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43 Int'l Annals Criminology 51 (2005)
The Diversity of the Crime-Terror Interaction

handle is hein.journals/iancrml43 and id is 51 raw text is: 




                       THE DIVERSITY
     OF   THE CRIME-TERROR INTERACTION


                        John   Picarelli   (*)

                        Louise   Shelley  (**)

   There  are  striking similarities between terrorists and individuals
engaged  in organized  crime. Both  commit  fraud, theft, forgery, and
violent street crime. Both  traffic in drugs and human   beings. Both
extort, intimidate, and bribe. Both conduct  business in the legitimate
economy,  too. Both use subterfuge to conceal their real purpose. Gran-
ted, their motives appear different : organized criminals focus on making
money  and  terrorists aim to undermine political authority. But the per-
petrators sometimes  have similar profiles, and in some regions of the
globe are often the same individuals.
   This  paper proposes  a  new  analytical framework  to analyze  the
points of intersection of crime and  terrorists. It eschews the existing
exclusive emphasis on  the financial links between organized crime and
terrorism and  suggests a greater variety of intersections beyond  the
financial arena than most prior analyses have focused on. It develops an
interaction spectrum to capture  the complexity of this emerging  rela-
tionship, and suggests << watch points >> as important points of intersec-
tion and simple foci of analysis.
   Existing academic work  has provided some foundation for analysis of
these links and interactions. During the  1990s, some  scholars argued
that a convergence  between  international terrorism and transnational
organized crime would  prove detrimental to national security and would
require new techniques and tools to combat. This analysis, however, did
not  result in any systematic study  of the  cooperative arrangements
between  those criminal and terrorist groups.
   The  << methods not motives >> argument has long been  a maxim  for
analysts investigating links between organized crime and terrorism, on
the grounds  that  while terrorists might share the methods   of other



   (*) Mr. Picarelli is a Research Lecturer in the School of International Service and an
Analyst at TraCCC (Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, American University).
Email : pic@american.edu.
   (**) Dr. Shelley is a Professor in the School of International Service and is the Director
of TraCCC. Email : lshelle@american.edu


51

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