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Textbook From Mafia To Organised Crime A Comparative Analysis of Policing Models 1St Edition DR Anna Sergi Auth Ebook All Chapter PDF
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Critical Criminological Perspectives
Series Editors
Reece Walters
Faculty of Law
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Deborah Drake
Social Policy & Criminology Department
The Open University
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
The Palgrave Critical Criminological Perspectives book series aims to
showcase the importance of critical criminological thinking when exam-
ining problems of crime, social harm and criminal and social justice.
Critical perspectives have been instrumental in creating new research
agendas and areas of criminological interest. By challenging state defined
concepts of crime and rejecting positive analyses of criminality, critical
criminological approaches continually push the boundaries and scope of
criminology, creating new areas of focus and developing new ways of
thinking about, and responding to, issues of social concern at local,
national and global levels. Recent years have witnessed a flourishing of
critical criminological narratives and this series seeks to capture the
original and innovative ways that these discourses are engaging with
contemporary issues of crime and justice.
From Mafia
to Organised Crime
A Comparative Analysis of Policing Models
Anna Sergi
Department of Sociology
University of Essex
Colchester, United Kingdom
vii
Contents
Index 309
ix
List of Figures
xi
1
Introduction: The aims
of this comparative research
1. What are the historical events that have been shaping the concepts of
mafias and organised crime at national level in Italy, the US, Australia
and the UK?
2. How are the concepts of mafias and organised crime conceptualised
across the four legal systems and among the institutions of the four
countries? What kind of differences are there in the way both concepts
are constructed in criminal law and criminal procedure?
3. What policing models do the four countries implement in the fight
against mafia and organised crime on the basis of their own concep-
tualisations of the phenomena?
4. How do policing models implemented in the four countries relate to
each other? What are the convergences and divergences among them?
5. How do the four policing models relate to, or are influenced by,
international instruments against, and conceptualisations of, mafia
and organised crime?
between Italy and mafias and move towards more nuanced and con-
temporary conceptualisations of the mafia phenomenon in comparative
perspectives.
consider data collection separate from data analysis as they both were
happening at the same time albeit for different contexts.
In essence, this research has been mainly based on textual data from
official sources as enriched and guided by both formal and informal
interviews and vice versa. As for the purposes of qualitative research
(Blaikie, 2000; Bachman and Shutt, 2011), interviews have allowed to
further explore the practicalities of laws, procedures and concepts in the
documents, while the documents have added validity to the data col-
lected through the interviews. Obviously observations, extra readings
and informal conversations have also played a part to develop my own
thinking and my own perceptions on the topic.
As it often happens in qualitative interviewing, the sampling process
of this project has been guided both by the need to target certain sources
to answer the research questions and by the need to produce a relevant
range of situations, which could enable me to formulate and sustain my
arguments (Mason, 2002). More specifically, my sample for the inter-
views aimed at being:
The interviews considered for this study are many and have been carried
out in different moments. A breakdown of data collection through
interviews in all four countries, therefore is best summarised by looking
at the institutions that I have approached, both by engaging with their
official documents and through interviews with people holding key
functions in those institutions. In some cases I have conducted meetings
with more than one person at the same time. Obviously, legislations,
6 1 Introduction: The aims of this comparative research
both in criminal law and criminal procedure and other indirectly rele-
vant norms (i.e. money laundering regulation or confiscation proce-
dures) have been consulted in all countries prior to the interviews.
1. Italy (interviews and meetings between 2012 and 2013 and in 2015
in Reggio Calabria, Rome and Milan)
the analysis, which led to the writing process of this book, has, therefore,
gone further in literal and discourse analysis, through which intentions
and/or political agendas within documents or oral narratives were revealed
(Webley, 2010; May, 2001). Indeed, the analysis of discourse used in
institutional settings to present a crime issue is crucial to gain a better
understanding of its social construction (Carrapico, 2014; Stritzel, 2012).
At the very core of each strategic choice for the analysis across four
countries has been the focus on comparative criminal justice both as a
research method and as a guideline for the investigation overall.
1
The semiotic square was introduced by Algirdas Greimas to better analyse paired concepts. At
the basis of the semiotic square is a visualisation of characteristics of a text, in terms of semantic
convergences and divergences. See Greimas A. (1987) On Meaning: Selected Writings in Semiotic
Theory (trans. Perron PJ and Collins FH). London: Frances Pinter.
Mafias and Organised Crime: Prejudices and Complexity . . . 11
mafia groups are not just Italian. Similarly, in Italy there are criminal
groups, which are not mafias. Obviously the difference between the two
typologies is not clear-cut – far from it – which is why this book attempts to
place characteristics and definers across the mafia–organised crime spectrum
that is not static but dynamic. The spectrum is just an intellectual exercise
that supports the analysis of the “law in books” and the “law in action” in
response to these complex phenomena. Indeed, the continuous discussion
of such pre-judgements is necessarily part of this book, and it requires the
scrutiny of social and cultural contexts of the criminal issues object of
enquiry.
