The Paradox of Fiction and Terrorism’s Overshadowing of Organised Crime as a Law Enforcement Concern

Authors

  • Henry Prunckun

Keywords:

Organised crime, counterterrorism, terrorism, paradox of fiction, corruption, intelligence-led policing, decision tree analysis, policy analysis

Abstract

In light of criticism by political commentators and law enforcement experts about counterterrorism overshadowing the investigation of other forms of serious crime—in particular, organised crime—this study explored whether the use of intelligence-led policing would be better directed towards all serious crime, rather than prioritising terrorism. An expert jury comprising twelve subject/practitioner specialists were surveyed. The study used a purposive sampling technique to gauge the jury’s views on the current policy priorities, with the options being counterterrorism to serious crime, and the value of intelligence in policing regarding these offences. The findings, though not conclusive, provide compelling support for the hypotheses. That is, the results of a decision-tree analysis showed that intelligence-led policing could provide approximately 2.1 times the utility over the current approach.

Author Biography

  • Henry Prunckun

    Dr Henry (Hank) Prunckun, BSc, MSocSc, PhD, is Associate Professor of Applied Research at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Charles Sturt University, Sydney. He is a research methodologist who specialises in the study of transnational crime—espionage, terrorism, drugs and arms trafficking, as well as cyber-crime. He is the author of numerous reviews, articles, chapters, and books. He is the winner of two literature awards and a professional service award from the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts. He has served in a number of strategic research and tactical intelligence capacities within the criminal justice system during his twenty-eight-year operational career, including almost five years as a senior counterterrorism policy analyst during the Global War on Terror.

References

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Published

2023-02-03

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2016)

Section

Research Articles

License

Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant SALUS the right of first publication. The work is simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and the journal, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

How to Cite

The Paradox of Fiction and Terrorism’s Overshadowing of Organised Crime as a Law Enforcement Concern. (2023). Salus Journal, 4(2), 62-81. https://journals.csu.domains/index.php/salusjournal/article/view/61