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The Background photo is one of the five "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City in the early 1900s' as part of the American Mafia phenomenon.

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This video gives you a complete breakdown of what "organized crime" does not only within North American but within the world. The video breaks down why they do this illegal activity and what the "groups" get from this activity besides the financial gains.

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This video shows how "organized crime" started within American, and how it expended within another countries as well. Starting with the Prohibition act, the "Mafia's" saw this opportunity as a shot to make them millions.

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How Prohibition Created the Mafia | History

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This article talks about how "organized crime" impacted Canada during the upraise of "Mafia" specifically of the " Five Families " within New York. The article talks about how "organized crime" impacted Canada long term.

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Murdered Canadian gangster Gerlando Sciascia, left, looks for his car keys while Joseph Massino, right, waits to get into a car in New York in 1981. In the middle, in the dark suit, is Montreal's Vito Rizzuto.

Widespread and Structured

There is more to organized crime in Canada than the Italian criminal association known as the Mafia or "the Mob." The Mafia is the best known and most documented group. In North America, just about every major national or ethnic group and every segment of society has been involved in organized crime. There have been many crime gangs in Canada whose membership was based mainly on ethnicity, including Irish; Jewish; Chinese; Jamaican; Haitian; Vietnamese; Somali and others.

For a long time, many scholars did not believe organized crime was highly structured, or capable of sophisticated operations. This changed due to several key factors. The first was the revelations of the United States Senate's "Valachi" hearings in 1963 (named after the chief witness, Mafia member Joe Valachi). Then, in the 1970s, wiretaps allowed police to document Mafia leaders discussing their hierarchy and operations in the US and Canada. The creation of the American Witness Protection Program also encouraged Mafia defectors and informers to cooperate with the police and prosecutors.

Only in the 1970s did the existence of a highly organized criminal network in Canada become known to the public. This was thanks to various court cases, as well as Quebec inquiries into the Mafia; the widely publicized report of the 1974 Waisberg Commission into construction violence in Ontario; and a series of mob killings in Montreal.

Types and Revenue of Organized Crime

In 1984, a joint federal- provincial committee of justice officials estimated that organized crime in Canada took in about $20 billion annually. The committee was formed in response to a 1980 report by the British Columbia Attorney General's office. The report claimed that organized crime figures had interests in Canada's textile, cheese and disposal industries, as well as vending machine companies, meat companies, home-insulation companies, auto body shops and car dealerships, among others.

The joint committee calculated that organized crime revenue came from pornography; prostitution; bookmaking; gaming houses; illegal lotteries and other gambling; as well as loan sharking and extortion. Other activities included white collar crime (e.g., insurance and construction fraud, illegal bankruptcy); arson; bank robbery; motor vehicle theft; computer crime; and counterfeiting. Together, all these activities made up about $10 billion in organized crime revenues. Narcotics accounted for another $10 billion.

Organized crime provides illegal services desired by some members of the public. These include gambling, prostitution, and contraband alcohol and tobacco sales. In every large Canadian city, local bookmakers used to be involved in organized crime through an elaborate system established to protect the individual bookie from large losses. Today, organized crime provides many underground sports betting and illicit card game operations.

Other organized crime activities are not fueled as much by public demand. They involve the importation and distribution of harder drugs such as heroin; Internet and credit card fraud; and murder and extortion. Other activities that aid and abet organized crime include the ongoing corruption of public officials and the "laundering" of the proceeds of criminal activities.

One of the simplest ways to launder money is through activities in which there is a constant flow of cash, such as slot machines and gambling. If the owner of a gambling casino claims to have taken in $1 million when he has actually taken in only $100,000 - to which has been added $900,000 of illegally obtained money - it is almost impossible to demonstrate that the full $1 million was not procured in the normal course of business. Neighbourhood coin laundries have also been popular ways of laundering organized crime money in Canada.

Without corruption, organized crime groups would find it difficult to exist. The efforts of organized crime members to corrupt police, judges, politicians, lawyers, and government and civilian officials are arguably more harmful to society than any other organized crime activity.

Mafia

Of all organized crime groups operating in Canada, the Mafia is the best known. This is because the Quebec crime probe report of 1976 revealed the structure of the Montreal Mafia and its dependency on the American Mafia family of Joe Bonanno. This was based primarily on information gathered by a "bug" planted in the milk cooler at the headquarters of Montreal mobster Paolo Violi. Public knowledge of the Mafia also resulted from increased media attention, such as with CBC TV's much-watched documentary series Connections (1977-79).

