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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Crime & criminology > Organized crime > General
1. Provides an engaging and accessible introduction to the psychological study of terrorism for students and the interested general reader 2. Features real-life case studies to engage readers 3. Includes further reading aimed at students wishing to use it as a primer for further s 4. Part of a series of books providing an accessible precis of the psychological of popular and contemporary topics
Corruption is increasingly placed on top of the agenda of national governments and supra national institutions, such as the OECD, UN or the World Bank. A necessary condition for promoting sustainable economic growth is the pre-existence of a stable political system which is able to control corruption. Corruption, however, is a very complex issue, associated with institutional and cultural specificities, personality traits related to individualistic values, and criminal personalities. In this book the social, political and economic realities that prevail in particular settings are viewed from an interdisciplinary, multidimensional, and a multi country perspective. This book is divided into three parts. The first part presents a comprehensive, theoretical and empirical framework of corruption with an overview of literature on economic growth and corruption. Part two, encompasses the in-depth analysis of several countries, ranging from middle corrupted contexts like Portugal, to highly corrupted countries including Serbia, Russia, Thailand and China- the latter viewed from the perspective of firms from a very low corruption country such as Finland. The final part explores the prevention and control of corruption, looking at the public sector in Thailand and fighting corruption with different strategies. This volume is of the interest of those who study international economics, development economics or organised crime.
This book describes and analyzes the convergence of transnational organized crime and jihadist terrorism that has taken place within Russian-speaking social networks in Western Europe. Studies have shown that while under certain circumstances links between criminal organizations and terrorist groups appear, these are usually opportunistic and temporary in nature. Only rarely do they develop into something deeper and transformative, a convergence between crime and terrorism. This book reveals that Russian-speaking transnational organized crime and jihadist terrorism pose a serious threat to security and constitute a major challenge for law enforcement. Through their links with transnational organized crime, Russian-speaking jihadist networks from the Caucasus and Central Asia have easier access to weaponry, commercial explosives, and forged IDs than many other jihadist networks. Being in effect an integral component of transnational organized crime, the Russian-speaking jihadists can be assessed as potentially more capable than many other jihadists. The book assesses the effects of terrorism and organized crime on Russian-speaking diasporas in Western Europe and examines the implications for counterterrorism as well as policing on how to counteract the illegal activities of these networks. Drawing on Swedish court cases the work shows that an additional, and sometimes more effective way, to fight terrorism is by focusing on the non-terrorist types of crime perpetrated by terrorists. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and counter-terrorism, political violence, criminology, security studies and IR in general.
In this succinct text, Jonathan D. Rosen and Hanna Samir Kassab explore the linkage between weak institutions and government policies designed to combat drug trafficking, organized crime, and violence in Latin America. Using quantitative analysis to examine criminal violence and publicly available survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) to conduct regression analysis, individual case studies on Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua highlight the major challenges that governments face and how they have responded to various security issues. Rosen and Kassab later turn their attention to the role of external criminal actors in the region and offer policy recommendations and lessons learned. Questions explored include: What are the major trends in organized crime in this country? How has organized crime evolved over time? Who are the major criminal actors? How has state fragility contributed to organized crime and violence (and vice versa)? What has been the government's response to drug trafficking and organized crime? Have such policies contributed to violence? Crime, Violence and the State in Latin America is suitable to both undergraduate and graduate courses in criminal justice, international relations, political science, comparative politics, international political economy, organized crime, drug trafficking, and violence.
Unckle is a foreign national who escapes from Kashmir Province in Pakistan after attracting attention for leading protests against the Indian occupation of Kashmir. It is during a peaceful protest that he becomes a violent character after suffering at the hands of police during a protest march. Unckle is re-united with his brother - Barbar - and the two brothers make use of Barbar’s link to Beijing and the bosses of the State Security Firm. The tale unfolds as the two brothers agree to do the bidding of the Beijing masters. The international underworld of human trafficking, rhino horn poaching and the capture of money from the masses, takes a foothold in the coastal city of East London and Grahamstown. Unckle will reach into the psyche of all Africans while the storyline will hold an international audience spellbound with the cultural background to three nations - Pakistan, China, South Africa, and in particular, the amaXhosa characters as the ancestors are invoked to deal with Rafiki Majosa and the foreigner, Barbar. Andrew Hutchinson draws his experience from within the auctioneering, trading and wildlife arenas to bring you Unckle, a fictional/factual tour of the underbelly of the corrupt grab for Africa and her resources.
