A review of methods in research on organized crime infiltration of legitimate businesses

Grasping the extent of organized crime presence in the legal economy is a daunting task. Yet, empirically informed research on organized crime is the key to designing effective interventions, formulating counter-organized crime policies involving the private sector, and monitoring and measuring the impact of such policies and interventions. This chapter reviews some prevailing research methods in the study of organized crime infiltration of the legal economy across the social sciences. Specifically, it first discusses some of the challenges in data collection and analysis. It then explores a few pioneering examples of research on this topic, such as those that use case studies, econometric analysis, and social network analysis. This chapter concludes with a discussion of avenues for future research with the focus on innovative ways of doing research on the organized crime infiltration of the legal economy.