Criminal organizations have been commonly associated with violence and disorder. Despite there being truth in that, what is more concerning is their growing influence. Criminal violence has exceeded traditional forms of political violence in the world. In the wake of the signing of the Peace Accord on November 26, 2016, between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — People’s Army, the disarmament and demobilization process created an institutional and security vacuum in rural regions of Colombia. These rural regions currently experience partial peace, with violence levels peaking under the competition of criminal organizations and other non-state armed groups to govern abandoned territories and communities over the pursuit of illicit markets and trade routes. This study focuses on a more profound understanding of the micro-dynamics between criminal organizations territorial control, governance, and its effects on violence against civilians in rural and post-conflict contexts. This thesis contributes to this research gap by asking why do criminal organizations territorial control affect violence against civilians? Through a qualitative study using the method of structured focused comparison and selecting a most similar research design, the period of study covers September 1, 2017, to June 30, 2022. The municipalities selected were Tarazá and Zaragoza, in the department of Antioquia. The findings seem to suggest that it is more likely that a criminal organization that has or in this case the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia that progressively achieved segmented territorial control would have the incentives to monopolize all functions of governance and to their capacity establish a public goods-based legitimacy governance system reducing the cost of social control and criminal violence against civilians in Tarazá and Zaragoza.

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The purpose of the study was to increase knowledge about youth football in relation to reasons for beginning to participate, and reasons behind early drop-out. Another purpose of the study was to investigate potential preventive methods in order to counterwork drop-out rates among boys. A district association of Swedish football, Västerbottens Fotbollförbund, was keen to discover these reasons and preventive methods in order to develop more interest throughout their football-district and prevent early drop-out rates among boys. The study was designed using a questionnaire in which 27 boys aged13-17 in Skellefteå municipality answered a questionnaire with open-ended questions regarding the purpose of the study. The results indicate that the opportunity to participate in more than one sport is problematic and that the boys valued belonging and team spirit. Furthermore, the boys proposedcreating sustainable opportunities to participate in more than one sport and to focus more on having fun during practice in order to counter-work drop-out rates. A conclusion drawn from the results of the study is that the different sports within Skellefteå municipality are in need of better cooperation. Another conclusion is that the boys expressed a desire for more and different levels of ambition to reduce drop-out rates. Creating different prioritization within the different levels of ambition was alsosuggested by the boys themselves. For example, to prioritize belonging and having fun in clubs with lower levels of ambition. To counterwork early drop-out rates there needs to be conditions making it possible to participate in more than one sport. Furthermore, clubs from different sports in the municipality are proposed to discuss the topic of drop-out and preventive measures suggested by the boys in the study.

This thesis is focused on two topics. The first topic is the General Aviation (GA) demand forecasting models. The contributions to this topic are three fold: 1) we calibrated an econometric model to investigate the impact of fuel price on the utilization rate of GA piston engine aircraft, 2) we adopted a logistic model to identify the relationship between fuel price and an aircraft's probability of staying active, and 3) we developed an econometric model to forecast the airport-level itinerant and local GA operations. Our calibration results are compared with those reported in literature. Demand forecasts are made with these models and compared with those prepared by the Federal Aviation Administration. The second topic is to model the air traffic in the Organized Track System (OTS) over the North Atlantic. We developed a discrete-time event model to simulate the air traffic that uses the OTS. We proposed four new operational procedures to improve the flight operations for the OTS. Two procedures aim to improve the OTS assignments in the OTS entry area, and the other two aim to benefit flights once they are inside the OTS. The four procedures are implemented with the simulation model and their benefits are analyzed. Several implementation issues are discussed and recommendations are given. / Ph. D.

The Kenyan state is currently under pressure from two sides: First, numerous non-state armed groups have taken over the provision of security in areas where the state is practically absent. Second, drug-trafficking organizations are gaining ground as the country is increasingly being used as a major transit hub for narcotics. This article investigates the relationship between drug trafficking and informal security provision in Kenya and draws analogies from comparable experiences in Latin America and West Africa. Field research in Kenya has demonstrated that profit-oriented, informal security actors in Mombasa work for drug lords, while their counterparts in Nairobi are more likely to be hired by politicians. Moreover, faith-based vigilante groups in both cities appear to be less susceptible to external manipulation by drug traffickers. The article concludes by considering the potential consequences of an expansion of the drug trade in Kenya. / © 2014 GIGA. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Africa Spectrum is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) proposed to introduce new operational strategies across the North Atlantic (NAT) airspace. This includes Minimum Navigation Performance Specifications (MNPS) airspace to increase the capacity and efficiency of the North Atlantic Organized Track System (NAT OTS). A numerical integration and simulation model called North Atlantic Simulation and Modeling (NATSAM) is developed to study the effects of these new strategies on NAT system performance. The model is capable of investigating the effects of implementing different operational policies and strategies proposed by ICAO such as Reduced Lateral Separation Minimum (RLatSM), NAT Region Data link mandate (DLM), Reduced Longitudinal Separation Minimum (RLongSM), cruise-climb profiles, variable Mach number profiles, step-climbs and other operational concepts to be studied by the ICAO. NATSAM models the individual flight performance using the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) 3.9 model to calculate the flight profiles and fuel burn. The model employs simple heuristics to execute flight track assignment in the organized track system for each scenario. Detailed outputs and also aggregated outputs are provided by the model from which various key performance indicators (KPI) can be derived to assess the performance of the system. / Master of Science

