Criminal Networks
The author notes that the latest research confirms the previous assessments of experts: the prevailing form of criminal collaboration is a network of personal relationships that criminals successfully use to commit crimes.
Criminal structures can serve economic, social as well as quasi-state purposes. Quasi-state criminal structures support illegal economic activity by creating and establishing behavioural rules and resolve disputes in a given region or market. The results of the empirical study conducted by the author confirmed that a large part of the “trust fund” of Estonian organized crime also intervenes as arbiter in various types of con-flict situations. To sum up, organized crime is a complicated social phenomenon with a nota-ble influence on the economy and politics, and thus those criminal networks that are able of influencing international decisions and reap gains from favourable opportunities in the field of business field should receive more attention from internal security authorities.