Using in-depth field research and analysis of case studies, Mafia Violence: Political, Symbolic, and Economic Forms of Violence in Camorra Clans focuses attention on the phenomenon of violence performed by Italian organised crime groups, devoting specific attention to the Camorra, which has been responsible since the mid-1980s for almost half of all mafia homicides documented in Italy. The Camorra has acquired increased visibility at an international level due to its intense use of violence and high level of dangerousness, but until now, the study of the different forms of violence implemented by mafias has not received systematic attention at the scientific level. Hence, this book fills this gap by providing a both theoretical and empirical contribution toward the analysis of one of the most unknown - although highly visible and dangerous - dimension of mafias' action. This collection of work by distinguished scholars provides a unique overview of the multifaceted characteristics of violence currently performed by mafia groups in Italy by focusing on specific actors - i.e., Camorra clans - but also other traditional mafia organisations such as Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta; specific contexts - i.e., different territories and different markets, both legal and illegal; and specific practices and performances. Part I takes a diachronic and comparative perspective to provide an overview of mafias' violence during the past 30 years, focusing on the three most prominent criminal organisations active in Italy: Camorra, Cosa Nostra, and 'Ndrangheta. Based on the outcomes of a major project carried out by a research group at the University of Naples Federico II from 2015 to 2017, Part II looks at the use of violence by Camorra clans, incorporating information from case studies, judicial files, law enforcement investigations, wiretappings, interviews with privileged observers, firsthand empirical data, and historical documents and social sciences literature. Using a multi-disciplinary approach drawing from criminology, sociology, history, anthropology, economics, political science, and geography, this book is essential reading for international researchers and practitioners interested in piecing together the full picture of modern organised crime.
This book tackles the challenging topic of corruption. It explores the evolution of a global prohibition regime against corrupt activity (the global anti-corruption regime). It analyses the structure of the transnational legal framework against corruption, evaluating the impact of global anti-corruption efforts at a national level. The book focuses on the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) as the primary tool of the global anti-corruption regime. It provides new and engaging material gathered in the field, including first-hand accounts from actors at international, regional, and domestic levels. By documenting the experiences of diverse actors, the book makes a substantial contribution to literature on corruption and anti-corruption efforts. Synthesising empirical research with an exploration of theoretical literature on corruption and regime evolution results in novel suggestions for improvement of the global anti-corruption regime and its legal tools. The Global Anti-Corruption Regime is a well-rounded text with a wealth of new information that will be valuable to both academic and policy audiences. It clarifies the factors that prevent current anti-corruption efforts from successfully eliminating corrupt activity and applies the five-stage model of global prohibition regime evolution to the global anti-corruption regime. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students interested in anti-corruption law, comparative law, transnational criminal law, international law, international relations, politics, economics, and trade.
This book examines the UK's response to terrorist communication. Its principle question asks, has individual privacy and collective security been successfully managed and balanced? The author begins by assessing several technologically-based problems facing British law enforcement agencies, including use of the Internet; the existence of 'darknet'; untraceable Internet telephone calls and messages; smart encrypted device direct messaging applications; and commercially available encryption software. These problems are then related to the traceability and typecasting of potential terrorists, showing that law enforcement agencies are searching for needles in the ever-expanding haystacks. To this end, the book examines the bulk powers of digital surveillance introduced by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The book then moves on to assess whether these new powers and the new legislative safeguards introduced are compatible with international human rights standards. The author creates a 'digital rights criterion' from which to challenge the bulk surveillance powers against human rights norms. Lord Carlile of Berriew CBE QC in recommending this book notes this particular legal advancement, commenting that rightly so the author concludes the UK has fairly balanced individual privacy with collective security. The book further analyses the potential impact on intelligence exchange between the EU and the UK, following Brexit. Using the US as a case study, the book shows that UK laws must remain within the ambit of EU law and the Court of Justice of the European Union's (CJEU's) jurisprudence, to maintain the effectiveness of the exchange. It addresses the topics with regard to terrorism and counterterrorism methods and will be of interest to researchers, academics, professionals, and students researching counterterrorism and digital electronic communications, international human rights, data protection, and international intelligence exchange.
Geopolitics is an increasingly important tool to understand national and international relations. This book unravels how organized crime is not just a marginal problem but part of a bigger geopolitical and asymmetrical warfare strategy. It seeks to establish a direct relationship between Nation States and organized crime groups. Many States have been using criminal and terrorist organizations as a policy for issues of national sovereignty or as a tool to strengthen a nation's geopolitical position. This book demonstrates how national states are utilizing criminal organizations in covert operations and "dirty jobs" such as espionage, proxy war, arms trafficking and sabotage. Examples from the United States, China and the Soviet Union are explored, providing both an historical and contemporary analysis, from World War II through to the Cold War and to the present day. The book brings together perspectives from international relations and criminology drawing on insights from a variety of sources, including public documents and interviews.