Scholars do not agree on the origin of the term Mafia. The word was used as early as 1880 by Sicilian scholar Giuseppe Alongi, in his book La Mafia, Fattori, Manifestazioni (reprinted in 1904 and again in 1977). According to the Quebec Organized Crime Commission's report of 1977, the term Mafia describes, "a state of mind, a feeling of pride, a philosophy of life and a style of behaviour. The mark of a known and respected man, it derives from the Sicilian adjective 'mafiusu,' which was used widely since the 19th century to describe magnificent or perfect people."

Joe Bonanno, a Mafia don, described the term in his memoirs: "Mafia is a process, not a thing. Mafia is a form of clan cooperation to which its individual members pledge lifelong loyalty. Friendship connections, family ties, trust, loyalty, obedience - this was the 'glue' that held us together."

The Mafia was exported and adapted to North America by a small group of Italian immigrants, mostly from Sicily and Calabria. In Sicily, and later in the US and Canada, Mafia came to refer to an organized international body of criminals of Sicilian origin, known as Cosa Nostra. The term is now applied to the dominant force in organized crime - the largely Sicilian and Calabrian organized crime "families." These families are held together by a code that emphasizes respect for senior family members; by the structure or hierarchy of the family; and by an initiation rite or ceremony.

Italian crime families have been active in Canada since the early 1900s. They now operate in much more clearly structured and defined areas acceptable to other mafia families in the US and Canada. More recently, new N'drangheta cells of the Calabrian Mafia have emigrated to Canada after coming under intense pressure by Italian authorities in the early 2000s. Many of these newly arrived Mafiosi went to work with older, established Mafia figures. They settled in the greater Montreal, Toronto and Hamilton areas. Though located mainly in the major cities, Mafia members tend to gravitate to where wealth moves. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, some moved westward, following the movement of business to British Columbia and Alberta. Vancouver has had serious Mafia infiltration over the years, as well as a more obvious biker and Asian crime presence.

Montreal Mafia

Since the mid-1980s, Montreal has had one dominant crime family. It was led by the Sicilian-born Nick Rizzuto and then by his son Vito. Another family was run by Frank Cotroni until his death in 2004. The Quebec crime probe exposed the membership and activities of this highly structured group in a number of its reports in the 1970s. The family was established in the 1940s by Frank's older and more powerful brother Vic Cotroni. The family evolved in the 1950s into an important branch of the powerful New York City Mafia family of Joe Bonanno. It also has ties with Mafia families in Italy and throughout the US; as well as with the Toronto, Hamilton and Vancouver organizations.

There were serious internal conflicts between Sicilians and Calabrians in the Montreal organization. This led to the violent deaths of Paulo Violi (chief lieutenant of Vic Cotroni) and his brothers in the late 1970s. The Cotroni family had primarily been involved in illegal gambling; loan sharking; drug trafficking; extortion; and the murder and corruption of public officials. After Vic Cotroni's death in 1984, the Sicilians - led by Nick and later Vito Rizzuto - took over. The last decade of Vito Rizzuto's rule was marked by internal warfare; especially while Vito was in jail in the US for his role in various mob hits in New York. He died suddenly in 2013 at the age of 67, from natural causes in a Montreal hospital.

There is no clear leader of the family now. Many senior Rizzuto leaders have been murdered, died or are in jail. Reynald Desjardins, Vito's number one lieutenant and right hand man in the decade preceding Vito's death, was found guilty of orchestrating the murder of ex-Bonanno family acting boss Salvatore "the Iron-worker" Montagna, after he tried unsuccessfully to take over the family in 2011. Desjardins was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2016 (though the seven years he had spent in prison awaiting trial were subtracted from his sentence).

As of 2014, there was still an ongoing battle for Mafia supremacy in Montreal. It involved some Calabrian Mafiosi cells from Ontario and dissident Rizzuto family members in Quebec. At the same time, the hearings of the 2015 Charbonneau Commission into the practices of the Quebec construction industry brought additional heat to bear on the old Rizzuto family leadership. The Commission's televised hearings included the broadcast of surveillance videos and wiretaps of Rizzuto family gatherings. These included old man Nick consorting with and taking money from construction bosses and union leaders.

Recent arrivals from Calabria of senior members of the N'drangheta are also vying for a position in the Montreal Mafia world. A state of flux is the best way to describe the Montreal "Mob" as of 2014.

Toronto Mafia

In Toronto until the mid-1980s, at least four major Mafia-style criminal organizations existed. They were run by Canadians of Sicilian or Calabrian origin. Two of them were named as members of the Mafia during the Valachi hearings: the organizations run by Paul Volpe and Johnny "Pops" Papalia. After the murder of Volpe in November 1983, his old organization mostly disappeared. The same is true for that of Papalia, after he was murdered at the behest of a rival local Calabrian Mafia family in 1997.

