Crime organizado: persecução penal e política criminal dentro do estado democrático de direito

Abstract

The past decades saw globalization grow and a great technological development that, among other results - good or bad -, made possible an expansion of organized crime, that today advance in the world. However, traditional means of investigation and the collecting of evidence were not enough for a competent combat to organized crime and because of that, new and differentiated mechanisms were created. Pressured by popular opinion, legislators passed laws that, in many cases, did not clarify several aspects of its application, besides creating questionable measures if one considers the fundamental rights. The task of analysing and the means of addressing organized crime becomes yet more complex considering there are still discussions regarding the definition of what is organized crime and about the possibility itself of definition and classification. Moreover, there are even those that deny its existence. In this work, at first and following a logical order, the question regarding the existence itself of criminal organizations and those aspects that are not manifestations of organized crime will be addrested. After that comes the search for a way of defining organized crime by the common characteristics of the several models of criminal organizations, also analysing The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the foreign legislation regarding the subject. Once it's defined what organized crime is, analysis of the several investigation and collecting of evidence proceedings commonly used for its repression is made possible. Last but not least, a list of propositions is presented for the discussion of what are the efficient measures to prevent and combat organized crime.