Learn more about worldwide crime at a public lecture tomorrow

The talk will give an insight into the massive scale and wide-reaching consequences of worldwide organised crime, including the dumping of toxic waste and trafficking in human organs – two of the many areas where criminal activity is escalating.

Dr Frank Madsen will deliver his lecture, titled “Transnational Organised Crime”, in the Bateman Auditorium at Gonville and Caius College, Trinity Street, Cambridge, at 4.30 pm. All are welcome, no charge.

Currently the Assistant Director of the Von Hugel Institute at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, Dr Madsen has investigated organised crime for more than 30 years, first as head of criminal intelligence at Interpol, later as director of international security for a US Fortune-100 company, and now as an academic.

He will start his talk by asking some fundamental questions – such as what do we mean by organised crime, what activities does it encompass, and what are the consequences for society?

“An academic study of crime entails looking for answers to these big, and very difficult, questions in order to conceptualise the vast range of activities that come under the heading of organised crime – from the trafficking of counterfeit luxury goods to the illegal disposal of toxic waste,” he said.

“One of the underlying factors that we need to understand is that we have created a large part of organised crime by prohibiting the very things that people desire. Opium dens proliferated in the 19th century: it was only in 1912 that an international opium treaty was signed, creating huge opportunities for crime.”

Organised crime is thought to be worth more than $1 trillion annually. Its existence is based on what is termed ‘denied demand’, which is largely a result of the international prohibition regime. In other words, people desire many things that they also desire to prohibit – such as drugs, prostitution and gambling.

In the second part of his talk, Dr Madsen will focus on two areas of organised crime that are escalating in scale: environment and health.

He will draw on his detailed knowledge of the illegal timber trade to demonstrate how Indonesia is being deforested and he will illustrate in a slide how prices for tropical hardwood increase from $11 a cubic metre at source to $2,300 per cubic meter at final destination with handsome profits being made at every stage – all of them illegal.

Dr Madsen will also talk about the illegal dumping of toxic waste in ships that are deliberately sunk so that the organisers can pocket profits, which the criminals themselves acknowledge amount to billions of dollars.

“It is believed that up to 180 ships have been bought in a near-derelict state, filled with toxic, in particular radioactive, waste, and then sunk out in the ocean. Ten have been found and the authorities believe to know the whereabouts of another ten or so. The consequences for the environment are worrying,” he said.

On the subject of organised crime in the field of health, he will give an insight into both the growing production of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and the increasing trade in human organs, such as kidneys. Both have horrifying human and moral consequences and represent big business. In the case of human organ trafficking, proof has now been obtained that some organs are being obtained under coercion; non-confirmed but consistent information indicates that in certain instances victims have been murdered in order to harvest the corpses.

“Our instinct is to be outraged and condemning of illegal activities like these. But you have to think: if your adored teenage daughter was dying of kidney failure and you had the chance to buy one from someone, who, for example, was very poor and therefore induced to sell a kidney, would you be tempted? We need to look honestly at the human issues involved,” he said.

Despite his knowledge of some of the worst aspects of human behaviour, Dr Madsen remains optimistic about the future, in other words that people can change. “No grey market has ever been defeated from the supply side, but there are hopes on the demand side. Just think about smoking. Thirty years ago everyone was puffing away on a cigarette. Today smoking is a social taboo and if you see someone smoking in a film it’s invariably a baddy,” he said.

Danish-born Dr Madsen did his first degree in Latin in Copenhagen where he became interested in Roman law. His lifelong fascination for organised crime and its concomitant financial structures led him to undertake a PhD at Queens’ College, Cambridge, when he retired from the post with one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. He was awarded his degree last year.

“I absolutely love being part of Cambridge – the aesthetic beauty of the academic buildings provides a stimulating framework for the in-depth, creative research, which is the University’s hallmark,” he said.

Dr Madsen’s talk is part of the New Europe Society Series. All welcome, free of charge. Followed by refreshments.