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Journal Article 1: Unger, B. (2013). Can money laundering decrease? Public Finance Review, 41, 658-676.

Abstract: After two decades of research on money laundering, it seems time to look at what we know and what progress has been made in research. One simple question is whether we know if money laundering has increased, stayed constant, or decreased over these years. This article shows that over the last two decades, money laundering could hardly have decreased. This is largely because the concept of money laundering has broadened. However, there are also some hints that traditional areas of laundering such as fraud and corruption proceeds have increased rather than being effectively combated. There may be potential for money laundering to decrease in the future.

Journal Article 2: Densley, J. (2012). It’s gang life, but not as we know it: The evolution of gang business. Crime & Delinquency, 60, 517-546.

Abstract: Based on fieldwork with gangs and interviews with gang members in London, United Kingdom, this article illustrates how recreation, crime, enterprise, and extralegal governance represent sequential actualization stages in the evolutionary cycle of street gangs. Gangs evolve from adolescent peer groups and the normal features of street life in their respective neighborhoods. In response to external threats and financial commitments, they grow into drug-distribution enterprises. In some cases, gangs then acquire the necessary special resources of violence, territory, secrecy, and intelligence that enable them to successfully regulate and control the production and distribution of one or more given commodities or services unlawfully. Territory is first claimed then controlled. Likewise, violence is first expressive then instrumental. With each step, gangs move further away from “crime that is organized” and closer to “organized crime.”