and
sellers (‘‘supply’’) either directly or through an intermediary. A main theme in the human
trafficking literature is the role of intermediaries in connecting employers (the source of
‘‘labor demand’’) needing compliant labor with vulnerable individuals seeking employment.
(Elizabeth M. Wheaton. Edward J. Schauer. Thomas V.Galli, 2010, 116)
Unlike Becsi (1999), who divides the participants in the human trafficking market into
criminals (human traffickers), non-criminal households (vulnerable population), businesses,
and the government, we look at the agents making economic choices in the market: (1)
vulnerable individuals, (2) traffickers, (3) employers, and (4) users of slave-produced
products or services. Both the efforts of and corruption of government and law enforcement
officials are widely noted in the criminal justice literature on human trafficking. (Elizabeth M.
Wheaton. Edward J. Schauer. Thomas V.Galli, 2010, 117)
The trafficking in human beings market is a monopolistic field on which one there are little
obstacles for new players. Although the new ones does not experience any difficulty into
becoming part of the trafficking market, still it’s monopolistic dimension should be looked for
into its wideness, the offer of different range of products with different characteristics, which
results with controlled prices by the criminal groups.
The monopolistic competition model best fits the market for human trafficking for a number
of reasons. First, there are many sellers in the market. Whether human trafficking is by
organized groups of criminals or by small, loose networks of entrepreneurs, the benefits so
greatly outweigh the costs that a willing cadre of traffickers is assured. As Bales states,
‘‘Criminals are inventive. They work in a context of intense competition, they must be
flexible, and they must adapt quickly or (at times literally) die’’. Second, many buyers
demand human trafficking victims for employment for a variety of reasons. Employing
trafficked individuals is by nature exploitative. In many cases, the trafficked individual does
not have the right to decide whether to work, how many hours to work, or what kind of work
to do. (Elizabeth M. Wheaton. Edward J. Schauer. Thomas V.Galli, 2010, 118 - 119) Third,
the human trafficking market is characterized by product differentiation. Bales points out that
‘‘attributes vary according to the jobs or economic sectors in which the retail consumer
intends to use the trafficked person. Different attributes are needed for prostitution or
agricultural work or domestic service, though these will overlap as well’’. Because there are
so many different uses for trafficked individuals, the economic model in this paper assumes
that the trafficker and employer negotiate over price so that the trafficker has some control of
selling price. (Kevin Bales, 2005, 158)
Demand is generated by three distinct groups. The first group comprises customers or clients
of trafficked persons; this is referred to as primary demand. The second and third groups are
the employers (owners, managers of brothels, massage parlors or pornographic film
producers) and third parties involved in the trafficking process (recruiters, travel agents,
transporters). These groups generate a profit from human trafficking and create what is
referred to as derived demand. Traffickers may create a demand based upon available supply
or they may recruit and traffic persons to meet the demands of their clientele. (Alexis A.
Aronowitz, 2010, 1) While traditional market theory operates on the presumption that demand
creates supply, – a steady supply of unskilled (migrant) workers willing to accept jobs or
provide services, can sometimes generate the demand for such services and labor – rather than
vice versa. (Alexis A. Aronowitz, 2010, 3)
Supply and demand are shaped “... by a complex and interlocking set of political, social,
institutional and economic factors. n an empirical econometric analysis of supply and demand
determinants of sex trafficking, the ILO identified the two most important factors contributing
to human trafficking. Supply is influenced by youth unemployment or under employment,
especially for females, in a country; there is a statistical correlation between the level of
female youth unemployment and the number of victims trafficked out of a country. Another
important factor influencing supply in source countries is the presence of organized crime.
