View the Table of Contents.
Read the Introduction.

aI am not aware of a book that covers the same ground as this one--let alone one that does so using such thorough research and with such technical competence.a
Anthony M. Gould, Universite Laval

"Jacobs offers a history of the federal government's efforts to curb labor racketeering. The heart of his text focuses on the results achieved by employing Civil RICO suits to weed out organized crime from unions long mired in corruption. The Justice Department has mounted twenty such efforts since 1982, and Jacobs's book is the first to provide a comprehensive assessment of this controversial tactic. He tackles this ambitious project with a combination of detailed research, clear writing, and judicious consideration, all of which have been a hallmark of his previous texts on corruption and organized crime. The result is a must read book for anyone interested in the problem of union corruption and what to do about it."
--"Industrial and Labor Relations Review"

"Jacobs, legal scholar and expert on the Mafia, sets out to show how the Mob has distorted American labor history, explaining the relationship between organized crime and organized labor, as well as recent federal efforts to clean up unions"
--"Booklist"

"James Jacobs, a New York University law professor and author of Mobsters, Unions and Feds, says Mafiosi were hired by union organizers in the early twentieth century to combat company toughs. Now, he says, they specialize in 'selling the rights of workers.'"
--"USA Today"

"Jacobs further burnishes his reputation for advancing the study of organized crime in America with his latest work of scholarship, billed by the publisher as 'the only book to investigate how the mob has distorted American labor history.' This worthy successor to "Gotham Unbound" and "Busting the Mob" is an exhaustive, albeit sometimes repetitive, survey of the grip La Cosa Nostra has exerted on the country's most powerful unions. While many will be familiar with the broad outlines of the corruption that riddled the Teamsters, which is recounted by the author, his summary of some lesser-known examples of pervasive labor corruption help illustrate his thesis that the entire American union movement has suffered from the intimidation and fear the mob used to gain and maintain control of unions. Especially valuable is Jacobs's examination of the relatively recent use of the RICO law to bring dirty unions under the control of a federally appointed independent trustee, and the book's posing of hard questions about the mixed success those monitorships have had."
--"Publishers Weekly"

"Jacobs has covered a wide range of legal issues, including such hot-button topics as hate crime laws and gun control, but he always returns to the world of mobsters and the men and women who investigate, prosecute, and sentence them."
--"NYU Today"

"James Jacobs brilliantly documents and analyzes a remarkable and untold chapter in the history of American law enforcement. This groundbreaking book should be a starting point for officials around the world who confront powerful organized crime groups."
--Jeremy Travis, President, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York and former Director, National Institute of Justice

"A pathbreaking work. For 50 years, organized crime has been the elephant inorganized labor's living room, unacknowledged and unexplained. Jacobs has critically analyzed every facet of this apparently intractable problem--from its roots to the federal government's various efforts to challenge organized crime's influence. From this point forward, no one can think critically about this problem without relying on Jacobs' work."
--Robert Luskin, General Executive Board Attorney, Laborers' International Union of North America

"Jacobs presents a near encyclopedic account of the Mafia's infiltration, control and exploitation of four major national unions and a number of large local unions. It is a sordid frightening story of violence, corruption and oppression, the betrayal of union members and extortion of employers, defiance of the law and disregard for human decency. This disturbing story should be required reading for all who seek strong and more democratic unions, all who would protect the rights of workers, and all who are concerned for the health of our political and social processes."
--Clyde Summers, Jefferson B. Fordham Professor of Law, Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania Law School

"A fabulous and fascinating book. Jacobs demonstrates the continuing impact of organized crime on the American union movement, and details the legal mechanisms developed in recent years to combat mob influence. History has come home to haunt us, and Jacobs makes the case for using law to fight against the mob for union democracy."
--Stanley N. Katz, Professor of Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

"Jacobs demonstrates that while it has been remarkably difficult to defeat labor racketeering, much has been achieved. This will be welcomenews to all who root for the revitalization of the labor movement."
--Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics, Cornell University

Nowhere in the world has organized crime infiltrated the labor movement as effectively as in the United States. Yet the government, the AFL-CIO, and the civil liberties community all but ignored the situation for most of the twentieth century. Since 1975, however, the FBI, Department of Justice, and the federal judiciary have relentlessly battled against labor racketeering, even in some of the nation's most powerful unions.