Today, several older Calabrian organized crime groups operate in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas. There are also newly arrived cells of the N'drangheta operating. Many of them emigrated from Siderno, Calabria. There is no one godfather in Toronto, but there is a ruling commission of the N'drangheta. Family leaders in the Toronto area try to keep order, resolve disputes, and coordinate some activities with the ruling commission in Italy.

Biker Gangs

Since the 1970s, motorcycle gangs such as the Hells Angels, the Rock Machine, the Outlaws, Satan's Choice and many others have been significantly involved in organized crime. This has been true in just about every province from the Maritimes to BC. Their initiation rites have made it difficult for police to penetrate the groups (though in recent decades huge strides have been made in this area). These organizations have become major suppliers of illegal drugs. Motorcycle gangs are also involved in prostitution and contract killing. It is not unusual to find them working with other organized crime groups. The Hells Angels are the most influential and powerful outlaw biker gang in Canada.

With biker gangs comes violence and murder. A major biker war in Quebec from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century led to the killing of hundreds of people. These included many innocent bystanders who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. In 1995, Daniel Desrochers, an 11-year-old Montreal boy, was killed by a biker-war bomb. In 2000, journalist Michel Auger, who devoted much of his career to exposing criminal organizations, particularly biker gangs, was shot six times in the back after the Hells Angels took out a contract on his life. Auger survived the shooting and was back on his beat within three months. Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard praised Auger's "refusal to remain silent" in the National Assembly.

New Crime Laws

The resulting outcry from the public and the media in Quebec eventually forced the federal Parliament to enact stronger anti-organized crime laws, going after the gangs' wealth, and convicting individuals of membership in an organized crime entity.

By 2006, new organized crime laws were also used for the prosecution of scores of members of the Rizzuto Mafia family. These included "soldiers," senior lieutenants, and even old Nick Rizzuto, the onetime godfather who was still criminally active in his 80s. Shortly after serving some of his time, Rizzuto was released from prison early because of old age. The 86-year-old was then killed by a sniper outside his lavish Montreal-area home.

The Hells Angels organization was hit hard by prosecutions under the new anti-organized crime laws. The once-powerful Hells Angel boss Maurice "Mom" Boucher is now in jail for life, for his role in several murders. Still, the Hells Angels continue to operate, especially in Quebec. They are assisted by puppet gangs with different names who work for the Hells Angels.

Asian Crime Groups

Various Chinese and Vietnamese organized crime groups have become more prominent over the past 40 years in Vancouver and Toronto. This followed a wave of immigration from Hong Kong.

In BC, Chinese crime gangs have been operating for more than 100 years. In the 1920s, Shue Moy, the famed "King of the Gamblers," was a powerful organized crime figure in BC. This was determined by the 1928 special inquiry set up by Vancouver City Council to look into illicit gambling rackets, opium dens, houses of prostitution and corruption that reached the highest levels of municipal government in Vancouver.

Today, Chinese youth gangs operate in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and other cities and towns. They are involved in protection and extortion rackets. They also run massage parlours as fronts for prostitution; hydroponic grow operations for marijuana; as well as the production and export of conventional speed drugs. More sophisticated groups are organized by senior triad leaders from Hong Kong to import heroin from southeast Asia through Vancouver and Western Canada. The triads are the Chinese version of the Mafia, especially in their hierarchy, global networks and reach.

The structure of organized crime changes quickly in Canada. It usually exists for some years before it is first detected; therefore, there are undoubtedly other groups that have not yet been identified. Columbian cartels are active in Toronto and Montreal. Russian and East European organized crime groups are also quite active in major Canadian cities.

First Nations

First Nations organized crime gangs have long existed in Canada. One prominent organized gang of Indigenous people is the Manitoba Warriors. It operates in the Winnipeg area. In January 2014, Winnipeg police arrested 57 men and women aged 17 to 51. They were allegedly members or associates of what police called the "the city's most powerful street gang."

Jamaicans

There are strong organized crime gangs in the Greater Toronto Area primarily composed of Jamaicans. ( See Caribbean Canadians.) These include the Malvern Crew and The Galloway Boys, among others. Both gangs have had some of their members plead guilty to belonging to a gang under the anti-organized-crime laws. Innocent people have been killed over the past decade by members of these street gangs, in shoot-outs in Toronto streets, restaurants and neighbourhoods.

