The impact of organised crime on local communities
New research by Perpetuity Research and the Police Foundation on the impact of organised crime on local communities has found that up to 17% of recorded crime occurring within neighbourhoods could be attributed to organised crime. The majority of organised crime identified by the police in the neighbourhoods related to drugs, violence and fraud. In three neighbourhoods, only 4% of crimes assessed as ‘organised’ by the researchers were linked to individuals who had been formally classified by the police as an organised crime offender. In a separate city-wide analysis, we estimated that 27% of police recorded shoplifting and theft offences were linked to organised crime groups. From qualitative analysis, it is suggested that the most significant impact that organised crime groups had on neighbourhoods related to the high degree of social control that they exerted. Overall, the current police picture of organised crime is partial and fails to reflect the scale and diversity of organised crime occurring in these communities, or indeed the knowledge of local level practitioners in police and other agencies.