Predatory organized crime groups pray on developing nations by engaging in extortion, shakedowns, and fraud and are one of the most detrimental obstacles to economic growth. While research on predatory organized crime groups has flourished in the post-Cold War era, the body of knowledge has been limited by single society studies with little generalizability. The current study tested the generality of two hypotheses regarding the growth of predatory crime groups that have been observed in previous single-society studies: the state failure hypothesis and the economic failure hypothesis. According to the state failure hypothesis, predatory criminal groups step in to perform state functions when the State itself fails to deliver key political functions such as security, justice, and stability. The economic failure hypothesis argues that failing economies which are unable to provide jobs and a decent standard of living enable predatory crime groups to step in as suppliers of the demanded jobs and goods. In examining the state failure hypothesis, three aspects of state functioning were evaluated: institutional stability, judicial independence, and political rights. The effects of unemployment, black-market activities, and gross domestic product per capita were assessed in the evaluation of the economic failure hypothesis. Data on 59 countries were drawn from the 1999 and 2000 annual economic competitiveness evaluations conducted by researchers at Harvard University and the World Economic Forum. Results of bivariate and multivariate analyses indicated support for both hypotheses -- state failure and economic failure seem essential elements to the infestation of predatory organized crime groups in a society. The strongest political and economic indicators of predatory crime groups were judicial independence and black-market activities. While these results provide a greater generalizability to the findings of single-society studies, limitations exist because of difficulties inherent in cross-sectional research. Policy implications include the importance of re-establishing judicial sovereignty and integrity and of strengthening floundering economies. Tables, appendix, references