The true story of London's toughest, deadliest street gangs: the events, the rules and the real top boys. Are the streets of London some of the deadliest in the world? What's the truth behind the headlines? And who are the real top boys? Looking beyond the hit TV series, The Real Top Boys reveals the lives of the street gangs who have taken over, and now rule, dozens of corners of the UK's capital. Bestselling true crime author Wensley Clarkson takes us on a tour of the housing estates and volatile neighbourhoods where pride, rivalry and revenge are the codes people live and die by. He talks to the criminals who have helped create this chilling modern-day underworld and recounts the vicious turf wars that changed the map, unravels the rules and rights of the streets, and charts the rise and fall of many of the game's key players over the decades that have transformed the city. Featuring interviews with real-life gangsters and told in a gripping story that lays bare the hard life in this world, The Real Top Boys is the ultimate account of gang life in London and a jaw-dropping look at who really runs the streets.

Throughout the late eighties and nineties, a gang of young Asian refugees cut a bloody swath through New York's Chinatown. They were the lost children of the Vietnam War, severed from their families by violence and cast adrift in a strange land. Banding together under the leadership of a megalomaniacal young psychopath, David Thai, they took their name from a slogan they had seen on helicopters and the helmets of U.S. soldiers: "Born to Kill." For a decade their empire was unassailable, built on a foundation of fear, ruthlessness, and unimaginable brutality--until one courageous gang brother helped bring it down from the inside.

"At the age of twelve, my ambition was to become a gangster. To be a wiseguy was better than being President of the United States. To be a wiseguy was to own the world." --Henry Hill When Henry Hill entered the Witness Protection Program, he was certain that his criminal days had finally come to an end. He was wrong. For over twenty years, Henry Hill lived the high life as a powerful member of the Lucchese crime family, a life immortalized in Martin Scorsese's classic film GoodFellas. After his arrest in 1980, Hill disappeared into the Witness Protection Program. With this book, Henry comes clean about his last twenty years, filling in the gaps about his recent past as well as setting the record straight on his days as a wiseguy. At once hilarious, unpredictable, scandalous, and arresting, Henry Hill's tale will destroy everything you thought you knew about the Witness Protection Program.

Finalist for the 2015 William E. Colby AwardFor more than a decade, America has been waging a new kind of war against the financial networks of rogue regimes, proliferators, terrorist groups, and criminal syndicates. Juan Zarate, a chief architect of modern financial warfare and a former senior Treasury and White House official, pulls back the curtain on this shadowy world. In this gripping story, he explains in unprecedented detail how a small, dedicated group of officials redefined the Treasury's role and used its unique powers, relationships, and reputation to apply financial pressure against America's enemies.This group unleashed a new brand of financial power,one that leveraged the private sector and banks directly to isolate rogues from the international financial system. By harnessing the forces of globalization and the centrality of the American market and dollar, Treasury developed a new way of undermining America's foes. Treasury and its tools soon became, and remain, critical in the most vital geopolitical challenges facing the United States, including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and the regimes in Iran, North Korea, and Syria.This book is the definitive account, by an unparalleled expert, of how financial warfare has taken pride of place in American foreign policy and how America's competitors and enemies are now learning to use this type of power themselves. This is the unique story of the United States' financial war campaigns and the contours and uses of financial power, and of the warfare to come.

Trafficking Culture outlines current research and thinking on the illicit market in antiquities. It moves along the global trafficking chain from 'source' to 'market', identifying the main roles and routines involved. Using original research, the authors explore the dynamics of this 'grey' market, where legal and illegal goods are mixed and conflated. It compares and contrasts this illicit trade with other 'transnational criminal markets', such as the illegal trades in wildlife and diamonds. The analytical frames of organized crime and white-collar crime, drawn from criminology, provide a fresh perspective on a problem that has tended to be seen as archaeological, rather than criminological. Bringing insights from both disciplines together, this book represents a productive discourse between experts in these two fields, working together for several years to produce the evidence base that is reported here. Innovative forms of regulation are the most productive way to explore crime control in this field, and this book provides a series of propositions about practical crime reduction measures for the future. It will be invaluable to academics working in the fields of archaeology, criminology, art history, museum studies, and heritage. The book will also be a vital resource for professionals in the field of cultural property protection and preservation.

What is terrorism? Can anyone be radicalized? How can we respond to terrorist acts?

