INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper will be to critically analyze the concept of organized crime in Canada. Several definitions of organized crime will be given in order to create an understanding of the extensive nature of this concept. The social network approach, a common and reoccurring theory mentioned throughout the literature on organized crime, will be examined. A description of the various forms of organized crime will be discussed along with a deeper look into its link to street gangs and its role in the sex and drug trade. An illustration of organized crime offenders will be given, highlighting their potential risk, reconstruction and relapse into crime after imprisonment. Lastly, in an attempt to further the understanding…show more content… Authors Serin et al. (2011) examine how organized crime networks work and more specifically, how they remain strong and stable (Serin et al., 2011). To focus on a couple, organized crime networks rely on violence and intimidation, critical skills and money laundering. The use of these methods increase profitability, expand power bases, and protect against criminal charges. Violence and intimidation are used externally and internally to maintain discipline and power, where as, individuals who possess essential critical skills are often used through manipulation in order to facilitate certain crimes. Money laundering is a method that allows the transfer of money funds, provides appearance as legitimacy, and protects groups from…show more content… Organized crime is thus understood to lie in the relationships biding members of the underworld to upperworld institutions and individuals. Organized crime is not a modern, urban, or lower-class phenomenon; it is a historical one whose changes mirror changes in civil society, the political economy. This is why, naturally, organized crime is increasingly taken to represent a series of relationships among professional criminals, upperworld clients and politicians. (pg.