Furthermore, demand for trafficked victims is higher in countries that are more open to
globalization and that have more prostitution. (OSCE, 2010, 24)
“Continuous criminal enterprise” is a dynamic duo-concept: organizing something to which
should be added an enduring co-operation, otherwise one ends up with a one-man criminal
shop. The core characteristics are the criminal aspects of the enterprise. At first sight this
seems a platitude, though this seemingly platitude hides the contradictory element of
organized crime. Criminal entrepreneurship is enterprising in an enduring hostile landscape,
which means a constant jeopardy of the continuity of the crime-enterprise. For the crime-
entrepreneurs it means that the daily organization of their trade is not only focused on money,
but at the same time on a highly elaborated risk avoidance strategy. A good crime-
entrepreneur is an expert risk manager, facing the two-fold close-down by law enforcement as
well as by his criminal competitors. (Petrus C. Van Duyne, 2000, 370)
One of the most important skills which are a conditio sine qua non for any crime-entrepreneur
are his information management skills: risk management is info-management. One of the
smarter top hash-smugglers in Hallond realized that this management was not only important
for the tactical operations but had a strategic value of its own. So he elaborated his version of
a “criminal intelligence service” and hired outside professionals for to undertake surveillance
on police detectives and police cars, tapping communication lines and infiltrating the police
with “criminal” informants who worked for him. Most crime-entrepreneurs do not display
such strategic feeling for information, but they are all aware that in the criminal society there
is no such thing as a free flow of information. (Petrus C. Van Duyne, 2000, 370)
Trafficking in human beings is driven by profit. In the same way that legitimate businesses
look at market forces so do the traffickers, who are professional and organized criminals.
(Europol, 2, [24.12.2012]) Shelley speaks about models of trafficking in human beings. Each
of these models is an ideal type associated with a different national group and reflects deep
historical influences, geographical realities, and the market forces that drive the trade. The
models do not fit every crime group from a particular region, but they provide a means to
categorize the business of human smuggling and trafficking. The first five models address the
businesses that recruit men, women, and children to be smuggled and trafficked. The sixth
model applies only to a host country and not to the groups supplying tracked women. These
models apply to different regions of the world as women are trafficked from former socialist
countries, China, Latin America, and Africa. (Louise Shelley, 2003, 123) Actually the
criminal groups which are part from the modern slavery are not part from a uniformed
business, but their action is always in deep correlation and direct dependence from the cultural
and political context on the territory where they are active.
Like any other organization, the criminal one, by using sophisticated organizational schemes,
operates in accordance with its goals, and those are maximized stability, invisibility,
profitability and growth. (Louise Shelley, 2003, 123).
3.1. Natural resource model
This model can be found in the working of organized criminal groups from the territory of
Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The groups are focused on profit in short period of time, not
even trying to keep the business for a longer. They are part from the trafficking in human
beings for sexual exploitation, selling women as natural material.
The business focuses on the recruitment of women and their sale to intermediaries who
deliver them to the markets where they will "serve clients." Most often, the women are sold
off to nearby trading partners usually the most proximate crime group. This model does not
maximize profits and profits are not repatriated or used for development. Instead, profits are
disposed of through conspicuous consumption or are sometimes used to purchase another
commodity with a rapid turnover. (Louise Shelley, 2003, 123).
It is a model which is characterized with significant violation of human rights. It is result of
the indifferent approach of the groups for retaining the business, but also of the absence of the
connections between the criminals and the families of the victims.
3.2. Trade and development model
The second model is something very opposite from the first one. Territorially it can be found
in Eastern Asia. The groups which are working using this model run the activities from the
beginning till the end of the criminal process. It’s a way of working for maximizing the profit,
getting back the invested assets using underground banking, especially through jewelers and
bars. It is a model which is far less violent than the first one, especially because of the long
time connection between the victims and the crime organizations. They are mostly connected
to smuggling of migrants, but cases of trafficking in human beings are also part of their
activities.
3.3. Supermarket model
Territorially it can be found in North and Central America. The crime of trafficking in these
models is just a part from a bigger crime process which includes transport of people over
borders. It is a way of giving lower prices for their services.
They often know to use vulnerability of some groups of people and include them into the
trafficking chain. The police and other state organs have difficulties in recognizing trafficking
organized by them.
Their profit is often returned to their countries of origin and invested in farms and land. But
the profit is what makes victims even more unprotected, because low income means no
“rules” of protection of the victim.
3.4. Violent Entrepreneur Model
Balkan Peninsula known by its violent history is home for crime groups working by this
model.
Trafficking in the Balkans has been facilitated by interviews with large numbers of law
enforcement personnel in England, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany with the
aim of learning more about the dynamics of the trafficking and smuggling in their countries.
Non - governmental organizations, multilateral organizations, and journalists have been able
to obtain further information on trafficking networks within their respective countries. A
conference was held at United National Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute
(UNICRI) in Italy in May 2002 in which the problem of peacekeepers and the trafficking of
women were discussed with very concrete references to the organizations that specialize in
the trafficking of women. This model pertains almost only to the trafficking of women. It
involves large numbers of women from the Balkans and those sold off to Balkan traders by
crime groups from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Therefore, it controls women
from their base in the Balkans through their exploitation in the brothels of Western Europe.
