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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the topic of the informal economy, exploring its definition from both economic and criminological standpoints. It seeks to consider possible linkages with organised crime and the conditions under which these may be facilitated, with reference to the papers in this double special issue.

The papers in this issue are deliberately from different methodological perspectives, in order to illustrate the need for multidisciplinarity to show both the extent of the informal and criminal economies and their links to geographical and social context.

As well as revealing the endemic nature of corruption in Ukrainian workplaces and the high levels of informal activity undertaken by workers the research found that many people wish for their workplace to become more regulated.

The issue can only, for reasons of space, explore a number of facets of the informal economy. The nature of the informal economy depends upon place, time, social and ethnic context, and historical links and trade routes. The issue concentrates upon criminogenic potential, rather than the survival value of informal solutions or their place in cementing household and community economies and interactions.

The issue contains papers which reveal new theoretical insights on this rather unresearched and complex topic, as well as new empirical findings. It highlights the impact of internationalisation and globalisation.

The informal economy is more than the inverse of the formalised economy, but is a dynamic environment. It is less limited by legal rules, state control, bureaucracy or tax regulation. On the other hand the informal market is less visible than the regular economy. The purpose of this paper is to find out how informal markets are currently developing.

This contribution is based on a literature review of primarily European work from scholars active in different disciplinary fields, concentrating upon presentations made during the seminars given for the EU Framework 6 CRIMPREV programme. It is structured using a matrix of potentially interesting variables: disciplinary interaction and the need for a multidisciplinary discourse; the position of nation states as a fundamental variable for the existence of the informal economy; general global economic dynamics and their implications for the concept of the informal economy; the interplay of formal, informal and criminal markets; the functionalities of informal markets for the classic survival economy; the dangerousness of wrong perceptions of informal markets and finally the contribution of different methodologies to the knowledge of the informal economy.

The matrix is incomplete and further input is welcome.

This paper could be a start for the comparison of analyses of informal markets in time and space, without the limitations of the classic categories such as organised crime and in limiting definitions.

Since 9/11, hawala banking (financial service providers who carry out financial transactions whereby cash, cheques or other valuable goods are accepted at one location and a corresponding sum in cash or other remuneration is paid at another location) has attracted a great deal of attention. Much has been written on the subject, but so far little empirical research has been conducted into the misuse of hawala banking for criminal purposes. This paper aims to fill this gap.

The paper contains an analysis of 12 police files on the use of hawala banks by perpetrators of crime. The data gathered from these cases are compared to what has been reported on hawala banking in the existing literature.

The literature emphasises the importance of trust between client and banker, as well as between hawala bankers themselves. Trust is supposedly based on strong social ties (ethnic and family ties). The 12 cases studied (almost all of which concerned the misuse of hawala banking by drug dealers) put the significance of trust into perspective: the importance of ethnicity and personal trust should not be exaggerated. When the stakes are high, a common social background and shared ethnicity between bankers, as well as between bankers and their clients, seems to be less important than is often assumed.

The paper goes beyond the traditional focus on trust and strong social ties.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the potential of vulnerability studies of economic activities to study the relationship between organised crime and the economy and illustrate it by examples taken from a vulnerability study of the European waste management industry.

Based on both economical and criminological perspectives a scanning tool for assessing the vulnerability of economic sectors was developed and applied to a specific case.

Sector vulnerability studies belong to the wider family of criminal opportunity approaches, all of which aim to identify areas of current risk and future prevention. Sector vulnerability studies (vulnerability to organised crime and other risks) extend the range by bringing in economic sectors. Although starting from the analysis of the formal economy, sector vulnerability studies can provide insights concerning potential irregularities and opportunities for informal economies to flourish as well.

This paper addresses informal markets and the relationship between organised crime and the economy from a vulnerability perspective, focusing on the opportunities provided by licit economic activity. Although such opportunity approaches exist and have been applied to various cases before, there are only a few examples of its application to vulnerabilities to organised crime.

This paper aims to examine, from a global macro perspective, the relationships between commercial sex, regulatory system and shadow economies.

The paper draws on eight years of research in the sex industries and literature from other sources that explore the nuances of the economic and social organisation of the sex markets in different countries.

First, a four point continuum is presented, based on the following types of economies: legal formal; legal informal; illegal informal and illegal criminal. Second, challenging principles that the sex industry is only “demand” driven, this paper looks at the nature of the sex industry, examining the dynamics of supply in the context of a prolific global shadow sex economy. Third, the concept of “supply” is broadened out to refer not only to women involved in selling direct and indirect sexual services but the legitimate and illegitimate service industries that are ancillary to the sex industry: namely: advertising, marketing, leisure industries, security, policing and welfare.