Mobsters, Unions, and Feds is the first book to document organized crime's exploitation of organized labor and the massive federal clean-up effort. A renown criminologist who for twenty years has been assessing the government's attack on the Mafia, James B. Jacobs explains how Cosa Nostra families first gained a foothold in the labor movement, then consolidated their power through patronage, fraud, and violence and finally used this power to become part of the political and economic power structure of 20th century urban America.

Since FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's death in 1972, federal law enforcement has aggressively investigated and prosecuted labor racketeers, as well as utilized the civil remedies provided for by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute to impose long-term court-supervised remedial trusteeships on mobbed-up unions. There have been some impressive victories, including substantial progress toward liberating the four most racketeer-ridden national unions from the grip of organized crime, but victory cannot yet be claimed.

The only book to investigate how the mob has exploited the American labor movement, Mobsters, Unions, and Feds is the most comprehensive study to date of how labor racketeering evolved and how the government has finally resolved to eradicate it.

The Internet has dramatically altered the landscape of crime and national security, creating new threats, such as identity theft, computer viruses, and cyberattacks. Moreover, because cybercrimes are often not limited to a single site or nation, crime scenes themselves have changed. Consequently, law enforcement must confront these new dangers and embrace novel methods of prevention, as well as produce new tools for digital surveillance-which can jeopardize privacy and civil liberties. Cybercrime brings together leading experts in law, criminal justice, and security studies to describe crime prevention and security protection in the electronic age. Ranging from new government requirements that facilitate spying to new methods of digital proof, the book is essential to understand how criminal law-and even crime itself-have been transformed in our networked world. Contributors: Jack M. Balkin, Susan W. Brenner, Daniel E. Geer, Jr., James Grimmelmann, Emily Hancock, Beryl A. Howell, Curtis E.A. Karnow, Eddan Katz, Orin S. Kerr, Nimrod Kozlovski, Helen Nissenbaum, Kim A. Taipale, Lee Tien, Shlomit Wagman, and Tal Zarsky. Jack M. Balkin is Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School, and the Founder and Director of Yale's Information Society Project (ISP). He is the co-editor of The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds, also from NYU Press. James Grimmelmann, Nimrod Kozlovski, Shlomit Wagman, and Tal Zarsky are Fellows of the ISP. Eddan Katz is the Executive Director of the Information Society Project.

The brand new novel from the international bestselling author of The Bridesmaid and Queen Bee! Nameless. Faceless. Deadly?Waitress Kit Lowman knows that people look down on her and the job she does. But being anonymous offers Kit safety and security and allows her own terrible secrets to remain hidden. And then Kit's luck changes, and she suddenly faces a terrible dilemma: reveal her true identity and accept that life will never be the same. Or stay in the shadows...where she hopes she'll be safe? But secrets can't stay hidden forever. And the more Kit tries to hide away, the more someone makes it clear that they are going to make her pay for what she did. Praise for Nina Manning: 'Heart-stopping, pacy and tension filled. Highly recommended.' Claire Allan, USA Today Bestseller 'Compelling and claustrophobic, Nina is an exciting new voice and definitely one to watch' Phoebe Morgan, author of The Babysitter 'Chilling and creepy. An atmospheric and addictive debut.' Diane Jeffrey, author of The Guilty Mother 'Totally addictive. I couldn't put it down!' Darren O'Sullivan, author of Closer Than You Think 'A claustrophobic, nail-biting thriller that draws you in and doesn't let go.' Naomi Joy, author of The Liars 'Clever, emotionally draining and totally gripping. I absolutely loved this book!' D E White, author of The Forgotten Child

The US-led war on drugs has failed: drugs remain purer, cheaper and more readily available than ever. Extreme levels of violence have also grown as drug traffickers and organized criminals compete for control of territory. This book points towards a number of crucial challenges, policy solutions and alternatives to the current drug strategies.