Haitians

In Montreal, Haitian gangs rule the sale of drugs on the street. Gang members have also been involved in violent killings in the past two decades. These included the fatal, 2010 shoot-out at an upscale boutique in Old Montreal owned by the late Ducarme Joseph, a long time, well-known Haitian gang leader. Joseph himself was shot to death in August 2014.

Multi-Ethnic Gangs

Murderous, multi-ethnic drug gangs - such as the one run for years by the three Bacon brothers in BC - killed their way into a large piece of the drug trafficking business there through an alliance with the Red Scorpions, a long-running Asian gang. The Bacon crew has killed many innocent people along their way to power, including the "Surrey Six" murder victims, two of whom died simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. One gang member, Jonathan Bacon, was gunned down by hit men from a rival gang in 2011.

The so-called United Nations (UN) gang in BC is another example of a multi-ethnic crime gang structure that is becoming more common across the country in the 21st century.

See also Crime; White-Collar Crime; Smuggling; Criminal Law; Criminal Code of Canada; Criminal Investigation.

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Organized crime is defined in the Criminal Code as a group of three or more people whose purpose is the commission of one or more serious offences that would...

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This article shows the breakdown of what age, gender, and crime "organized crime" groups of doing within all of Canada. This article shows how a civilian in Canada can report these crimes anonymously, and how these crimes are affecting the average canadian.

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by Christopher Munch and Warren Silver
On this page

Organized crime has long been identified as a government priority and a public safety issue. As a result of high profile incidents in the 1990s and extensive consultations by the government, the Criminal Code of Canada was amended in 1997 to help identify criminal organizations and to protect justice system participants ( Parliament of Canada n.d.).The aim of this and subsequent legislation was to provide law enforcement and justice officials with tools to respond to organized crime, including a clear national definition of a criminal organization (see Text box 1), broader powers through sentencing guidelines, and the ability to seize property obtained for the benefit of organized crime ( Parliament of Canada 2014).

Since then, a number of reports have underscored the issue ( 40th Parliament Speech from the Throne 2010; Criminal Intelligence Service Canada 2014). For instance, in 2006 Public Safety Canada outlined the issue as follows:

Organized crime affects Canadian's basic rights to peace, order and good government. Although the effects of illicit activities are not always obvious, all Canadians, through one form or another, feel them through victimization, higher insurance rates, fewer tax dollars to support social programs, and the eventual undermining of Canadian institutions and consumers. No community is immune from the effects of organized crime (Public Safety Canada 2006).

To address the issue of organized crime, data are needed to inform both resourcing and policy questions related to detection, prevention and officer and public safety. Recent reports have indicated that the complexity of organized crime creates additional resource demands on policing ( Public Safety Canada 2013; Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security 2014; Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Research Foundation 2015). Further, the nature of organized crime is to constantly evolve to adapt and exploit new opportunities-characteristics which, without data and data sharing among law enforcement and those responsible for public safety, make it even more challenging to fight ( Criminal Intelligence Service Canada 2014). Despite the need for data to inform resourcing and policy, there are currently no standardized data to monitor the nature and extent of organized crime at the national, provincial/territorial or local levels.

This Juristat article provides an overview of existing measures of organized crime in Canada and raises awareness regarding data availability and the efforts being made to collect national police-reported data through the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR).Note 1 The article draws from a pilot project launched to determine best practices in the collection of police-reported data on organized crime.

The data presented in this article include organized crime data reported by police services involved in the UCR organized crime pilot project for the years 2013 and 2014. These data are limited to a select group of police servicesNote 2 reporting on a select group of UCR violations (murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, and conspire to commit murder for Phase I of the pilot data collection, and; drug production and trafficking for Phase II of the pilot). The data are not representative of Canada and are limited to the police jurisdictions that participated in the pilot.

This Juristat article was funded by Public Safety Canada.

Start of text box

Text box 1
A criminal organization, as defined by the Criminal Code of Canada

467.1 (1) The following definitions apply in this Act.
criminal organization means a group, however organized, that

(a) is composed of three or more persons in or outside Canada; and

(b) has as one of its main purposes or main activities the facilitation or commission of one or more serious offences that, if committed, would likely result in the direct or indirect receipt of a material benefit, including a financial benefit, by the group or by any of the persons who constitute the group.

It does not include a group of persons that forms randomly for the immediate commission of a single offence.

Source: Criminal Code of Canada. 2016. R.S.C., c. C-46.

End of text box

Canada's data on organized crime

While there are various estimates of organized crime in Canada, there is no single, comprehensive source that tracks the number of criminal incidents occurring each year in Canada that are committed for the benefit of organized crime.

