In this assignment, students are to write a criminal intelligence report that accomplishes two goals: (i) describes and analyzes a criminal organization in Canada and (ii) develops a comprehensive, law enforcement strategy to combat and dismantle this organization (ensuring your enforcement strategy is suitable to the criminal organization and activities you described in the first part.)
In effect, you are functioning as a criminal intelligence analyst assigned to a task force that is targeting a major organized crime group in Canada. Given this mandate, the first undertaking of this task force is to produce a tactical criminal intelligence report. The assignment is worth 30% of your overall grade. The minimum length of the report is 10 pages double-spaced.
CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT Phase One:
Describing and Analyzing a Criminal Organization In order to effectively target and combat any criminal organization, law enforcement agencies must compile an exhaustive and rigorous description and analysis of the organization. Based on what they learned from this course, students should have a strong understanding of what constitutes a successful criminal organization.
Indeed, for this half of the assignment you will be graded on the extent to which you can (i) identify a real-life criminal organization (or network) and (ii) analyze this organization or network (by applying one of the analytical frameworks detailed in Chapter Three of your textbook. You can choose one of the criminal organizations identified in the course 16 (Hells Angels, Rizzuto family, Big Circle Boys, etc.) or you can choose one based on your own research. Your analysis should apply any of the frameworks detailed in chapter three.
At the very least, your profile should roughly follow the analytical framework summarized in Table 3.4 and include the following characteristics of the criminal organization:
Organizational • the structure of the criminal organization • the division of labour among the participating offenders • how it insulates the organization and its members from law enforcement actions and prosecution • its geographic scope Commercial • the profit-oriented criminal activities it carries out • the initiatives undertaken by the organization to try to monopolize a particular black market and / or territory • the tactical support activities used (e.g., money laundering, corruption, violence, etc.)
Behavioral • how it incorporates and embodies subcultural norms • evidence of the sophisticated nature of the criminal organization and its operations • rules and regulations (implicit or explicit) including disciplinary measures You can also use other analytical frameworks noted in the chapter, including Project Sleipnir, which is a criminal organization threat and risk assessment model developed by the RCMP and used to assess the threat a particular criminal organization poses to Canadian society.
A more detailed description of Project Sleipnir is provided in Brightspace (as a PDF file). (Generally speaking, you will get a better grade if you find a criminal organization that is not already analyzed in one of the chapters of the textbook).
CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT Phase Two:
Develop a tactical law enforcement strategy to effectively combat this criminal organization This part of the criminal intelligence report should lay out in some detail the strategy to combat and dismantle this criminal organization. This part will be graded on the following: • a strategy that is appropriate and commensurate with the scope and nature of the criminal organization and its activities (including targeting the organization where it is vulnerable) • the use of strategies and tactics that are detailed in the textbook, in particular Chapter 13 (i.e., you need to demonstrate that you have strong grasp of the different ways law enforcement can combat criminal organizations)
• the use of a range of strategies (both “traditional” and “alternative” ones) that are comprehensive and complementary • the creativeness and ingenuity of your strategies In short, the second part of the report will be judged (graded) on the ability of the plan to effectively combat the criminal organization, stop its criminal activities, and successfully prosecute the participating criminal offenders. Report Format The following outline is the recommended template to use for your report: 1. Summary 2. Introduction 3. Criminal Organization Description 3.1. Introduction / Overview 3.2.
Organizational Characteristics 3.3. Commercial Characteristics 3.4. Behavioural Characteristics 3.5. Other 4. Law Enforcement Strategy 4.1. Introduction / Overall Approach 4.1.1. Target (individuals, crimes, proceeds of crime, etc.) 4.1.2. Enforcement (tactical) Objective 4.2. Traditional Enforcement Strategies 4.2.1. Enforcement Strategies 4.2.2. Operational tactics 4.3. Alternative Control Approaches 18 5. Conclusion Assignment Assessment The criminal intelligence report will be assessed based on the following criteria:
• The description and analysis of the organization (using one analytical model) (7 points) • The effectiveness of the enforcement strategy developed (7 points) • Evidence that you have applied what you learned in the course to this report (7 points) • Evidence you have conducted research (including sources outside of the course materials) (5 points) • Report structure (logical report structure, including introduction, body, conclusion and subheadings) (3 points) • Grammar and syntax (1 point)