As remarkably pointed out by Melossi, Sozzo and Sparks (2011: 3),
“we should expect each instance of ‘the criminal question’ to carry
the weight of its history and to display the obdurate legal, institu-
tional, linguistic particularities of the political culture of which it is
an intrinsic component”. Discussing policing systems against mafias
and organised crime, from a comparative perspective, means under-
standing the “historical embeddedness” of both mafia and organised
crime and the control systems against them. Obviously, historical
embeddedness cannot be conceived separately from social and cultural
traditions (Melossi, 2001). Crucially, if both crimes and control
systems are embedded in their own socio-cultural history and, there-
fore, situated within political and economic contexts, a question
emerges about the possibility to meaningfully compare them across
national systems. Issues of translatability, diffusion, transfer of con-
cepts and policies in criminology and criminal justice have been
widely explored and all will be relevant for the arguments in this
work. The case studies in this book, and the four policing models,
have been constructed in the attempt to show both the historical and
the socio-cultural embeddedness of both the criminal phenomenon
and its control strategies. Ultimately, this book wishes to compare
through complexity of concepts rather than approximation. I argue
that, although mafia groups are certainly embedded within the spe-
cificity of Italian historical, economic and socio-cultural contexts, it is
precisely because of this specificity that a comparison is necessary. In
ages of globalised “multiplicity without unity” (Beck, 2000: 11)
intelligible pluralist conversations like this one are certainly needed.
This Book 15
This Book
In an attempt to simplify the reader’s journey, I believe it is helpful to
summarise schematically what this book is about, to set expectations and
avoid confusion. As said, this book is about political and institutional
intentions to fight mafias and organised crime groups in four countries.
More specifically and in logical order:
This effort stems from two necessities. First, I believe the legacy of the
word “mafia” with its strong (Italian) connotations needs revisiting as
its meaning has become too fixed in institutional perceptions – mainly
outside of Italy – and does not allow for a dynamic conceptualisation
of the realities that the phenomenon “mafia”, both historically and in
contemporary days, includes. Second, the relationship between the
word “mafia” and the terminology of “organised crime” needs to be
assessed in light of the social dimensions of mafias, rather than just
their criminal constructions. This is how I construct the “spectrum”
which can be applied to describe criminal groups as well as their
presence in a given location. As it will be seen in Chapter 2, the
spectrum can go from “more mafia” to “less mafia” where “more
mafia” means the exhibition of certain social and political traits of
the group and “less mafia” instead is a residual form of “organised
crime”, with emphasis on the word “crime”. The focus is therefore on
“mafia” groups, albeit in relation to “organised crime”, precisely
because I want to stress the need to reconsider the meaning of mafias
as a useful concept when undressed of the heavy legacy that it still
carries in institutional perceptions.
2. When discussing “mafias” this book refers to two ideas: the concep-
tualisation of “Italian mafias” – as starting point for the analysis of a
16 1 Introduction: The aims of this comparative research
This might be the most controversial aspect of the book. Neither the four
policing models in this book are predetermined schemes nor they promote
mutually exclusive categorisations. As said, these models are the result of a
first stage comparative analysis. More specifically, these models are a way to
make the comparison easier but still rich and specific enough for a second-
level comparative analysis. The models are the result of the following
reasoning: (a) the mafia–organised crime spectrum recognises different
aspects that various groups manifest in various latitudes in criminal and
social contexts; (b) the institutional responses to these manifestations differ
from country to country; (c) while it is certainly possible to just compare
laws and interventions in each country, I want to look at “intentions” – the
motivations behind laws and policing interventions; (d) in order to do this,
there is the need to look at the way institutional perceptions, law-making
and law enforcement processes interact with each other; (e) even though
national systems to contrast mafias and/or organised crime might reach
similar results and even depart from similar conceptualisations, my
research in each country has revealed that some concepts more than others
drive institutional perceptions, policy-making and finally policing models.
This is why the four policing models in this book carry names/labels
(Structure, Enterprise, Visibility and Activity); the labels represent the
most influential concept in each country. These models are not pre-
established categories and shall not be considered as mutually exclusive:
indeed, the models do share more than one characteristic. Describing the
Italian model as the “Structure” model, for example, helps us understand
what concept (structure) acts as the main “drive” of the policing approach
against mafias and organised crime and what concept (structure) reveals
something about the intentions of policy-making in the country; it does not
mean that the idea of “structure” is not important or relevant even in other
models or strategies against organised crime and mafias, for example, the
“Enterprise” model of the US. Rather, in other countries there is a different
concept, which is deemed more relevant. While on the one side these models
18 1 Introduction: The aims of this comparative research
are not based on mutually exclusive concepts, they are indeed peculiar of the
country of reference at the point of forming the basis for a comparison.
5. This book is a comparative project that does not just aim at describing
and presenting similarities and differences, but also and more crucially
aims at understanding intentions and implications of similarities and
differences (Chapters 7–8).
Policing models that include different stages of the countering strategy from
policy-making to investigations to criminal law and procedure are the first
stage of the comparative effort. At the second stage, content and discourse
of emerging convergences and divergences across the four countries will be
analysed. These convergences and divergences are situated within interna-
tional frameworks and conceptualisations of the notions of mafias and
organised crime across borders and for international cooperation.
Finally, one of the overarching themes of the book is that there cannot
be a unique model to fight mafias and organised crime across nations.
Mafias and organised crime groups – as conceptualised and placed across
the spectrum and within international frameworks – might display social
and cultural elements that require specific social and cultural attention.
However, harmonisation of policing approaches as well as comprehension
of criminal phenomena is crucial for international cooperation because of
the transnational reach of certain criminal activities and groups. Integrated
models are possible and desirable when they are the result of comparative
and specific analysis rather than policy transfer and approximation.
References
Bachman RD and Shutt RK. (2011) The Practice of Research in Criminology and
Criminal Justice, London: SAGE.
Beck U. (2000) What Is Globalisation?, Cambridge: Polity.
Blaikie N. (2000) Designing Social Research, Cambridge: Polity.
Bogner A, Littig B and Menz W. (2009) Interviewing Experts, Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
References 19
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