Organized Crime and Its Containment

Book excerpt: This book is the result of a conference which the editors, with the support of Dutch authorities, organized in October 22-26, 1990, in The Hague between the members of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force and Dutch officials and academics concerned with the topic. The contributors, on the one hand, stress the changing nature of organized crime and the mechanisms it utilizes to control legitimate industries. On the other hand, they emphasize and demonstrate the need for sophisticated pro-active strategies that differ from traditional reactive law enforcement approaches. This book is the first to systematically compare the American situation (New York) and the European situation (Netherlands); two urban areas which show many similarities.