The Psychology of Terrorism seeks to explain why some acts of violence are considered terrorism and others are not, and why some individuals may be more susceptible to engaging in radical terrorist behavior. Debunking myths and lazy stereotypes, the book delves into some of the most shocking atrocities of our times to discuss the complex and varied psychological characteristics of individual terrorists, organized groups, and their acts.

Whilw there is no simple solution, The Psychology of Terrorism shows us that a growing reverse radicalization movement and modern interventionist techniques can give us hope for the future.

Table of Contents

1. What is terrorism?

2. Who is a terrorist?

3. Why do people become terrorists?

4. Can people stop being terrorists?

5. Can we stop terrorism?

6. Conclusion

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In 1946, Elizabeth Short traveled to Hollywood to become famous and see her name up in lights. Instead, the dark-haired beauty became immortalized in the headlines as the "Black Dahlia" when her nude and bisected body was discovered in the weeds of a vacant lot. Despite the efforts of more than four hundred police officers and homicide investigators, the heinous crime was never solved. Now, after endless speculation and false claims, bestselling author Donald H. Wolfe discovers startling new evidence--buried in the files of the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office for more than half a century.

With the aid of archival photos, news clippings, and investigative reports, Wolfe documents the riveting untold story that names the brutal murderer--the notorious Mafia leader, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel--and the motive--an unwanted pregnancy resulting from Short's involvement with the most powerful figure in Los Angeles, Norman Chandler. But Wolfe goes even further to unravel the large-scale cover-up behind the case. Wolfe's extensive research, based on the evidence he discovered in the recently opened LADA files, makes "The Black Dahlia Files" the authoritative work on the murder that has drawn endless scrutiny but remained unsolved--until now.

This book uniquely applies theoretical approaches from criminology and sociology to the problem of corruption. Theoretical thoughts have future consequences on how we treat, punish and deter and corruption policy illustrates that theoretical approaches affect what laws and techniques are implemented. Theoretical approaches, however, are not developed in a social and political vacuum; they are a part of the changing social world and understanding why corruption occurs is a preface to developing strategies to control and prevent it. Criminology of Corruption analyses corruption on an international scale and uses numerous case studies to help explain why individuals, organisations and states are corrupt. The book charts the development of the most relevant theoretical approaches and uses them to help explain acts of corruption and prevention. It will be of great interest to scholars researching these issues across criminology, sociology and other disciplines.

This illuminating study explores crimes against, and involving, wildlife and the resultant social harms. The authors go well beyond basic conceptions of animal-related crime, such as illicit trade, for a deeper exploration of wildlife criminology, using a novel approach that combines philosophical, legal and criminological perspectives. They shed light on both legal and illegal harms, including blood sports, wildlife as food and abuse in zoos, and consider the potential connections with inter-human crimes. This is a unique treatment of wildlife as victims of crime and a consideration of their rights as sentient beings that sets new horizons for the concept of wildlife criminology.

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.

What is the Russian Mafia? This unique book thoroughly researches this question and challenges widely-held views. The author charts the emergence of the Russian Mafia in the context of the transition to the market, the privatization of protection, and pervasive corruption. The ability of the Russian state to define property rights and protect contracts is compared to the services offered by fragments of the state apparatus, private security firms, ethnic crime groups, the Cossacks, and the Mafia. Past criminal traditions, rituals, and norms have been resuscitated by the Mafia of today to forge a powerful new identity and compete in a crowded market for protection. The book draws on reports of undercover police operations; in-depth interviews conducted over several years with the victims of the Mafia, criminals, and officials; and documents from the Gulag archives. It also provides a comparative study, making references to other Mafia (the Japanese Yakuza, the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the American-Italian Mafia, and the Hong Kong Triads).

Now a major film directed by Idris Elba, Yardie by Victor Headley shines a light on the brutal underworld of 90s London gang culture. At Heathrow Airport's busy immigration desk, a newly arrived Jamaican strolls through with a kilo of top-grade cocaine strapped to his body. And keeps on walking . . . By the time the syndicate get to hear about the missing consignment, D is in business - for himself - as the Front Line's newest don. But D's treachery will never be forgotten - or forgiven. The message filters down from the Yardie crime lords to their soldiers on the streets: Find D. Find the merchandise. And make him pay for his sins . . .