It's different when it's your daughter. DI Gravel's daughter Emily has landed her dream job working for high profile solicitor Charles Turner. But the job turns deadly when she attracts the attention of a serial killer. Gravel is already on the case, the bodies are piling up and the killer's sick fantasies are enough to give the detective nightmares. However, the killer's obsession with Emily raises the stakes. Can Gravel and Emily survive the case? This is the third book in the dark, edge-of-your-seat Carmarthen Crime thriller series set in the stunning West Wales countryside. *Previously published as A Cold Cold Heart*

Why young people participate in violent gang behavior The effects of gang violence are witnessed every day on the streets, in the news, and on the movie screen. In all these forums, gangs of young adults are associated with drugs and violence. Yet what is it that prompts young people to participate in violent behavior? And what can be done to extract adolescents from the gangster world of crime, death, and incarceration once they have become involved? In Gangsters: 50 Years of Madness, Drugs, and Death on the Streets of America, Lewis Yablonsky provides answers to the most baffling and crucial questions regarding gangs. Using information gathered from over forty years of experience working with gang members and based on hundreds of personal interviews, many conducted in prisons and in gang neighborhoods, Yablonsky explores the pathology of the gangsters' apparent addiction to incarceration and death. Gangsters is divided into four parts, including a brief history of gangs, the characteristics of gangs, successful approaches for treating gangsters in prison and the community, and concluding with a review and analysis of notable behavioral and social scientific theories of gangs. While condemning their violent behavior in no uncertain terms, Yablonsky offers hope through his belief that, given a chance in an effective treatment program, youths trapped in violent behavior can change their lives in positive ways and, in turn, facilitate positive change in their communities and society at large.

Even among the Mob, the Westies were feared. Out of a partnership between two sadistic thugs - James Coonan and Mickey Featherstone - the gang dominated the decaying slice of New York City's West Side known as Hell's Kitchen in the 1970s and '80s. Excelling in extortion, numbers running, loansharking and drug-peddling, they became the most notorious gang in the history of organized crime. The then prosecutor Rudolf Giuliani called them 'the most savage organisation in the long history of New York street gangs'. Upping the ante on brutality and depravity, their speciality when it came to punishment and killings was dismemberment. Their reign lasted almost twenty - their end would come as their own violent natures got the best of them and precipitated a downfall as infamous as their rise. This revised and updated edition, brings the story of the Westies up to date with 'where are they now' snapshots of the men - and women - of the Westies.

Here is the story, in his own words, of how Cesare Mori, with the support of Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, took on the might of the Sicilian Mafia. It was a struggle that earned Mori much criticism of his methods from the liberal media, but much praise not only from Mussolini himself but from the people of Sicily who had for decades lived in fear of this criminal secret society which had become the scourge of ordinary Sicilians.

There was nothing of a flashy nature about the Mafia in Sicily. Operating in a non-industrialised society, the Mafioso in Sicily made their wealth not from drugs, prostitution and gambling, but from the theft of horses and livestock, kidnapping, and the extortion of money from simple town and country folk and large landowners alike, and like their American colleagues the Sicilian Mafia enforced their rule through violence and murder.

However, with the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, the U.S. Military enlisted the help of the American Mafia in re-establishing Mafia activity in Sicily, with the aim of undermining Fascist rule - a tactic that not only had far reaching consequences for Sicily, but for the whole of Italy for decades to come.

In another time or place Cesare Mori's struggle against the Mafia would have been remembered alongside Elliott Ness, but it is now a story largely forgotten, because, like much else, it was an achievement of the Mussolini era, and as such is to be written out of history.

Cesare Mori's story of his struggle against the Mafia not only deserves to be told, but it provides an insight into Sicilian society and a rural way of life that has for the most part now disappeared.

Two issues have been central within political philosophy in the last decade or so. The first is the debate over 'the politics of distribution versus the politics of recognition, ' which is usually associated with the work of Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser. The second is discussion of the phenomenon known as globalization, focusing on the notions of cosmopolitanism and global justice. This book explores the relationship between these two issues. It considers not only the global dimension of the politics of recognition, but also how recognition theory can provide new insights into our understanding of problems of global justice, especially those of a non-distributive nature. A number of the contributors consider the relevance of Hegel's theory of recognition for our understanding of these issues.

