Transnational Crime

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Transnational organized crime has grown more complex, posing a wide variety of evolving societal challenges. The criminal organizations involved in such activity have transformed in ways that broaden their reach and make it harder to combat them. They have adopted more networked structural models, truly globalized their operations, and grown very tech savvy. They prefer cellular or networked structural models for their flexibility, avoiding the hierarchies that previously governed more traditional organized crime groups. They have burrowed into legitimate commerce, corrupted governments, built all sorts of illicit markets, and become a part of life for many millions of people around the world. The course explores the many different societal forces shaping transnational criminal organizations over time.