More than a hundred years have passed since the adoption of the first prohibitionist laws on drugs. Increasingly, the edifice of international drug control and laws is vacillating under pressures of reform. Scholarship on drugs history and policy has had a tendency to look at the issue mostly in the Western hemisphere of the globe or to privilege Western narratives of drugs and drugs policy. This volume instead turns this approach upside down and makes an intellectual attempt to redefine the subject of drugs in the Global South. Opium, heroin, cannabis, hashish, methamphetamines and khat are among the drugs discussed in the contributions to the volume, which spans from Sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia, including the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and the Indian Subcontinent. The volume also makes a powerful case for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of drugs by juxtaposing the work of historians, political scientists, geographers, anthropologists and criminologists. Ultimately, this edited volume is a rich and diverse collection of new case studies, which opens up venues for further research. This book was originally published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.
Gang violence is on the increase in certain neighbourhoods. There is an urgent need for a fresh perspective that offers insight into gang structure, organisation and offending behaviour to explain this increase. Using the findings from an extensive ethnographic study of local residents, professionals and gang members in south London, and drawing on his vast experience and knowledge of the field, Simon Harding proposes a unique theoretical perspective on survival in violent street gangs. He applies Bourdieu's principles of social field analysis and habitus to gangs, establishing them as a social arena of competition where actors struggle for distinction and survival, striving to become 'players in the game' in the 'casino of life'. Success is determined by accruing and retaining playing chips - street capital. Harding's dramatic and compelling insights depict gang life as one of constant flux, where players jostle for position, reputation, status and distinction. This perspective offers new evidence to the field that will help academics, students, practitioners and policy makers to understand the dynamics of gang behaviour and the associated risks of violence and offending. Simon Harding is currently a senior lecturer in criminology at Middlesex University, UK. He draws on 25 years of experience in research, public policy and project delivery as a crime reduction and community safety practitioner.
This book aims to provide the readers a better understanding of rural China through the particular perspective of the rural underworld. It proposes new concepts to describe social changes of rural China by comparing the contemporary rural society with the acquaintance society-the classic model for depicting the traditional Chinese society. The author's down-to-earth fieldwork has revealed that, with a permeating gang influence, the society of rural China has actually changed in nature. Such change in social nature is summarized as "the estrangement of acquaintances" or "moral ambiguity". As a result of the rural gangster's unlawful acts of lining their pockets with national resources, rural China is going through "rural governance involution." In short, this book develops new models and concepts to establish a comprehensive scientific conceptual system for explaining social reality. With hard-to-come-by information and a prudent and multi-faceted analysis on a neglected topic, this book gradually reveals to the readers the true picture of rural China.
This book explores the historical origins, activities, and structure of the archetypal 'new' Asian criminal entrepreneurs in Canada, known as The Big Circle Boys (BCB). It traces their illegal immigration abroad from Guangzhou, the extent to which they are organised and violent, and what the future holds for them in Canada. The BCB's organisational features are examined against theories and legislation of organised crime to understand how they compare to other criminal entities. For the first time, a unique glimpse is provided into the workings of an elusive cellular network comprised of BCB dai lo (bosses). Through interviews and official documents, their criminal undertakings and structural dimensions are pieced together to show how their interdependent and collaborative cells enabled them to form a dynamic criminal community. This book speaks to those interested in how a collective of ethnic-Chinese career criminals have replaced traditional criminal organisations in transnational criminal markets, particularly for scholars and students of social sciences disciplines.
There is extensive and detailed academic literature on the legal development of international crimes such as war crimes and crime against humanity. However, not much attention has been paid to other serious crimes, including narcotics-related offences, human trafficking and money laundering, which do not necessarily amount to international crimes in the traditional sense. The purpose of this monograph is to fill this gap and offer a critical analysis of developments in the field of transnational organised crime under international law. The book is divided into two parts. Part I is entitled "Norms, Principles, and Concepts." It traces the history of organised crime and explores key concepts and norms relating to the practice from a multi-disciplinary perspective. It then looks at legal obligations imposed upon States as well as non-State actors in relation to transnational organised crime. Part II illustrates how these norms, principles and obligations are translated and enforced in practice. This will be done through case studies at the level of national law (Thailand, Serbia and the UK), regional law (European Union) and international law (United Nations). "A book of many parts, its thematic coherence comes from its devotion to identifying the social threat posed by organised crime and the legal steps taken at the international and national levels against that threat. Rich with example and illustration and written in a light, direct, style, it will provide a lucid guide for practitioners, policy-makers and students to the largely untraversed territory of the international legal system set up to suppress transnational organised crime." Professor Neil Bolster, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. "...the international law governing organized crime is a close relative of the body of law applicable to the International Criminal Court and similar institutions. It provides a forum to address issues of more general concern, such as the scope of universal jurisdiction, immunities, statutory limitation and extradition. Tom Obokata's study, with its original and in some ways unique perspective, enriches our knowledge of the field". Professor William Schabas, Irish Centre for Human Rights. "The book is well written, its documentation is quite exhaustive, and its thesis is timely and compelling." Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, DePaul University College of Law.
This book explains the existence of illicit markets throughout human history and provides recommendations to governments. Organized criminal networks increased in strength after the enforcement of prohibition, eventually challenging the authority of the state and its institutions through corruption and violence. Criminal networks now organize under cyber-infrastructure, what we call the Deep or Dark Web. The authors analyze how illicit markets come together, issues of destabilization and international security, the effect of legitimate enterprises crowded out of developing countries, and ultimately, illicit markets' cost to human life.
Piracy and Intellectual Property in Latin America is the first sustained effort to present an alternative framework for understanding piracy and contemporary challenges to global discourses on intellectual property (IP) in the Americas. While piracy might just look like theft and derivative reproduction from the perspective of many right-holders, the contributors to this volume go beyond this economic-driven logic and show how practices of copying are in fact practices of reinvention that reflect the rich social networks and forms of creativity, authorship, commerce, and consumption that characterize informal economies. From a perspective informed by contemporary scenarios in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, and the United States, they engage in a discussion of alternatives that-predicated on the importance of protecting culture-allow for other ways of conceiving prosperity at local, national, regional, and global levels. Examples discussed include video games, clothing, trinkets, music, film, TV, and books. Designed to help understand the broader implications of IP and piracy for the field of Latin American studies, this book will be a major contribution to Global South studies, as well as to the growing bibliography on globalization, informal markets, and piracy.
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.
Whilst corruption and organized crime have been widely researched, they have not yet been specifically linked to sport. Corruption, Mafia Power and Italian Soccer offers an original insight into this new research area. Adopting a psycho-social approach based mainly on Pierre Bourdieu's praxeology, the book demonstrates that corruption and the mafia presence in Italian soccer reflect the Italian socio-political and economic system itself. Supported by interviews with security agency officials, anticorruption organisations and antimafia organisations, and analysing empirical data obtained from a case study of 'Operation Dirty Soccer', this important study explains why mafia groups are involved in soccer, what the links are to political corruption and what might be done to control the problem. It also examines the mechanisms that make it possible for mafia groups and affiliates to enter the football industry and discusses how mafia groups exploit and corrupt Italian football. This is important reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and academics working in the areas of sociology, criminology, policing, anthropology, the sociology of sport, sport deviance, sport management and organised crime. It is also a valuable resource for practitioners in the football industry.
Is it revenge or is it justice? DI Gravel is supposed to be on mandatory leave, but when a severed head washes up on the estuary beach his holiday is cut short. Back on the job, he's shocked when the case leads him to the victim from an old case Seventeen years ago, the system failed Rebecca. They let the abuser of a six-year-old girl walk free. But she's all grown up now and taking the law into her own hands. Is this one killer DI Gravel doesn't want to catch? This is the second book in the dark, edge-of-your-seat Carmarthen Crime thriller series set in the stunning West Wales countryside. *Previously published as Before I Met Him*
In recent decades the international community has focused its
attention on trafficking in persons, which is surely one of the
most worrying phenomena of the 21st century. In Part I, this book
examines trafficking in persons in the light of the recent
definition of the phenomenon given by the UN Trafficking Protocol,
and various other international legal instruments including
treaties and 'soft law'. It analyses trafficking causes and
consequences, and the most common forms of exploitation related to
it.
