A/CONF. 187/7 13. This being the case, the greatest preventive potential V. New preventive concepts, strategies may rest in the situational approach, but it must be adapted and techniques to deal with the more planned, complex offences charac- teristic of organized crime. This will demand detailed research on the different forms of organized crime. Such 15. The increased attention being paid by Governments research must identify the sequence of tasks involved in to child development is a change of considerable signi committing each form of organized crime and must ficance. Equally significant is that international bodies, describe in detail how each task is accomplished. It may such as the United Nations and the World Bank,are turn out that the apparent complexity of organized crime increasingly recognizing that the rule oflaw must precede lies in the sequencing of tasks rather than in the nature of economic and social progress. This could ultimately result the tasks themselves. Such research will clarify the in more international resources being channelled into crime opportunity structure"for each crime and at the same time prevention through social development. These develop- will suggest opportunity-blocking measures appropriate to ments aside, most of the recent innovations in crime each stage of the crime. Little research of this kind has prevention have been in situational and community been conducted, but many descriptions can be found in the approaches. In fact, such approaches have developed literature of the opportunity structure for different forms of rapidly that it is difficult to draw the line between what is organized crime newand what is not In any case, space permits the mention of only the most significant new concepts, strategies and 14. In addition, many examples exist of situational mea- techniques in the fields of community development and sures that are in use or have been proposed for use against situational prevention organized crime. These include in trucks, which wiped out organized thefts of trucks in A. Community development Rogers County, Oklahoma, United States. Similar devices are being installed in cargo ships operating in south-ea 16. The topic of community involvement in crime pre- Asia to prevent piracy; vention will be covered comprehensively during the Tenth Congress in its workshop on community involvement in (b)Restrictions on the international dialling capa- crime prevention. The most significant point is that there bility of public pay phones in a New York City bus termI- is now widespread recognition of the need for partnerships nal, which eliminated a multimillion-dollar organized or multi-agency cooperation in community crime pre telephone fraud business, vention (c), A variety of security changes introduced by 17. Experience in a variety of contexts has shown that credit card companies in the United Kingdom, which saved those partnerships cannot be sustained without a full-time millions of pounds in organized credit card fraud in the coordinator. This need has been met in a variety of ways 1980s and 1990s For example, some central government community deve- (d) Changes made in the 1980s in the design of lopment demonstration projects have included funds for a customs forms, which substantially increased the difficulty local coordinator. Where a longer-term investment in com- of importing stolen mot hicles into the United munity development is contemplated, a choice has had to be made between vesting leadership in the police or in the local municipal authority. Further, it is understood that tive accounting firms to supervise the administration of effective community development requires partnerships to contracts in the construction industry, which was proposed be formed not only between police and local government, as a significant opportunity-blocking reform by the New but also with local business interests York State Task Force on Organized Crime (f) The increased regulation of bank secrecy, B. Situational crime prevention which was identified in a recent United Nations report as an important route to reducing opportunities for illegal 18. Because of the concentrated injection ofresources by money-laundering countries such as the United Kingdom and the netherlands much progress has been made recently in the theory andA/CONF.187/7 5 13. This being the case, the greatest preventive potential may rest in the situational approach, but it must be adapted to deal with the more planned, complex offences charac￾teristic of organized crime. This will demand detailed research on the different forms of organized crime. Such research must identify the sequence of tasks involved in committing each form of organized crime and must describe in detail how each task is accomplished. It may turn out that the apparent complexity of organized crime lies in the sequencing of tasks rather than in the nature of the tasks themselves. Such research will clarify the “opportunity structure” for each crime and at the same time will suggest opportunity-blocking measures appropriate to each stage of the crime. Little research of this kind has been conducted, but many descriptions can be found in the literature of the opportunity structure for different forms of organized crime. 14. In addition, many examples exist of situational mea￾sures that are in use or have been proposed for use against organized crime. These include: (a) The installation of electronic tracking devices in trucks, which wiped out organized thefts of trucks in Rogers County, Oklahoma, United States. Similar devices are being installed in cargo ships operating in south-east Asia to prevent piracy; (b) Restrictions on the international dialling capa￾bility of public pay phones in a New York City bus termi￾nal, which eliminated a multimillion-dollar organized telephone fraud business; (c) A variety of security changes introduced by credit card companies in the United Kingdom, which saved millions of pounds in organized credit card fraud in the 1980s and 1990s; (d) Changes made in the 1980s in the design of customs forms, which substantially increased the difficulty of importing stolen motor vehicles into the United Kingdom; (e) The routine employment of certified investiga￾tive accounting firms to supervise the administration of contracts in the construction industry, which was proposed as a significant opportunity-blocking reform by the New York State Task Force on Organized Crime; (f) The increased regulation of bank secrecy, which was identified in a recent United Nations report as an important route to reducing opportunities for illegal money-laundering. V. New preventive concepts, strategies and techniques 15. The increased attention being paid by Governments to child development is a change of considerable signi￾ficance. Equally significant is that international bodies, such as the United Nations and the World Bank, are increasingly recognizing that the rule of law must precede economic and social progress. This could ultimately result in more international resources being channelled into crime prevention through social development. These develop￾ments aside, most of the recent innovations in crime prevention have been in situational and community approaches. In fact, such approaches have developed so rapidly that it is difficult to draw the line between what is new and what is not. In any case, space permits the mention of only the most significant new concepts, strategies and techniques in the fields of community development and situational prevention. A. Community development 16. The topic of community involvement in crime pre￾vention will be covered comprehensively during the Tenth Congress in its workshop on community involvement in crime prevention. The most significant point is that there is now widespread recognition of the need for partnerships or multi-agency cooperation in community crime pre￾vention. 17. Experience in a variety of contexts has shown that those partnerships cannot be sustained without a full-time coordinator. This need has been met in a variety of ways. For example, some central government community deve￾lopment demonstration projects have included funds for a local coordinator. Where a longer-term investment in com￾munity development is contemplated, a choice has had to be made between vesting leadership in the police or in the local municipal authority. Further, it is understood that effective community development requires partnerships to be formed not only between police and local government, but also with local business interests.6 B. Situational crime prevention 18. Because of the concentrated injection of resources by countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, much progress has been made recently in the theory and