While few citizens would support the adolescent remark on the internet, “When I grow up, I want to be a criminal: The pay and perks are good!” the figures tabled by the UNODC and the World Bank on Monday are eye-openers. Based on the data for 2009, the UNODC and the World Bank calculated for the first time, how much does crime pay across the world.
The results found are stunning. As Yury Fedotov, head of the UNODC puts it, “It makes the criminal business one of the largest economies in the world, one of the top 20 economies.”
That in many places, only criminals lead the society and corridors of power is proved by the figure of an annual loss of $40 billion through corruption in developing countries, and an illicit income of $32 billion in human trafficking every year. This is on what is ‘reported.’ The figures might be quite different if what is not reported or found is taken into account.
According to Fedotov, right now on this 21st century world, at any given moment, at least “2.4 million people suffer the misery of human trafficking, a shameful crime of modern day slavery.”
A senior U.S. official, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Brian Nichols, told the meeting at Vienna that “Today, most criminal organizations bear no resemblance to the hierarchical organized crime family groups of the past.” Nichols added that criminal groups exhibit “impressive adaptability” to accommodate law enforcement actions and find ways to exploit new opportunities.
According to Nichols, today’s criminal organizations “consist of loose and informal networks that often converge when it is convenient and engage in a diverse array of criminal activities.”
Terrorist groups often turn to crime to fund their operations and “There are even instances where terrorists are evolving into criminal entrepreneurs in their own right.”
The figures do not take into account the immense amounts fined or recovered from legal companies found committing offenses, nor do they take into account the billions that passed hands in mortgage fraud committed by large banks and companies bailed by government.