This thesis presents a performance assessment of flight operations in the North Atlantic Organized Track System (OTS) using the Global Oceanic Model. The main contributions of the study are: a) improvements to the logic of the Global Oceanic Model; b) prediction of benefits among various aircraft separation minima and operational policies to assign flights to tracks in the OTS system; and c) forecast of OTS traffic over North Atlantic from 2020 to 2040. The preliminary results show that a concept of operation with longitudinal separation minima of 15 nm and information of the flight cost matrix provides average fuel savings of 93 kilograms per flight using 2020 traffic. The fuel savings increase to 170 kilograms per flight using traffic levels expected in the year 2040. A new operational track assignment routine is developed and it could save around 40 kilograms per flight compared with the current concept of operations. The study results show a shortage of capacity of the Organized Track System in the future. The analysis shows that the OTS configuration used today and in 2020 is unable to accommodate the traffic projected in 2040. The analysis concludes that more tracks will be needed to maintain an acceptable level of service. / MS / The North Atlantic Organized Track System (OTS) are directional tracks for aircraft to fly between North America and Europe. This thesis presents a performance assessment of flight operations in the North Atlantic using a computer simulation model -- Global Oceanic Model. The main contributions of the study are: a) improvements to the logic of the Global Oceanic Model; b) prediction of benefits among various aircraft separation minima and operational policies to assign flights to tracks in the OTS system; and c) forecast of OTS traffic over Atlantic from 2020 to 2040. The preliminary results show that the predicted average fuel savings in the year 2020 are 93 kilograms per flight when aircraft are separated 15 nm longitudinally and assigned to tracks based on the flight cost matrix. The average fuel savings increase to 170 kilograms per flight using traffic levels expected in the year 2040. Additionally, a new operational track assignment routine is developed and it could save around 40 kilograms per flight compared with the current concept of operations. In conclusion, the Organized Track System configuration used today may be unable to accommodate the traffic projected in the year 2040. The shortage of capacity of the OTS indicates that more tracks will be needed to maintain an acceptable level of service.

Thesis advisor: Sarah Babb / The years since the Paris Agreement have seen intensifying efforts to decarbonize the financial system. Disclosure frameworks, notably the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), and Net-Zero targets, are fast becoming institutionalized globally to incentivize financial institutions to divert capital into low-carbon activities and away from carbon-heavy ones. I examine the implementation of these frameworks among financial corporations (FCs) in Singapore. 15 semi-structured interviews with professionals in the industry at the forefront of TCFD and Net-Zero suggest that FCs’ “talk” often does not match with their “actions”. Organizations ceremonially comply with new global standards as well as local regulations on TCFD and Net-Zero while they continue to finance carbon-intensive economic activities. Yet this apparent “hypocrisy” may not be so much a result of coordinated efforts for organizational buffering, as it is a consequence of disorganization and discoordination. Informants suggest that different parts within FCs independently perceived and responded differently, at a different pace, to the novel challenges that climate change has brought. I contribute to the environmental sociology literature on “organized hypocrisy” by examining how commonly perceived “hypocrisy” is or is not, in fact, “organized”. In doing so, I suggest that we should not assume “hypocrisy” to be an intentional organizational project. Furthermore, rather than seeing “hypocrisy” as effort to keep an organization “stable”, I argue that hypocrisy may be indicative of slow and potentially discordant organizational change, with ongoing internal efforts by insiders to match “actions” with “talk”. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

As organized criminal groups continue to produce an increasingly devastating effect on Swedish society, a more extensive amount of public policy and research is aimed at tackling this growing issue. However, little of the research is focused on the role of women in organized crime. The research that does exist shows rather inconclusive results regarding the roles of women. Therefore, the current essay aims to investigate, using a feminist framework, what role women play in organized criminal acts and within organized criminal groups. This study uses the method of systematic content analysis and the material consists of court judgements and preliminary investigation reports related to organized crime, in which encrypted chats have been utilized as evidence. This material provides a unique resource to be able to study the demographic variables of the women involved in organized crime as well as investigate their specific roles within the organized criminal groups by looking at variables such as their relationship to other actors, criminal involvement and contacts within the network. The results show that the women involved in organized crime were mainly involved in narcotics, financial and weapons crimes, and the most common role was that of a passive role in the form of possession of narcotics, cash or weapons. Some women had romantic or familial relationships with other offenders and most women existed on the periphery of the network with no organizational or leadership roles, which largely reflects what would be expected of female roles in feminist theory. This information can be used to gain a better understanding of women in organized crime and inform policy and rehabilitation efforts. The knowledge gained from this study could be further developed by conducting comparisons between male and female offenders.

Organized crime currently poses a high threat around the globe. It can be regarded as an international problem with local reach. In addition, gangs exhibit presence in large parts of the world. Criminal activities involving illegal drugs are one common feature among these types of criminal groups. Having acknowledged the detrimental influence that organized crime, gangs and drugs have on both a societal and individual level, a better understanding of how these areas overlap is needed. A significant part of reaching a better understanding is to examine the theories utilized within the research. The aim of this scoping review is to inquire into the literature focusing on the overlap between organized crime, gangs and drugs. Two research questions are answered: 1) Which prominent themes are found in the overlap of organized crime, gangs and drugs? 2) Which theories or theoretical frameworks guide this research? A rigorous search strategy produced a large sample of studies. The software program ASReview Lab was used to make the screening process efficient. In the end, a total of 56 studies were included in this scoping review. Four themes were identified as recurring in the literature. Gang organization, collaboration between criminal groups, governance and gang evolution through drug business are all parts of the overlap between organized crime, gangs and drugs. Several theoretical frameworks were used in the included studies. Theories regarding gang evolution and gang organization were especially prominent. The identified themes opened up for a discussion regarding the challenges of definitions within the areas in focus, the glocal aspect of organized crime and the role of organization in the drug business. A couple of areas were identified as understudied and a future systematic review of the literature can be useful for the societal actors working against organized crime, gangs and drugs.