13.3: The Economic Scale of Transnational Crime

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Because it contravenes the laws of at least one state, those involved in transnational crime try to keep it secret, making it difficult to measure in economic terms. Nevertheless, transnational crime is big business and money is the primary motivation for those that engage in it. At the global level the revenues of transnational criminal activities were estimated in 2014 to range between US$1.6 trillion and $2.2 trillion per year (May 2017, p. ix). This would represent about 2.5 per cent of 2014 global gross domestic product (Statista, 2018).

Table 13.1 shows that drug trafficking and counterfeiting may account for as much as 81 per cent of this total, roughly $1.8 trillion. Counterfeiting is the single largest transnational crime category involving pirated goods and the theft of intellectual property. It is estimated that between two-thirds and three-quarters of counterfeit goods come from China (UNODC, 2013, p. 123).

The counterfeiting trade provides transnational criminal groups with an avenue for laundering the enormous financial profits as well as financing other crimes such as drug trafficking. The revenues also enable them to corrupt politicians, judges and police authorities, and thereby facilitate the organisation and planning of their activities.

Table 13.1: Economic revenues from transnational crime (Data source: May, 2017, p. xi).
TYPE OF ILLEGAL TRADE	ESTIMATED ANNUAL VALUE (US$)
Counterfeit and pirated goods Digitally pirated goods Electronics Pharmaceuticals Tobacco products Counterfeit Goods	$466 billion $213 billion $169 billion $70 billion to $200 billion $5.2 billion Total: $923 billion to $1.13 trillion
Drugs	Total: $426 billion to $652 billion
Human body parts Human trafficking Humans	$840 million to $1.7 billion $150.2 billion Total: $151.5 billion
Art and cultural property Fish Mining Oil Timber Wildlife Resources	$1.2 billion to $1.6 billion $15.5 billion to $36.4 billion $12 billion to $48 billion $5.5 billion to $11.9 billion $52 billion to $157 billion $5 billion to $23 billion Total: $91 billion to $278 billion
Small arms and light weapons	Total: $1.7 billion to $3.5 billion
All illegal trade	Grand total: $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion