'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

Technology has advanced in such a manner that the world can now communicate in means previously never thought possible. These new technologies have not been overlooked by transnational organised crime groups and networks of corruption, and have been exploited for criminal success. This text explores the use of communication interception technology (CIT), such as phone taps or email interception, and its potential to cause serious disruption to these criminal enterprises.Exploring the placement of communication interception technology within differing policing frameworks, and how they integrate in a practical manner, the authors demonstrate that CIT is best placed within a proactive, intelligence-led policing framework. They also indicate that if law enforcement agencies in Western countries are serious about fighting transnational organised crime and combating corruption, there is a need to re-evaluate the constraints of interception technology, and the sceptical culture that surrounds intelligence in policing.Policing Transnational Organised Crime and Corruption will appeal to scholars of Law, Criminal Justice and Police Science as well as intelligence analysts and police and security intelligence professionals.

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.

Countries undergoing major social and legal transitions typically experience a light, but relatively insignificant, increase in crime. However, in the past decade, many transitional countries in Eastern Europe, and Russia in particular, have experienced a surge in criminal activities that came about through the collaboration of diverse players such as criminals, state officials, businesspersons, and law enforcement into organized networks aimed to obtain financial and economic gains.

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.

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.

This book analyses the punitive crime discourse in the Argentinean press during the 1990s. Fernandez Roich focusses on several features of media discourse during this time, such as: the notion that petty criminals 'deserve to die' in reference to police brutality and killings, the phenomenon of 'vindicators' or how common citizens turned into 'evil' modern heroes in the press, and the parallelism between the military discourse under the military regime and the punitive discourse under democracy. In addition, the book also investigates the alleged natural propensity towards breaking the law ingrained within Argentinean culture, the so-called 'viveza criolla' and the well-ingrained idea that to get ahead you have to participate in corrupt practices. Despite the significant scholarly interest in the United States and Europe in the last Argentinean dictatorship (1976-1983), little attention has been paid to the role of Argentinean newspapers in supporting the military coup d'etat. The analysis of this media discourse is critical to understanding the support enjoyed by the armed forces in power: the vast majority of the population was not informed about the disappearances or the concentration camps until well into the 1980s. This project provides an in-depth qualitative content analysis of front pages, chronicles, editorials and photographs of Argentinean newspapers before and after the military intervention that will aid scholars of criminal justice and Latin American political regimes understand the impact of the support given to the military government.

This book is the first to consider the intersection between mafia power and deviant masonic lodges within the political sphere of the contemporary Italian state. At its core, it offers an analysis of the shifting interactions across powerful actors and the ways in which they balance reciprocal obedience, and a unique insight into the political processes where mafia actors and deviant lodges play a significant role in the allocation of resources. Mafia, Deviant Masons and Corruption draws on a wealth of literature from across criminology and political science and a range of primary data sources including judicial files indictments, arrest warrants, intercepted materials and sentences for key cases, official documentation from Parliamentary commissions and special committees of inquiry, rituals of affiliation and codes of initiation, and interviews with prosecutors, journalists and experts. In doing so it redefines how we have come to understand the relationship between mafias and power in Italy. It considers how criminal groups are defined and enriched by a relational capital in shifty environments where every actor assumes often a double nature: the mafia boss acts as an entrepreneur; the entrepreneur acts as a politician; the politician mixes with masons; a deviant mason supports mafia organisations. This book is a major contribution to the literature on mafias and organised crime across criminology, sociology and political science, and will be of great interest to students, researchers, scholars and engaged general readers.

Based on over 130 interviews with criminals, law enforcement officials and government representatives from post-Soviet Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, this book situates organized crime in the debate on state formation and examines the diverging patterns in organized crime following the aftermath of these countries' Coloured Revolutions.

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.

In contrast to a globalizing approach to "transnational organized crime," this edited volume studies socio-historical environments in which mafia-esque violence has found a fertile ground for growth and development within the political arena. The various chapters explore empirical data showing how politico-criminal configurations emerge, are formed and allow for interactions between powerful official stakeholders and "professionals of the use of force." Links between military know-how and political power in Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey; the conversion of "violent entrepreneurs" into the Russian or Bulgarian political arena; the political racketeering activities of leaders of armed nationalist movements in Corsica; interactions between the Calabrese mafia and business; investment by the Belizean government in illegal activities; or else, monetary "illegalism" in the Somalia conflict... The various chapters of this book encourage a comparative approach to the study of mafia violence in the making and running of State power.