To anyone who has followed his career, Ray Schindler was the greatest detective of the mid-twentieth century. He was a pioneer in scientific detection before modern forensic science, and he handled more than 10,000 cases covering almost every crime recorded on the police blotter. Rupert Hughes acts as a faithful Dr. Watson to Schindler s Holmes, and guides us from case to case, watching a man who can t be excited, can t be stampeded, and can t be frightened; a man who matches ingenuity of crime with an even greater mental resourcefulness; a man who has a dogged determination and a big fighting heart. Ray Schindler s biography is the story of a great investigator, of a life that is packed with exciting adventures, and of criminals who are outwitted, out-fought, and defeated. Mere fictional detective stories pale in comparison to the real life drama inherent in every one of Ray Schindler s cases."

This book presents a multi-disciplinary investigation into extortion rackets with a particular focus on the structures of criminal organisations and their collapse, societal processes in which extortion rackets strive and fail and the impacts of bottom-up and top-down ways of fighting extortion racketeering. Through integrating a range of disciplines and methods the book provides an extensive case study of empirically based computational social science. It is based on a wealth of qualitative data regarding multiple extortion rackets, such as the Sicilian Mafia, an international money laundering organisation and a predatory extortion case in Germany. Computational methods are used for data analysis, to help in operationalising data for use in agent-based models and to explore structures and dynamics of extortion racketeering through simulations. In addition to textual data sources, stakeholders and experts are extensively involved, providing narratives for analysis and qualitative validation of models. The book presents a systematic application of computational social science methods to the substantive area of extortion racketeering. The reader will gain a deep understanding of extortion rackets, in particular their entrenchment in society and processes supporting and undermining extortion rackets. Also covered are computational social science methods, in particular computationally assisted text analysis and agent-based modelling, and the integration of empirical, theoretical and computational social science.

A vain man of good looks, small means, and no family links to the mob, Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano steadily worked his way up to acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, becoming its leader when official boss Joseph Massino went to the clink in 2003. But at a time when the Mob was crawling with secret operatives and informants caving to government pressure to flip, Basciano obeyed the code of La Cosa Nostra. "I got faith in one guy," he told a group of mobsters during a secretly taped meeting. That man was Joseph Massino, head of the Bonanno borgata. But for all his loyalty, Basciano was still a hot-headed, cold-blooded killer, which led to his arrest. Then, in a remarkable betrayal that shook the Five Families to their foundation, Massino secretly cooperated with the FBI--the first official boss""ever to roll over. As a result, Basciano faced the death penalty, but a federal jury, disturbed by the prosecution's use of criminal informants, reached a surprising verdict. Veteran crime author Anthony M. DeStefano tells the riveting story of the last true believer in the Mob's cult of brotherhood and how he was betrayed by the only man he ever trusted.

'Bold, addictive and brilliant.' Stylist, best fiction 2021 A Times Bestseller A Times & Sunday Times Best Crime Books of 2021 A Waterstones Best Crime & Thriller of 2021 Be twice as good as men and four times as good as white men. Jia Khan has always lived like this. Successful London lawyer Jia Khan is a long way from the Northern streets she knew as a child, where her father, Akbar Khan, led the Pakistani community and ran the local organised crime syndicate. Often his Jirga rule - the old way - was violent and bloody, but it was always justice of a kind. Now, with her father murdered, Jia must return to take his place. Justice needs to be restored, and Jia is about to discover that justice always comes at a cost. 'A fascinating glimpse into a world rarely portrayed in fiction.' Guardian, best crime and thrillers 'A once-in-a-generation crime thriller.' A.A.Dhand, author of Streets of Darkness

The Lolly Jackson murder case - a mix of elements that has grabbed the public's imagination. Fast cars, fast money, murder, revenge, missing millions and smashed up Teazers clubs. With kilometres of newspaper headlines and a body count growing by the week, the insatiably curious public is still no closer to the truth. Amidst the confusing reports, money laundering on a grand scale, SARS investigations and the mafia-like killings, Jacana Media brings you the inside story in a book entitled: Lolly Jackson: When fantasy becomes reality. The book opens on the night of Lolly's murder and is a personal, inside track into the reality of Lolly's private and business lives, as never before made public. Intimate and detailed, it provides the reader with a fascinating view of a previously only imagined world.