For instance, one source of data is publicly released results of specific efforts to address organized crime by specific agencies. In 2011, the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) together with the Canadian Integrated Response to Organized Crime identified organized crime as a national tactical priority and implemented a multifaceted, multi-jurisdictional investigational strategy across Canada. This strategy led to over 137 arrests and the seizure of 376 kg of cocaine, 1,000 liters of Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate or GHB (also known as 'date rape drug'), 379 firearms, over 400 kg of explosives and 4 million dollars in currency. In addition, in 2013, CISC estimated that there were 672 organized crime groups in Canada. Knowing these numbers, however, provides little information about how effective police are in combating organized crime or the nature and extent of the problem. The CISC counts of the number of known organized crime groups are used primarily for investigative purposes and to assist in managing operations. They do not provide information on actual counts of organized criminal activity, the types of crimes being committed or the characteristics organized crime incidents possess.

A second source of data are quantitative studies using indirect measures, such as co-offending studies as well as network analysis (e.g., Saunders and Lawrence 2013; Bouchard et al. 2015; Glässer et al. 2012; Carrington et al. 2013). For instance, the study by Bouchard et al. estimated, based on incidents involving co-offending, that organized crime incidents represented between 0.07% and 2.93% of all incidents reported by the Service de Police Ville de Montréal. It also estimated that the salary cost of organized crime represented about 4.9% of this police service's average annual budget. This study further reported that organized crime incidents, as determined through co-offending, are more complex and require a disproportionate number of resources compared to cases by single offenders, simple criminal conspiracies, or binary co-offenders. While quantitative, these measures are indirect and produce only estimates.

A third source of information on organized crime are qualitative reports using more direct measures. These measures would include, for instance, internal analytical reports on linkages and patterns of organized crime, disruption reports evaluating the effectiveness of operational strategies and tactics, as well as gang units' reports that track information, descriptions and activities ( McDonald 2009). While these may tell us about the characteristics of organized crime, these studies, which are rarely made public, do not give us a sense of the overall number of organized crime incidents.

To respond to gaps in data, a vehicle exists to collect ongoing national data. This vehicle is Statistics Canada's Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR2) Survey, developed in collaboration with the policing community. In Canada, the vast majority of police services already report detailed crime data to Statistics Canada via the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR2). In 2005, the survey was amended to allow police to flag any incident as related to organized crime (which includes gang activity).

The objective of this amendment was to begin monitoring the nature and extent of organized crime offences dealt with by police in Canada. However, since the launch of the UCR2 organized crime flag in 2005, data have been under-reported by police. For example, despite the fact that drug trafficking is heavily linked to organized crime, in 2009 only 45 incidents of drug trafficking were flagged as linked to organized crime despite police reporting a total of 19,309 drug trafficking incidents. For this reason, Statistics Canada, along with police representatives, decided in 2009 to suspend publishing the data and focus on improving reporting.

That year, a consultation of police services was conducted by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) to determine whether the under-reporting is related to the nature and complexity of organized crime itself, or related to a lack of quality assurance processes and/or training on how to report the data via the UCR2.

Following the 2009 consultation, the CCJS, with the support of the policing community and Public Safety Canada, made significant investments to address the recommendations.

These efforts include:

Adjustment of definitions within the UCR to match that of Canada's Criminal Code (see Text box 1);

Development and delivery of police training on how to properly score the organized crime flag within the UCR Survey;Note 3

Launch of a pilot project whereby participating police services focus on the quality of the organized crime flag for a select number of UCR violations;

Consultation with these pilot project participants to identify best practices and challenges with collecting and reporting quality data;

Based on the consultations, creation of a document of recommended best practices for accurate reporting by police to the UCR Survey.Note 4

Findings from the organized crime data pilot project

In 2013, selected police services agreed to collect and verify data on a number of specific violations in an effort to improve the quality of UCR organized crime data. The goal of this pilot was to identify obstacles in processes or systems that made it difficult to report quality data and to identify and develop best practices that could be shared with other police services.

For the reference year of 2013 and 2014, participants agreed to report the organized crime flag to Statistics Canada for all incidents of first and second degree murder, manslaughter, attempted murder and conspire to commit murder. These violations were specifically chosen because of their relatively low number (hence ease for verification) and the possibility of links to organized crime. These were also chosen because Statistics Canada's Homicide Survey, which also collects data on murder and manslaughter and reliable data on links to organized crime for these violations, would provide a secondary source for validation of the UCR2 data. For the purpose of this Juristat article, this group of offences is referred to as "homicide-related" offences.

In 2014, the pilot was expanded to include incidents of drug trafficking and drug production. These drug offences were chosen because intelligence threat assessments have indicated a high correlation between organized crime and the illicit drug trade. These offences were also chosen to test validation procedures since the specialty units dealing with enforcement of these crimes are the units most often working with organized crime units within police services.