Balkan traders in women run an integrated business and are middlemen for the groups from
Eastern Europe. (Louise Shelley, 2003, 126) Business for these groups is integrated and for
its maintenance they often use corruption.
It is an opportunist model which can be found in the countries of origin and the countries of
destination. Those are groups with family connections, mostly under management by men,
but there are cases where women members of the family are leaders. (Louise Shelley, 2010,
121).
The profit is transferred to their families or clans through bank transfers or messengers. With
the material benefit other illegal activities are financed or legal businesses are opened and are
used for hiding the criminal ones. Mostly they work in the areas of selling cars or tourist
agencies.
The level of violence used if very high, and beside physical and psychological violence,
victims also experience threats on the lives of their families.
3.5. Transnational slavery and modern technology model
The connection between the transatlantic slave trade and today’s trafficking in human beings
is more than clear. Chronologically they are far from each other, but the new, modern crime
has an origin which can be found in the old slavery trade. The routes on which slaves were
transported, because of their skin color, today is used by criminal groups who continue
operate on a different way, using the changes of modern time.
Crime groups on West Africa besides trafficking in human beings, deal with other crime
activities. During recruitment process of young girls, they use women which practice voodoo
magic, performing psychological pressure on the victims.
Part of the material benefit is returned to the local communities or the families of the victims.
The violation of human rights is on high level. There are cases of trafficked children left alone
in the countries of destination, and cases of women forced to work in dangerous conditions,
under physical violence.
3.6. Rational Actor Model
It is a model connected with trafficking in women for sexual exploitation, because it is used in
countries where prostitution is legalized as profession. Mostly criminal organizations are
owners of brothel that fulfills all required conditions and legal obligations. In it women are
legally working as prostitutes. But, for maximizing the profit, besides legal working,
organizations use girls who are working illegally and under pressure.
3.7. Pimp Model
This model is exclusively connected with trafficking in women and prostitution as a way of
exploitation. The pimps are controlling their victims from the recruitment phase till and
during the phase of exploitation. Their investment is small, and it’s a business which can be
found on the streets. The different model parts are working as small enterprisers which later
are becoming criminal networks.
4. INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS INVOLVED IN
TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS
Dividing of functions in the trafficking process can be either horizontal either vertical. The
second one is a result of the need of protection of criminal activities, because the greater the
number of members with information is, the greater is the possibility those information to be
sold to the authorities.
Also, this is the way of protecting the sources of material benefit, which is used for
controlling the members.
Horizontal structure of criminal networks schematically can be presented as a chain in which
every member has his specific tasks in fulfilling the phases of trafficking process.
Differences between both structures can be found in first, whereas traditional hierarchies are
based on top-down management, networks are at and decentralized with decision making and
action dispersed among multiple actors exhibiting a high degree of local autonomy. Although
hierarchy in a traditional sense is absent from the network, the boundaries between networks
and hierarchies are not always clear-cut. The existence of relatively few nodes with a large
number of connections to other nodes (“hubs”) may introduce an element of hierarchy into the
otherwise at network structure. What distinguishes networks from hierarchies is the capacity
of lower-level units to have relationships with multiple higher-level centers as well as lateral
links with units at the same organizational level. Networks are never managed by a single
(central) authority. Second, unlike hierarchies, which can rely on authoritative rules and legal
arbitration to govern relations, networks are self-enforcing governance structures disciplined
primarily by reputation and expectations of reciprocity. As a result, networks tend to require
higher levels of trust than other organizational forms. Third, unlike the impersonal, rule-
guided relations that characterize interactions in hierarchies, networks tend to be based on
direct personal contacts. As a result, they are often composed of members with similar
professional backgrounds, interests, goals, and values. Relations and connections within
networks tend to be informal and loosely structured. Finally, the lack of central authority and
rule-guided interaction implies that decision making and coordination in networks tend to be
based on consensus and mutual adjustment rather than administrative at. (Mette Eilstrup-
Sangiovanni. Calvert Jones, 2008, 12)
There is an opinion that most of the members are people with low level of education, almost
with no skills, and that their tasks do not need any specific knowledge or capabilities,
however we must admit that in conditions of globalization, with high technological
development, criminal groups are looking for people capable to work specific tasks, which
gives them a possibility to work adequately to new law solutions. Today, criminal
organizations are looking for new members with high level of knowledge to criminal
processes, enough to find new modules of functioning, new possibilities, routes, ways of
recruitment.