This book describes the main patterns and trends of drug trafficking in Latin America and analyzes its political, economic and social effects on several countries over the last twenty years. Its aim is to provide readers an introductory yet elaborate text on the illegal drug problem in the region. It first seeks to define and measure the problem, and then discusses some of the implications that the growth of production, trafficking, and consumption of illegal drugs had in the economies, in the social fabrics, and in the domestic and international policies of Latin American countries. This book analyzes the illegal drugs problem from a Latin American perspective. Although there is a large literature and research on drug use and trade in the USA, Canada, Europe and the Far East, little is understood on the impact of narcotics in countries that have supplied a large share of the drugs used worldwide. This work explores how routes into Europe and the USA are developed, why the so-called drug cartels exist in the region, what level of profits illegal drugs generate, how such gains are distributed among producers, traffickers, and dealers and how much they make, why violence spread in certain places but not in others, and which alternative policies were taken to address the growing challenges posed by illegal drugs. With a strong empirical foundation based on the best available data, Illegal Drugs, Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America explains how rackets in the region built highly profitable enterprises transshipping and smuggling drugs northbound and why the large circulation of drugs also produced the emergence of vibrant domestic markets, which doubled the number of drug users in the region the last 10 years. It presents the best available information for 18 countries, and the final two chapters analyze in depth two rather different case studies: Mexico and Argentina.

Internationally known authorities in criminal justice provide one of the most comprehensive and detailed surveys today of the diverse ethnic and racial groups in the criminal underworld and their grave threats to the very fabric of American society. This coherent overview describes Mafia, Chinese, African American, Russian, and other criminal activities in different cities currently with historical background, showing the pernicious effects that their illicit operations have had on the economic, social, political, and moral life of the nation. This one-volume reference also assesses law enforcement and crime control programs during the 20th century, defines key problems, analyzes recent trends, and reviews the basic research about organized crime through the years. Lengthy bibliographical data and a full index further enrich this landmark study. This sobering overview should be required reading for specialist and general audiences alike and for broad library use given the serious threat of organized crime to all Americans in the 1990s.

Through unprecedented access to over 100 court files and sentences, and interviews with police and security personnel in both origin and destination countries, this book provides the most comprehensive exploration to date of human trafficking and migrant smuggling in Eastern Europe and Russia.

When Lynda Lustig met Louie Milito, she was a sixteen-year-old high-school dropout with a taste for adventure and an agonizing childhood. When they were married two years later, he was not yet a "made man" in the powerful Gambino crime family. Louie was a hairdresser who dabbled in petty thievery. But Lynda was so happy to be out of her domineering mother's loveless house. And over the years, she was willing to forgive her husband for anything: his violent rages, his frequent absences, his shady associates, and the blood on his hands. For twenty-four years Lynda Milito remained loyal to this charming and dangerous criminal -- her children's father and close friend of crime boss John Gotti and underboss Sammy "the Bull" Gravano. But in 1988, Louie Milito disappeared, murdered by the very people he had always trusted to protect him.

A crime story, a family story, a love story, "Mafia Wife" is the shockingly intimate, brutally honest tale of a survivor -- and of the life she lived in the dark bosom of the underworld.

The Primeiro Comando do Capital (PCC) is a Sao Paulo prison gang thatsince the 1990s has expanded into the most powerful criminal network inBrazil. Karina Biondi's rich ethnography of the PCC is uniquely informedby her insider-outsider status. Prior to his acquittal, Biondi's husband wasincarcerated in a PCC-dominated prison for several years. During the periodof Biondi's intense and intimate visits with her husband and her extensivefieldwork in prisons and on the streets of Sao Paulo, the PCC effectively controlledmore than 90 percent of Sao Paulo's 147 prison facilities. Available for the first time in English, Biondi's riveting portrait of thePCC illuminates how the organisation operates inside and outside of prison,creatively elaborating on a decentered, non-hierarchical, and far-reachingcommand system. This system challenges both the police forces againstwhich the PCC has declared war and the methods and analytic concepts traditionallyemployed by social scientists concerned with crime, incarceration,and policing. Biondi posits that the PCC embodies a "politics of transcendence,"a group identity that is braided together with, but also autonomousfrom, its decentralized parts. Biondi also situates the PCC in relation toredemocratization and rampant socioeconomic inequality in Brazil, as wellas to counter-state movements, crime, and punishment in the Americas.