This book critically analyses the role of the United Arab Emirates Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in the Suspicious Activities Reports regime. The author pays particular attention to its functions and powers in dealing with Suspicious Activities Reports and relevant requirements imposed upon the reporting entities. In the analysis, the author also compares the United Arab Emirates FIU model to the United Kingdom FIU model. In addition, the book investigates whether the current United Arab Emirates FIU model complies with the relevant international recommendations developed by the Financial Action Task Force in relation to the establishment of the unit, as well as its powers and functions. This book suggests that more can be done to improve the current functions and powers of the United Arab Emirates FIU in an international context. Furthermore, the author suggests that the functions and powers of the United FIU model both comply with the international requirements and beneficially extend beyond their directives.

This book looks into the processes of change and renewal of border control and border security and management during the past 30 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the immense challenges in nation-building in South-Eastern Europe after the collapse of former Yugoslavia in relation to strategic security management. The abolition of border controls within the Schengen area and simultaneous introduction of necessary replacement measures was an additional topic. The book provides an insight into which the European Union is competent in the reform and modernisation of state law enforcement agencies for ensuring effective border control, border surveillance and border management in line with the EU acquis communautaire and EU standards. In the 21st century, along with the process of globalisation, a constantly evolving security environment creates new dimensions of threats and challenges to security and stability of transnational nature. This seeks for comprehensive, multidimensional, collective and well-coordinated responses. The European Union, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, United Nations, as well as other international organisations are able to really contribute to developing cooperative and coordinated responses to these threats by relying on its broad membership and profound expertise and experience. According to the position of the European Union, a modern, cost-benefit-oriented and effective border management system should ensure both, open borders as well as maximum of security at the same time. Thus, the Union's endeavour is to safeguarding internal security to all member states through preventing transnational threats, combating irregular migration and any forms of cross-border crime for ensuring smooth border crossings for legitimate travellers and their belongings, goods and services. That is why the Union's concept of Integrated Border Management has been developed to ensure effective border control and surveillance and cost-efficient management of the external borders of the European Union. The Union's policy is and will continue to be developed on the basis of the three main areas in place: common legislation, close operational/tactical cooperation and financial solidarity. In addition, Integrated Border Management has been confirmed as a priority area for strengthening the cooperation with third countries in the European Commission's strategic security management approach, where non-EU countries are encouraged as partners to upgrade their border security, surveillance and border management systems.

Since the Second World War, art crime has shifted from a relatively innocuous, often ideological crime, into a major international problem, considered by some to be the third-highest grossing criminal trade worldwide. This rich volume features essays on art crime by the most respected and knowledgeable experts in this interdisciplinary subject.

Based on extensive research and collaboration across Europe, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of burning issues in the debate on trafficking in women. Practitioners, academics and policy-makers contribute up-to-date information and policy recommendations. The book is an invaluable contribution providing an innovative multidisciplinary approach to trafficking, including chapters on international and national law, policy models, NGO support, the role of economics and the need for a long-term prevention strategy.

A riveting, decades-in-the-writing memoir from the determined young prosecutor who, in two of America's most celebrated trials, managed to convict famed mob boss John Gotti-and subsequently took down the Mafia altogether. John Gotti was without a doubt the flashiest and most feared Mafioso in American history. He became the boss of the Gambino Crime Family in spectacular fashion-with the brazen and very public murder of Paul Castellano in front of Sparks Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan in 1985. Not one to stay below law enforcement's radar, Gotti instead became the first celebrity crime boss. His penchant for eye-catching apparel earned him the nickname "The Dapper Don;" his ability to beat criminal charges led to another: "The Teflon Don." This is the captivating story of Gotti's meteoric rise to power and his equally dramatic downfall. Every step of the way, Gotti's legal adversary-John Gleeson, an Assistant US Attorney in Brooklyn-was watching. When Gotti finally faced two federal racketeering prosecutions, Gleeson prosecuted both. As the junior lawyer in the first case-a bitter seven-month battle that ended in Gotti's acquittal-Gleeson found himself in Gotti's crosshairs, falsely accused of serious crimes by a defense witness Gotti intimidated into committing perjury. Five years later, Gleeson was in charge of the second racketeering investigation and trial. Armed with the FBI's secret recordings of Gotti's conversations with his underboss and consigliere in the apartment above Gotti's Little Italy hangout, Gleeson indicted all three. He "flipped" underboss Sammy the Bull Gravano, killer of nineteen men, who became history's highest-ranking mob turncoat-resulting in Gotti's murder conviction. Gleeson ended not just Gotti's reign, but eventually that of the entire mob. An epic, page-turning courtroom drama, The Gotti Wars is a brilliantly told crime story that illuminates a time in our nation's history when lawyers and mobsters dominated the news, but it's also the story of a tenacious young man, in the glare of the media spotlight, who mastered the art of becoming a great attorney.

