Transnational Organised Crime

GPM516

GPM516 Transnational Organised Crime

An 8 point post-graduate subject delivered by the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security

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Workload

An increasingly globalised world order has brought with it an increasingly networked crime-terror nexus. Transnational Organised Crime (TOC) is a rising challenge for law enforcement, intelligence, and policy analysts around the world due its complex socio-political dynamics and drivers. In this subject, you will explore transnational security threats to law and order, national security, and community cohesion at regional and international levels. You will be introduced to real world case studies regarding criminal networks, commodities and markets, cartels and networks, mafias and other organisations, to understand the implications of transnational organised crime. By analysing its evolution, you will be able to make threat assessments using regional and global perspectives.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:

  • be able to demonstrate advanced knowledge of Transnational Organised Crime, with reference to theory and subnational organisations and networks, to assess developing threats in regional and global scope
  • be able to critically analyse Transnational Organised Crime, with reference to globalised networks, to provide operational, tactical, and strategic insight into diverse threats
  • be able to utilise appropriate research principles and methods across a wide range of evidence sources in order to investigate the networks and relationships in transnational organised crime groups
  • be able to objectively evaluate responses to Transnational Organised Crime in order to inform professional practice and ethical decision-making
  • be able to clearly communicate complex issues regarding Transnational Organised Crime appropriately to specialist and non-specialist audiences

Indicative assessment

  • Key insights and Takeaways – 10%
  • Commodity Analysis – 30%
  • Syndicate and Market Assessment – 60%

Textbooks

The set text for this course is:

Felia, A. & Gilmour, S. (eds.) (2015). Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime, London: Routledge.

Note that all of these texts offer something different and come at the subject from a different perspective, but all are by well-regarded experts in their field. Various chapters from these texts will readings within the subject, and will subsequently be made available electronically.

reading list extract

  • Carrapico, H. (2015). ‘Transnational Organized Crime as a Security Concept,’ in Felia, A. & Gilmour, S. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime, London: Routledge.
  • Sullivan, J.P. & Bunker, R.J. (2011). ‘Rethinking insurgency: criminality, spirituality, and societal warfare in the Americas,’ Small Wars & Insurgencies, 22(5), 742-763.
  • Chapsos, I. & Hamilton, S. (2018). ‘Illegal fishing and fisheries crime as a transnational organized crime in Indonesia,’ Trends in Organized Crime, 22, 255-273.
  • Norman, S.V. (2018). ‘Narcotization as Security Dilemma: The FARC and Drug Trade in Colombia,’ Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 41(8), 638-659.

subject availability

academic year 2025

Online MODE

  • SESSION 3