Transnational Organized Crime in the Covid- 19 Period: With Emphasis on Europol Documents

The outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic since 2019 has changed the world dramatically. Given the fundamental changes in people's lifestyles and changes in individual and social patterns of behavior around the world that originate from medical prescriptions, it is important to study the effects of this phenomenon in different social domains. One of these important areas is to assess the impact of pandemics on crime rates. Among the various types of crime, transnational organized crime as an important part of white-collar crime has many implications for the international community. Given the transnational nature of crimes in this area, collective victimization, covert violence, high black numbers, invisibility, and links to power and wealth groups, analyzing the circumstances of these crimes during the Covend Pandemic period 19 are fundamental and important issues.

This descriptive-analytical and qualitative research method seeks to investigate the effect of the Povemovid 19 pandemic on organized crime in EU countries using Europol documents.

Although Covid 19 has addressed serious issues and challenges in crime and criminal justice responses, the analysis of organized crime rates, the dynamics of criminal techniques, and the processes of updating crime in the light of changes in social life are important issues in this area. The findings show that not only did cross-border organized crime such as terrorism, cybercrime, drug trafficking and economic crime decrease during the Covid 19 pandemic, but so did the rate of some crimes such as cybercrime and drug distribution. The reason for this is the use of new criminal structures, flexibility in the specific conditions of social life in this period and the updating of crime techniques by organized crime offenders.