Positioned at the top of the migrant trafficking enterprise is the category of
arrangers/investors who are highly competent people who invest money in the trafficking
operation and supervise the whole organization and its activities. Persons in this category are
rarely, if ever, known to the lower levels of employees or to the migrants who are trafficked.
(Andreas Schloenhardt, 1999, 217)
Second in the structure are members whose activities are directly connected to the process of
the crime. Those are the recruiters, transporters. These members must be ready and
sophisticated so they could change the route if it necessary. After them we can find corrupt
officials and protectors, informants, companions, intruders, debt collectors, members
connected with exploitation, members who are laundering the illegal material benefit, and
support staff.
One of the most characteristic examples used for understanding the roles and functions of
every member of the organized criminal groups is the one of organized crime groups which
deals with trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation.
Its importance arises from the commercialization of the exploitation, the different models of
participation in the sexual industry, and the level of international attention directed to this
kind of trafficking.
The roles are divided vertically, with different levels in dependence of the phase in which the
criminal process is in. The obligation’s complexity results with different number of members
on different levels.
Key roles in one criminal organization included into trafficking process are: (Georgi
Petrunov, 2011, 170-172)
1. On the bottom of the pyramid are the victims who are forced to give sexual services;
2. Above them are the recruiters. After the process of recruitment they continue to the country
of destination or leave the victims with other members of the organization;
3. Controllers have obligation to constantly follow the girls during their fulfillment of
obligations, make calculations for their earnings, and to make arrangement around their
accommodation;
4. For protection of the illegal business, most of the crime groups are using legal businesses
and cooperate with their owners;
5. The “inhabitants” are the ones who are collecting the earnings and are giving it to the
controllers. Also they have obligation to check the possibilities for expanding the criminal
activities on other areas;
6. The “inhabitants” are in constant communication with the managers of countries, which are
responsible for the activities in one country;
7. The mafia teams have obligation to hold the level of discipline into the organization and for
the control of the individual actors in the criminal process;
8. “Deputy Director” helps the director in the supervision process and managing of the
members. In some groups the deputy director has a role of manager of country;
9. The Director manages the business of sexual services, but also manages other activities as
drugs trafficking, money laundering, and falsification of documents;
10. On the top of the pyramid is the regional Boss who is settled in the country where the
crime group operates. There he possesses legal business and in some cases is part from the
political elite and bearer of political function. The carriers of such criminal function are in
contact and have strategic contacts with local businessmen, national bosses and
representatives of public authorities.
Trafficking in human beings has been described as a process, depending upon the complexity
of the operation, involving numerous players. Smuggling operations moving large numbers of
persons through numerous countries over a longer period of time are, by nature, highly
organized. Bajrektarevic discusses the horizontal design of smuggling and trafficking
organizations and argues that they are divided into several sub-units that specialize in a
particular part or sequence of the operation. All but two of these units are common to both
smuggling and trafficking rings. The exploiting unit and re-escort unit only provide ‘services’
to networks dealing with trafficked persons. The management unit maintains a vertical
structure and has knowledge of and controls the other sub-units. All other sub-units are
organized horizontally and have very limited knowledge of the other sub-units. (Alexis A.
Aronowitz, 2001, 174)
5. CONCLUSION
Trafficking in people is a complex and troubling issue that reflects nature of globalization and
evolution of human rights discourse and practice. Over the last few years the international
community and particularly certain NGOs and governments have grown increasingly
concerned with the phenomenon, often arguing that human trafficking is expanding so
significantly that it has come to represent one of the world’s most pressing human rights
violations.
While the suffering named by the moral, legal and advocacy discourse regarding human
trafficking is real, the growing global concern with this issue presents a number of serious
contradictions and uncertainties. Some of the fundamental tensions within the debate are
factual and result from a basic lack of knowledge as to the actual volume, nature, structure
and impact of trafficking, while others are conceptual, bound to moral or other beliefs, and to
social policy goals and strategies.
The inevitable element of the organized trafficking in human beings is the organization
conducting the activities. It structure, modus operandi, placement of roles, member’s
functions are deeply connected to their territory of activity.
The complexity of the crime is one of the reasons why organizations are mostly horizontally
divided, it is connected to the phases of committing the crime.
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