The authors draw on the following four studies: two Belgian studies that used a risk-assessment methodology; the proceedings of a Hippokrates research project that is examining the feasibility of a risk-based methodology across the European Union; and a Belgian multidisciplinary study designed to develop a methodological tool for assessing the vulnerability of legal economic sectors for organized crime. The proposed methodology is based on three key assumptions: that organized crime is a financial profit-oriented business activity; that the measurement of the threat posed by a complex phenomenon requires a comprehensive and complete picture of the environment; and that the method must be as simple as possible to be effective. The three stages of the proposed methodology are an analysis of the system in the form of an environmental scan that identifies the major trends in the external environment and the overall objectives of the agencies involved; a three-part assessment of the primary elements of analysis, namely, known crime networks and groups and counter strategies used, the illicit economy, and licit economic sectors; and the linking of the three identified elements back into a whole that includes the efforts of the original environmental scanning process. The authors believe that the tools and issues associated with a risk-based approach can produce an integrative analysis of organized crime in terms of groups, countermeasures, the licit and illicit market places, the various interactions between these areas, and the impact of these activities on society. 84 references