Other violations, such as extortion, cannabis possession and serious assaults, were considered for the pilot but not chosen. These violations were proposed, for one, because they are known to commonly be associated with organized crime offending, but certainly not always. Secondly, inclusion of these would assess how police would ensure accurate flagging of a large volume of incidents as organized crime or not. However, participating pilot agencies indicated a lack of resources to include these types of offences in the pilot project.

It is important to note that the data collected for the purpose of the pilot are not representative of Canada and are limited to the police jurisdictions that participated in the pilot.

Homicide-related offences

The police services that participated in Phase I of the pilotNote 5 reported that 15% of their homicide-related incidents were committed for the benefit of organized crime ( Table 1). More specifically 20% of homicides, 13% of attempted murders and 25% of conspiracies to commit murder were reported by these 13 police services as having been committed for the benefit of organized crime.

Based on data from these 13 police services, the use of firearms in homicide-related incidents committed for the benefit of organized crime was greater than in overallNote 6 homicide-related incidents. For instance, in more than three-quarters (79%) of homicide-related incidents committed for the benefit of organized crime, a firearm was the weapon causing injury. In comparison, firearms were used in 30% of homicide-related incidents overall.

When a firearm was used to cause death or injury in a homicide-related incident committed for the benefit of organized crime, handguns were reported in 73% of incidents. Similarly, handguns were reported in 76% of overall incidents when a firearm was used to cause death or injury.

Knives or other piercing or cutting weapons were used in 17% of homicide-related incidents benefitting organized crime. In contrast, these weapons were used in 40% of overall homicide-related incidents.

Other weapons, such as physical force (1%) and other weapons (3%) were rarely used to cause death or injury in homicide-related incidents benefitting organized crime. These were more often used in overall homicide-related incidents. These other weapons included physical force (11%), explosives (8%), clubs or blunt instruments (4%), fire (2%), motor vehicles (1%), and other weapons (4%).

In terms of relationship of the accused to the victim, homicide-related incidents committed for the benefit of organized crime more often involved a stranger (50%) than homicide-related incidents overall (38%). A criminal relationship was identified as the closest relationship in 24% of homicide-related incidents committed for the benefit of organized crime. This compares with 4% of overall homicide-related incidents.

Victims of homicide-related incidents committed for the benefit of organized crime tended to be younger than victims overall. Over three-quarters (77%) of victims were under the age of 35 compared to 60% of victims of homicide-related incidents overall (Chart 1).

Victims of homicide-related incidents committed for the benefit of organized crime were more likely to be male (90%) than victims of homicide-related incidents overall (72%) (Chart 2).

In homicide-related incidents benefiting organized crime, almost all accused were male (96%). In comparison, 88% of accused in homicide-related incidents overall were male (Chart 3). In addition, those accused in organized crime-related incidents also tended to be younger than overall accused. Nine in ten (91%) of accused in homicide-related incidents benefiting organized crime were under the age of 35 compared to three-quarters (74%) of those accused in homicide-related incidents overall (Chart 4).

Based on the pilot data, homicide-related incidents that were committed for the benefit of organized crime were less often clearedNote 7 by the police when compared to overall homicide-related incidents. Four in ten (42%) incidents committed for the benefit of organized crime had been cleared compared with over seven in ten (73%) of homicide-related incidents overall.

Description for Chart 1

Description for Chart 2

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Description for Chart 4

Drug-related offences

Phase II of the pilot project examined drug-related UCR2 incidents of trafficking and production of heroin, cocaine, cannabis, methamphetamine, methylenedioxyamphetamine, and other drugs regulated under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Police services that participated in Phase II of the pilotNote 8 reported that 56% of these drug-related incidents were committed for the benefit of organized crime. Specifically, this was reported for 57% of drug trafficking and 15% of drug production incidents.

Cannabis incidents were less likely to be identified by the participating agencies as benefiting organized crime compared to incidents involving other drugs. Slightly less than one third (32%) of cannabis-related incidents compared to 61% of other drugs incidents were reported as being committed for the benefit of organized crime.

When looking at drug-related incidents committed for the benefit of organized crime, the accused tended to be slightly younger in cannabis-related incidents than in other drug-related incidents. Of the drug-related incidents reported to the pilot, 65% of accused identified in cannabis-related were aged between 25 and 54, compared to 75% of accused in other drug related offences (Chart 5).