This book uses a multi-methods study of incarcerated youths to examine the pathways to gang involvement, the drug distribution system and hierarchy within gangs, levels of traumatic stress and depression among gang-involved youths, and other mechanisms of control and retention within the system of gangs.Based on a study of young inmates in Norway, with international backgrounds including Africa, Pakistan, Middle East and Western Europe, the findings explained in this book are broadly applicable. It aims to create a picture of the entire system of gang membership, while revealing a research framework that could be applied to other studies. Gang members were found in high levels to be suffering from depression and traumatic stress, and were often heavily indebted (financially and otherwise) to persons in the outside world. Owing money, violence and other threats, all make it difficult to leave the system, despite the pains they suffer within it. In order understand young peoples' life within the system, and its hold on them, and in order to reduce its continuation and growth, this important analysis helps researchers and policy makers, particularly those interested in juvenile justice, youth gangs, and drug trafficking understand its logic and identify its weak points and possible ways out. "

This book explores current and emerging trends in policy, strategy, and practice related to cyber operations conducted by states and non-state actors. The book examines in depth the nature and dynamics of conflicts in the cyberspace, the geopolitics of cyber conflicts, defence strategy and practice, cyber intelligence and information security.

The Sicilian Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, is one of the most intriguing criminal phenomena in the world. It is an unparalleled organised criminal grouping that over almost two centuries has been able not only to successfully permeate licit and illicit economy, politics and civil society, but also to influence and exercise authoritative power over both the underworld and the upper-world. This criminal phenomenon has been a captivating conundrum for scholars of different disciplines who have tried to explain with various paradigms the reasons behind the emergence and consolidation of the mafia. Challenging the Mafia Mystique provides an analysis of the changes the Sicilian mafia has undergone, from legitimisation to denunciation. Rino Coluccello highlights how, from the very emergence of the organised criminal groups in Sicily, a culture existed that was protective and tolerant of the mafia. He argues that the various conceptualisations of the mafia that dominated the public and scientific debate in the nineteenth and more than half of the twentieth century created a mystique, which legitimised the mafia and contributed to their success. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of organised crime, Italian politics and Italian literature.

Mott KTA Journalism and Mass Communication Research Award, Kappa Tau Alpha Tankard Book Award, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Knudson Latin America Prize, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Since 2000, more than 150 journalists have been killed in Mexico. Today the country is one of the most dangerous in the world in which to be a reporter. In Surviving Mexico, Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante and Jeannine E. Relly examine the networks of political power, business interests, and organized crime that threaten and attack Mexican journalists, who forge ahead despite the risks. Amid the crackdown on drug cartels, overall violence in Mexico has increased, and journalists covering the conflict have grown more vulnerable. But it is not just criminal groups that want reporters out of the way. Government forces also attack journalists in order to shield corrupt authorities and the very criminals they are supposed to be fighting. Meanwhile some news organizations, enriched by their ties to corrupt government officials and criminal groups, fail to support their employees. In some cases, journalists must wait for a "green light" to publish not from their editors but from organized crime groups. Despite seemingly insurmountable constraints, journalists have turned to one another and to their communities to resist pressures and create their own networks of resilience. Drawing on a decade of rigorous research in Mexico, Gonzalez de Bustamante and Relly explain how journalists have become their own activists and how they hold those in power accountable.

Bringing together leading academics and practitioners from across the globe, this unique collection explores the emerging field of heritage crime studies. Moving beyond the traditional focus on illicit antiquities, the volume identifies the diversity of crimes that affect heritage and outlines various approaches to prevention.