a) Why is it important to measure organized crime?
b) What are the characteristics of organized crime that make it more difficult to measure than other forms of crime? What problems are usually encountered when comparing domestic crime rates cross-nationally?
c) When one is to measure organized crime, what specific elements are counted (e.g., offenders, criminal acts, volume of illicit products/services, illicit profits, or harm caused)? What are the characteristics of organized crime that make it more difficult to measure than street crimes?
d) Why do victims or bystanders of organized crime choose not to report victimization or an ongoing criminal activity?
e) Why is measuring the extent of some kinds of drug trafficking easier than it is to measure trafficking in other kinds of illicit drugs?
f) How does risk assessment help in the allocation of resources to prevent and respond to organized crime? Why would it be insufficient to rely solely on police statistics (arrests) to measure organized crime? What alternatives to police statistics exist as it comes to measuring organized crime?
g) Victimization surveys have been somewhat successfully used to measure organized crime because they represent highly victimized groups (victims of extortion and/or corruption). What are the limitations of measuring organized crime based on victimization survey data?
h) What problems should be kept in mind when measuring organized crime based on perceptions of organized criminal activity?
i) What are the differences between measuring organized crime domestically when compared to measuring transnational criminal activities?
j) What are the pitfalls of taking successful intervention (arrests) and prosecution strategies (convictions) aimed at organized criminal groups as an indicator of a drop in organized crime activity?
k) How can seizures of illicit assets be used as proxies for measuring illicit markets?
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