Description for Chart 5

Recommendations to improve data on organized crime in Canada

As a result of the pilot project and subsequent consultations with police, a number of best practices were identified for collecting and verifying police services data on organized crime.Note 9 Police services consulted indicated that for police to be able to collect and report quality data on organized crime, it must first be recognized and communicated by the Police Service Executive as a priority. Then, it is recommended that the on-going quality control of records be the responsibility of a dedicated staff member imbedded in the organized crime sections. Further, it is recommended that the analysts have access to the quality data to produce information that will allow the Police Service Executive to conduct intelligence-led policing and decision-making. This latter piece will be the return on investment and services reporting to the UCR and would also be contributing to a larger provincial/territorial and national story regarding the state of organized crime.

Support by the Police Service Executive to raise the priority of collecting organized crime data: A key component to achieving quality data and the implementation of recommendations is the support of the Police Service Executive. In order to raise the priority of collecting quality data, the importance of the data and any steps taken to improve quality should be communicated by the Police Chief to members implicated and to front line officers.

Communication by the Police Service Executive on the importance of organized crime data and what it will be used for: Communication by the Police Service Executive on the importance of the data, which would include clarification of how the data will be used and protected internally and by Statistics Canada, is recommended. The communication should address specific concerns, such as the criteria that will be used to flag an incident as organized crime and the protection of confidential information and privacy (e.g., the ability of non-authorized persons to search for a person connected to organized crime occurrences and groups was reported as a concern for the police service members).

Have a staff sergeant or analyst imbedded in organized crime/major crime unit and who is familiar with the cases be the resource responsible for flagging incidents: A staff sergeant or analyst imbedded within the organized crime / major crime unit who is familiar with the cases, who knows of persons associated with the organized crime community, and who can contact the front line when necessary was recommended as the most suitable person to take responsibility for flagging criminal incidents as organized crime or not.

Centralize the responsibility for flagging/reviewing/verifying to a central authority and ensure this work is part of their official duties: Such centralization is recommended as ownership over the data and the process, as well as accountability, were deemed necessary to ensure data quality. It is further recommended that the individual occupy a position as referenced above, but this may vary depending on how the service is organized.

To make workload manageable, review/flag incidents on a daily, rather than annual basis: It is recommended that rather than waiting to receive the extract from the CCJS to review all the incidents at one time (e.g., year-end verification), police services create a process where the work is part of regular daily activities. In other words, 5,000 incidents per year can be broken into 417 per month, 92 a week, or 18 a day.

If records are in separate secure locations and not the record management system (RMS), amend policies to allow the individual responsible for scoring and quality control of organized crime incidents to access the incident and only the fields they need in order to update these files to properly reflect the characteristics of these incidents: It is recommended that police services amend policies to allow the individual responsible for scoring and data quality assurance for organized crime incidents access to the incident and only the fields they need in order to do their job and to report them within the RMS for statistical purposes. As such, either the central person responsible for scoring and data quality is someone who already has access to the files in theseparate secure locations, or set up processes to allow that person to have limited access to separate secure location files in order to accomplish their work. Further, it is recommended that scoring and data quality should be applied to all incidents in separate secure locations, including those under investigation or going through court and not just ones that are closed.

Restructure the priorities and resources within the police service's analysis sections to make better use of the data: The potential in the analysis of organized crime data by the analysis sections within some police departments is not recognized by the department, therefore some analysis sections are not structured to access and analyze the organized crime data for statistical and strategic reporting. It is recommended to, with support from the Police Service Executive, restructure the priorities and resources within the analysis sections to make better use of the data. This may require establishing appropriate access to records and training of analysts.

These recommendations were endorsed by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Board of Directors at their August 2016 meeting.

Start of text box

Text box 2
International data on organized crime

The availability of international data to monitor the nature and extent of organized crime is limited. Most sources focus on qualitative analysis, describing human trafficking or the illicit drug trade. Where quantitative analysis does exist, it is usually limited to the number of criminal organizations and their characteristics, their structures, or estimates as to the cost of organized crime.

The General Assembly on Drugs and Crime as a Threat to Development on the occasion of the United Nations International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking cites an increase in both the scale and the geographic scope of organized crime and estimate the value of illicit trade around the globe at $1.3 trillion (U.S. dollars) and increasing ( United Nations 2012).

The 2015 National Gang Report from the National Gang Intelligence Center derives its data from a survey administered by the National Alliance of Gang Investigators' Associations and from a survey on Safe Streets and Gang Task Forces administered by the FBI Safe Streets and Gang Unit. According to its findings:

Approximately half of respondents report street gang membership and gang-related crime increased in 2015. The most prevalent crimes include drug trafficking, assault, threats, intimidation and robbery.