From Confederation to the partial abolition of the death penalty a century later, defendants convicted of sexually motivated killings and sexually violent homicides in Canada were more likely than any other condemned criminals to be executed for their crimes. Despite the emergence of psychiatric expertise in criminal trials, moral disgust and anger proved more potent in courtrooms, the public mind, and the hearts of the bureaucrats and politicians responsible for determining the outcome of capital cases. Wherever death has been set as the ultimate criminal penalty, the poor, minority groups, and stigmatized peoples have been more likely to be accused, convicted, and executed. Although the vast majority of convicted sex killers were white, Canada's racist notions of "the Indian mind" meant that Indigenous defendants faced the presumption of guilt. Black defendants were also subjected to discriminatory treatment, including near lynchings. In debates about capital punishment, abolitionists expressed concern that prejudices and poverty created the prospect of wrongful convictions. Unique in the ways it reveals the emotional drivers of capital punishment in delivering inequitable outcomes, The Death Penalty and Sex Murder in Canadian History provides a thorough overview of sex murder and the death penalty in Canada. It serves as an essential history and a richly documented cautionary tale for the present.
This collection explores organized crime and terror networks and the points at which they intersect. It analyses the close relationships between these criminalities, the prevalence and ambiguity of this nexus, the technological elements facilitating it, and the financial aspects embedded in this criminal partnership. Organized Crime and Terrorist Networks is the outcome of empirical research, seminars, workshops and interviews carried out by a multinational consortium of researchers within 'TAKEDOWN', a Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Commission. The consortium's objective was to examine the perspectives, requirements and misgivings of front-line practitioners operating in the areas of organized crime and terrorism. The chapters collected in this volume are the outcome of such analytical efforts. The topics addressed include the role of Information and Communication Technology in contemporary criminal organizations, terrorism financing, online transnational criminality, identity crime, the crime-terror nexus and tackling the nexus at supranational level. This book offers a compelling contribution to scholarship on organized crime and terrorism, and considers possible directions for future research. It will be of much interest to students and researchers engaged in studies of criminology, criminal justice, crime control and prevention, organized crime, terrorism, political violence, and cybercrime.
Suicide attacks have become the defining act of political violence of our age. From New York City to Baghdad, from Sri Lanka to Israel, few can doubt that they are a terrifying feature of an increasing number of violent conflicts. Since 1981, around 30 organizations throughout the world - some of them secular and others affiliated to radical Islam - have carried out more than 600 suicide missions. Although a tiny fraction of the overall number of guerrilla and terrorist attacks occurring in the same period, the results have proved significantly more lethal. This book is the first to shed real light on these extraordinary acts, and provide answers to the questions we all ask. Are these the actions of aggressive religious zealots and unbridled, irrational radicals or is there a logic driving those behind them? Are their motivations religious or has Islam provided a language to express essentially political causes? How can the perpetrators remain so lucidly effective in the face of certain death? And do these disparate attacks have something like a common cause? For nearly three years, this team of internationally distinguished scholars has pursued an unprejudiced inquiry, investigating organizers and perpetrators alike of this extraordinary phenomenon. Close comparisons between a whole range of cases raise challenging further questions: if suicide missions are so effective, why are they not more common? If killing is what matters, why not stick to 'ordinary' violent means? Or, if dying is what matters, why kill in the process? Making Sense of Suicide Missions contains a wealth of original information and innovative analysis which further our understanding of this chilling feature of the contemporary world in radically new and unexpected ways.
The concept of 'organised crime' is constructed and mobilised by a milieu of complex factors and discourses including a politics of law and order, and international insecurity, combined with the vested interests and priorities of scholars, politicians, government officials, and policing authorities. This book challenges existing assumptions and accepted understandings of organised crime, and explores the ways in which it is amplified and reconstructed for political purposes. This book critiques how the constitution of the 'organised crime problem' in academic and political discourse provides the conditions necessary for the development of an extensive and international architecture of law, policing, surveillance and intelligence. It examines emerging challenges and future directions including the impact of technology on new problems, and for transnational policing, such as the ease with which the Internet enables crime to be committed across borders, and for electronic communications to be protected with strong encryption hampering interception. No other text presents an integrated and comprehensive study of both the politicisation and policing of organised crime, while questioning the outcomes for society at large. Drawing on international fieldwork and interviews with senior national and supranational policing personnel, this book compares and contrasts various narratives on organised crime. It will be of interest to students and researchers engaged in studies of criminology, criminal justice, organised crime, policing, and law.
One Nation Under Blackmail is a damning indictment of the consequences resulting from the nearly century old relationship between both US and Israeli intelligence and the organized criminal network known as the National Crime Syndicate. This book specifically explores how that nexus between intelligence and organized crime directly developed the sexual blackmail tactics and networks that would later enable the sexual blackmail operation and other crimes of deceased pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Other books on Jeffrey Epstein focus on the depraved nature of his crimes, his wealth, and his most famous/politically-connected friends and acquaintances. This book, in contrast, reveals the extent to which Epstein's activities were state-sponsored through an exploration of his intelligence connections. |
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