The Crime That Pays: Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime in Canada

The Crime that Pays is a study of higher level drug syndicates and organized criminals who have achieved huge incomes and status in their deviant occupation. Based on interviews with drug couriers, drug investigators, and 70 drug traffickers, Dr. Desroches describes the characteristics of offenders, their modus operandi, the entrepreneurial aspects of organized crime, and the significance of friendship, kinship, race, and ethnicity in the development of criminal networks. It includes original research both on the RCMP and on higher level drug traffickers. Also included are analyses of Canadian drug laws and a critique of social policy relating to drug use and drug trafficking. The general reader will definitely find this book informative, as it is written in accessible language, and locates the criminal act within an understanding of the way society is constructed, regulated, and maintained. The appeal of the book is broadened by the attention that Dr. Desroches pays to both the more abstract criminological questions and more practical policy concerns.