Involving women in organized crime prevention and exit initiatives
Organized crime is one of the most serious security threats the OSCE region faces today. To effectively prevent and fight it, it is crucial to understand who is involved and what they do. Yet our view of organized crime is hampered by stereotypes that assign specific gender roles to those involved. We put men in the central roles as leaders, enforcers and foot soldiers, and portray women as victims or as subject to the whims of men. It is true that organized crime exploits, and impacts, women disproportionately. However, focusing solely on women’s victimization obscures a more complex reality, which includes women playing important roles across organized crime groups.
To dig deeper into this often-overlooked aspect, the OSCE published the first international study focusing on women actors in organized crime in December 2023. The report’s findings show that women are actively involved across criminal markets and at different levels of criminal hierarchies, frequently playing influential roles.
But the data also shows that police, prosecutors and other criminal justice practitioners often overlook women’s agency and active involvement in organized crime. This lack of recognition allows women to operate nearly undetected in criminal groups and to evade the efforts of criminal justice authorities to disrupt organized crime. It also makes it harder for women to get assistance when they want to leave criminal groups.
By filling a significant data gap, the OSCE findings can help practitioners to better understand how women are recruited into organized crime and which roles they play within criminal networks. This is essential to providing targeted help to prevent women from joining organized crime groups and support them to leave a life of crime.
How are women recruited into organized crime?
Socio-economic vulnerabilities, sexual exploitation, and the allure of money, status and belonging ― often promoted on social media ― play significant roles in recruiting women and girls into organized crime. Women, like men, frequently join these groups as a survival strategy to escape poverty or support their families. In other cases, women willingly engage in organized crime. Data shows that this is often driven by the false promise of quick money and a luxurious lifestyle.
Our evidence finds that the recruitment of women and girls into the lower levels of organized crime groups is frequently tied to sexual and emotional abuse. It also shows a clear link between victimization and subsequent offending, with trafficked women – for example – often becoming involved in recruiting new victims to escape their own exploitation.
Yet, because criminal justice authorities tend not to see women as potential criminal actors, they are frequently passed over by prevention initiatives.
What roles do women play inside criminal networks?
Women play roles across all levels of organized crime groups, according to the OSCE study’s findings. Women are involved in leading, managing and executing criminal activities, including decision-making, alliance forming, overseeing criminal operations and laundering money.
At lower levels, our report shows that women’s relative invisibility to law enforcement is strategically exploited. Criminal groups use female members to transport, hide, and deal drugs, as women are often perceived as less suspicious.
Contrary to traditional gender stereotypes, our evidence shows that women in organized crime are increasingly involved in violence and intimidation. The OSCE report captures how women are, for instance, frequently violent towards younger peers and take pride in their criminal activities.
Beyond operational roles, women with family ties to organized crime groups are crucial in transmitting organized crime culture and ideology, including codes of silence and honor. They are key carriers of organized crime values and the socialization process, contributing to the development of criminal careers and the cultural continuity that underpins organized crime groups.
How can women leave criminal groups?
Not recognizing women’s agency creates criminal justice and gender equality issues by preventing women from accessing exit and witness protection programmes.
The more invisible women are in crime groups, the fewer opportunities they have to escape a life of crime. Although exit pathways exist across OSCE participating States, women often remain underrepresented or absent from these initiatives. This is in large part because women are frequently seen merely as the wives or girlfriends of criminals rather than as active participants in their own right.
Providing women equal access to witness protection can also have significant investigative and prosecutorial benefits. Tapping into women’s knowledge of criminal structures and operations can help practitioners to build stronger criminal cases and so better disrupt organized crime groups.
What is needed to close the gender gap?
The OSCE report sets out recommendations for law enforcement and practitioners to help address the gaps uncovered in the study.
Chief amongst these is ending the impunity of women criminals by dispelling gender stereotypes and recognizing female agency in organized crime. Our report recommends developing training materials for law enforcement and criminal justice practitioners to incorporate gender considerations for identifying, investigating and prosecuting organized criminal activity.
Another key step forward is to place women at the centre of organized crime prevention and exit initiatives. With data showing that law enforcement actors seldom refer women to relevant prevention initiatives, we recommend taking actions to identify, measure and monitor the risk factors that can lead both men and women into criminality, including previous victimization. On the exit side, the OSCE report recommends filling this gap by improving practitioners’ understanding of the gender-specific reasons for leaving organized crime, and involving women in judicial and non-judicial exit initiatives as their own agents.
How does the OSCE help?
With the data and recommendations in mind, the OSCE is preparing to launch a new initiative on the gender dimension of transnational organized crime. Our comprehensive approach targets three areas:
- Raising criminal justice practitioners’ awareness of women's roles in organized crime.
- Helping practitioners address women in organized crime cases and create programmes that recognize women’s agency.
- Supporting regional dialogue on women’s inclusion in organized crime prevention and exit efforts.
By addressing the role of women in organized crime in all its complexity, we can support participating States to make their efforts to end organized crime more nuanced, holistic and effective.