Approximately one third of respondents report an increase in threats to law enforcement.

Over 68% of survey respondents indicate prison gang membership has increased.

( National Gang Intelligence Center 2015).

In the United Kingdom, the Home Office estimates the social and economic costs of illicit drug supply at £10.7 billion per year, while organized fraud costs are estimated at £8.9 billion and human trafficking at £890 million. The total social and economic cost of organized crime are estimated at approximately £24 billion per year ( Mills et al. 2013).

Germany published a statistical review entitled Organized Crime; A National Situation Report in which the Bundeskriminalamt estimates the total number of investigations in 2014 at 571 with a financial loss of €539 million, including a cost of €188 million related to drug trafficking ( Bundeskriminalamt 2014).

End of text box

Detailed data tables
Table 1 Proportion of police-reported incidents related to organized crime, selected offences and selected police services, 2013 and 2014
References

40th Parliament Speech from the Throne. 2010. A Stronger Canada. A Stronger Economy. Now and for the Future. Canada.

Bouchard, M., C. Morselli, S. Hashimi, and M. Ouellet. 2015. Proportion of Criminal Incidents Associated with Organized Crime. Public Safety Canada.

Bundeskriminalamt. 2014. Organised Crime-National Situation Report 2014. Germany.

Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Research Foundation. 2015. The Dollars and Sense of Policing, Public Safety and Well-Being in Your Community.

Carrington, P., S. Bennan, A. Matarazzo, and M. Radulsescu. 2013. "Co-offending in Canada, 2011." Juristat. Statistics Canada catalogue no. 85-002-X.

Criminal Code of Canada. 2016. C-46, section 467.1(1). Parliament of Canada.

Criminal Intelligence Service Canada. 2014. Organized Crime in Canada - Backgrounder.

Glässer, U., M. Tayebi, P. Brantingham, and P. Brantingham. 2012. Estimating Possible Criminal Organizations from Co-offending Data. Public Safety Canada.

McDonald, T. 2009. The UCR Organized Crime Data Project, Report on the Results and Recommendations Based on the Agency Consultations. Unpublished. Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Mills, H., S. Skodbo, and P. Blyth. 2013. Understanding Organised Crime: Estimating the Scale and the Social and Economic Costs. Home Office. United Kingdom.

National Gang Intelligence Center. 2015. National Gang Report. Federal Bureau of Investigation. United States of America. (accessed August 22, 2016).

Parliament of Canada. 2014. Legislative Summary of Bill C-24: An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act and to Make Consequential Amendments to Other Acts.

Parliament of Canada. N.D. Legislative Summary of Bill C-95. An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (Organized Crime and Protection of Justice System Participants).

Public Safety Canada. 2013. Summit on the Economics of Policing - Summit Report.

Public Safety Canada. 2006. Working Together to Combat Organized Crime: A Public Report on Actions under the National Agenda to Combat Organized Crime.

Saunders, M., and A. Lawrence. 2013. An Organized Crime Severity Index: Discussion of a Proposed Methodology. Public Safety Canada. (accessed October 26, 2016).

Silver, W. 2016. Moving Towards the Collection of Quality Data on Organized Crime Through the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR). Unpublished. Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. Statistics Canada.

Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. 2014. Canadian House of Commons.

United Nations. 2012. Thematic Debate of the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Drugs and Crime as a Threat to Development on the Occasion of the UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. New York.

Notes

Footnote 1.

Footnote 2.

Footnote 3.

Footnote 4.

Footnote 5.

Footnote 6.

Police do the confirmation of organized crime-related UCR incidents after the closure of the main crime statistics database, and they only review the validity of the ones flagged as organized crime. As such, comparisons, for now, must be made with the overall UCR database as "non-organized crime" incidents cannot be reliably identified.

Footnote 7.

Footnote 8.

Footnote 9.

See Silver W. 2016. (unpublished). For further information on the report and its recommendations, please contact the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics at statcan.ccjs-ccsj.statcan@canada.ca.

Note of appreciation

Canada owes the success of its statistical system to a long-standing partnership between Statistics Canada, the citizens of Canada, its businesses, governments and other institutions. Accurate and timely statistical information could not be produced without their continued co-operation and goodwill.

Standards of service to the public

Statistics Canada is committed to serving its clients in a prompt, reliable and courteous manner. To this end, the Agency has developed standards of service which its employees observe in serving its clients.

Copyright

Published by authority of the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada.

© Minister of Industry, 2017

All rights reserved. Use of this publication is governed by the Statistics Canada Open Licence Agreement.

Catalogue no. 85-002-X

Frequency: Occasional

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