2023-12-13 16:23:41
Authorities often underestimate the involvement of women in transnational organized crime, underlines a report from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) published on Wednesday.
According to this OSCE study carried out in 14 countries including Belgium, sexist stereotypes prevent criminal justice professionals from recognizing the real role of women in criminal groups. Thus, they often assume that women play “little hands” roles, and that they rarely take on positions of responsibility.
“15% of people arrested”
This biased vision prevents authorities from understanding the complexity of the criminal landscape and hinders their ability to fight crime, notes the OSCE. “Women are present in all criminal markets and throughout the criminal hierarchy of the 14 participating states,” said the report’s author, Garavini Seisselberg, from Vienna where the work was presented.
According to the study, women are not only victims of international crime, they are also actively involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, counterfeiting and violence. They often manage to rise to prominent positions, especially when they take over from their partners who have fled, been imprisoned or killed. However, women are less often suspected, less used as informants and less considered in exit programs from organized crime, Garavini Seisselberg said.
In Belgium, 15% of people arrested on suspicion of participating in the activities of a criminal organization were women in 2021. Data from 13 other countries in Europe, North America and Central Asia were analyzed occasion of this study.
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