Contributing to the cultural analysis of the sex industry and drawing on original ethnographic observations, this paper stresses the relevance of the “supply” side of the sex industry, including ancillary industries that support the sex markets in the shadow economies.

Discusses the actual conceptions about policing used by social scientists. Police models are central entities of thoughts and ideas on policing, which include an observable internal coherence. Stresses that there are in fact only four central police models: the military‐bureaucratic model; the lawful policing model; community‐oriented policing (COP); and public‐private divide policing. Precisely in articulating COP against its negative references, the essence becomes clearer. Concludes that each concrete police apparatus can be considered as a combination of police models. The democratization process can be endangered by the growing dominance of a public‐private (divide) police model. That is the main reason why it is important to encourage the search for a more profound theoretical basis for policing the community.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the connections between illegal drugs and the informal economy and consider this in the light of the increasing levels of global interconnectedness in recent decades.

This is a review of the empirical drugs literature with a primary focus on British‐based research and analysis of the impact of different aspects of globalization.

Patterns of heroin and crack‐cocaine use need to be understood in their social, economic and cultural context, particularly in relation to their location in the informal economy. Globalizing processes have profoundly shaped local drug problems over the last 30 years.

The governance of the drug problem needs to be reframed to take account of its social economic nature and global character. New ways of thinking are required to advance future research and policy.

The focus on the impact of globalizing processes is original and leads to some important new insights for future research and policy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the criminal workplace activities of both employers and employees in Ukrainian enterprises. It challenges traditional definitions of corruption and suggests that the practices that can be observed fit into the category of organised crime because of the country's economic framework. The paper also explores how the practices are partially a legacy of Soviet economic processes.

A total of 700 household surveys were completed in three cities, Kyiv (where 450 surveys were completed), Uzhgorod (150) and Kharkiv (100). To complement these, approximately 25 in‐depth interviews were undertaken with workers in each region. Furthermore, ethnographic observations and “kitchen table” interviews also played an important role in the research. Although the research was oriented towards those working in informal economies, business owners (both formal and informal) were also interviewed.

As well as revealing the endemic nature of corruption in Ukrainian workplaces and the high levels of informal activity undertaken by workers, the research found that many people wish for their workplace to become more regulated.

Further interviews could have been carried out with state officials and in more locations. The implications are multiple but mainly they demonstrate the difficulty that those charged with economic reform in Ukraine must face.

It is one of the first studies to explore these issues in Ukraine using a variety of research methods.

The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the Dutch property market from the angle of crime‐inducing conditions and circumstances.

The perspective adopted is in line with recent developments in the study of crime and crime prevention, which focus not so much on perpetrators, as on the opportunities they have to commit a criminal offence.

Despite the exploratory character of the analysis, it can be concluded that the real estate sector lends itself very well to an entwining of regular and irregular activities. Real estate has become booming business, attracting domestic and foreign investment. The market is closed, dominated by old boy networks, with possibilities to conceal irregularities. Regulations, law enforcement and (both formal and informal) control seem to be inadequate. Hence, it is less transparent than other markets and enables legitimate and illegitimate entrepreneurs to meet, co‐operate and share expertise and knowledge.

Strategies to prevent serious forms of crime in the real estate sector vary from self‐regulation and administrative measures to public and private policing. The various public and private institutions tend to stick to a primarily domestically oriented approach, whilst social research in this area is still predominantly based on national studies. The author recommends that comparative, multidisciplinary empirical research on irregularities and crime in the real estate sector in various (European) countries needs to be conducted.

This is one of the first attempts to apply principles of analysis of potential crime‐inducing vulnerabilities to the real estate sector.

The paper aims to present both the legal and illegal aspects of the market in antiquities, specifically cultural objects which are transported from source countries to countries where they are sold or auctioned.

The paper starts by defining the concept of antiquity and then examines the origin of objects, those involved in the market in different capacities, the question of how the origin of objects is examined, and the scope of the market. A number of examples are given as illustrations.

The analysis shows how many different participants are involved in the market globally. Views on how well the provenance of an object needs to be established and on what is cultural theft are changing. However, structural and cultural characteristics of the market mean that it remains difficult to penetrate and is susceptible to organised crime.

Space and legal constraints mean that only a few examples can be given and a small number of routes examined.

This is one of the first global examinations of the criminality of this type of market.