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Transnational Organized Crime Summary of a Workshop (1999) / Chapter Skim
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3 Measurement
Pages 22-27

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From page 22...
... Moreover, as Edgar Feige noted at the workshop, measurement is often the single most important way of focusing attention on the definitional issue; measurement requires conceptual clarity. This chapter briefly describes efforts to measure various aspects of transnational organized crime to date, identifying the sources of information and analytic techniques used.
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From page 23...
... Manning and colleagues (1991) , in a recent and sophisticated analysis ofthe National Health Interview Survey responses, estimate that they were able to account for only half of actual total alcohol consumption.2 Caulking (1995)
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From page 24...
... Using a more elaborate set of filters for observing frequent users of cocaine and heroin, the researchers produced prevalence estimates for weekly consumption in the county that were almost three times higher than those previously estimated. Since prevalence of heavy use is an important driver of both quantity and expenditure estimates, these findings, if replicated in other areas, could substantially raise the totals.
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From page 25...
... No attention has been given to estimating the number of sellers, certainly another important element of the harms arising from the transnational drug trade. There has been attention, however, to the estimation of another very basic factor in drug markets, namely the price elasticity of demand for cocaine, heroin, and marijuana that is, the extent to which the demand varies with price (Saffer and Chaloupka, 1995; Grossman et al., in press)
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From page 26...
... For example, although the Immigration ancl Naturalization Service has recently made attempts to estimate the number of illegal immigrants inside the Unitecl States (Immigration ancl Naturalization Service, 1997) , it has not attempted to estimate either the number entering as the result of organized smuggling activities or the revenues generatecl by such smuggling.3 The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL)
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From page 27...
... Similarly, the ubiquitous payment of bribes to foreign officials by multinational corporations, although subject to investigation in numerous countries, has never been estimated.4 CONCLUSION Transnational organized crime may be susceptible to measurement, but very little is currently available to suggest how the measurement task should be approached. One conclusion that might be weakly inferred from the attempts to estimate the scale of drug importing is that consumption-based estimates are likely to be stronger than supply-based estimates.
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Key Terms

  • transnational organized
  • drug control
  • drug abuse
  • control policy
  • national household

  • total consumption
  • ancl naturalization
  • drug users
  • nations drug
  • naturalization service

  • unitecl states
  • immigration ancl
  • illegal immigrants
  • household survey
  • national drug

  • illicit drugs
  • pure gram
  • control program
  • totals produced
  • price data

  • frequent users
  • heroin user
  • expenditures equal
  • legitimate personal
  • retailer account

  • backward method
  • sophisticated calculations
  • focusing attention
  • con sumption
  • analysis ofthe


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