This study is based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork with Colombian drug traffickers (traquetos) in The Netherlands and Colombia. The author has uncovered the social world of traquetos: how and why they get involved in illicit activities, the nature of their work, and how they organize their businesses. This book will be valued by criminologists, social scientists, drug researchers, policymakers, organized crime scholars, and by those interested in Colombia, Latino immigrants issues, and the cocaine business.

Told in riveting, novelistic detail by the author of the best-seller Black Hawk Down, Finders Keepers is the widely acclaimed true story of an incredible week in the life of Joey Coyle, a down-and-out longshoreman from working-class South Philadelphia. One afternoon, just blocks from his home, Coyle found two curious yellow containers containing $1.2 million in unmarked money from a casino. They had just fallen off the back of an armored truck. Even before news of the missing money exploded across the headlines, Detective Pat Laurenzi was working around the clock to track it down. Joey Coyle, meanwhile, was off on a bungling misadventure, sharing his windfall with everyone from his girlfriend to total strangers to the two neighborhood kids who were with him when he found it. Loaded with intrigue and suspense, Finders Keepers is the remarkable tale of an ordinary man faced with an extraordinary moral dilemma, and the fascinating reactions of the family, friends, and neighbors to whom he turns.

This book explores how the 'new' Asian criminal entrepreneurs in Canada, known as The Big Circle Boys (BCB), competitively dominated the Canadian heroin market in the 1990s without a formal organisation or explicit hierarchical structure. Drawing on the market resilience framework, it examines how the BCB smuggled drugs by using social capital, shared resources, and trust effectively through their ethnicity. How did they counter external security challenges and promote internal competitive cooperation? Were they able to resolve disputes peacefully by managing internal relations? These questions are answered through an analysis of their networking processes and illustrated in the structural properties and dynamics of their mono-ethnic criminal network. For the first time, the BCB players that contributed to the 2001 Canadian and Australian heroin droughts are revealed through intercepted telephone calls and court testimonies. It shows how the BCB collectively switched from heroin to ecstasy since the year 2000. The operation logistics of drug importation and local trafficking are scrutinised. This book speaks to those interested in how a collective of ethnic-Chinese career criminals succeeded and failed in the international drugs trade, particularly for scholars and students of social sciences disciplines.

This is a collection of original research reports on the status of street gangs and problematic youth groups in Europe, as well as a set of reports on the current status of American street gang research and its implications for the European gang situation. Seven American papers are joined with reports from England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Russia, Holland, Belgium, France, and Slovenia. Summary chapters by the American and European editors provide overviews of the street gang picture: the associated issues and problems of definition, community context, comparative research procedures, and implications for prevention and intervention. Professionals and students will find these papers easy to comprehend yet fully informative on comparative street gang studies.

This innovative book investigates the paradoxical situation whereby organized crime groups, authoritarian in nature and anti-democratic in practice, perform at their best in democratic countries. It uses examples from the United States, Japan, Russia, South America, France, Italy and the European Union.

The perceived threat of 'transnational organised crime' to Western societies has been of huge interest to politicians, policy-makers and social scientists over the last decade. This book considers the origins of this crime, how it has been defined and measured, and the appropriateness of governments' policy responses. The contributors argue that while serious harm is often caused by transnational criminal activity - for example, the trafficking in human beings - the construction of that criminal activity as an external threat obscures the origins of these crimes in the markets for illicit goods and services within the 'threatened' societies. As such, the authors question the extent to which global crime can be controlled through law enforcement initiatives and alternative policy initiatives are considered. The authors also question whether transnational organised crime will retain its place on the policy agendas of the United Nations and European Union in the wake of the 'war on terror'.

THE DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT OF THE MOST INFAMOUS STREET GANG IN AMERICA In the 1980s, El Salvador was involved in a bloody fight for control of the government. To escape the guerrilla assaults and death squads many fled to the US. As a survival instinct, they formed a group called the Mara Salvatrucha Stoners, a relatively harmless social network bound by rock and roll. But later, as they brushed against established local gangs, the group took on a harder edge, selling drugs, stealing cars and killing rivals who threatened their territories. As authorities cracked down, gang members were incarcerated and deported. But in the prison system, the group only grew stronger. Today, MS-13 is one of the most infamous street gangs on Earth, with tens of thousands of members operating in a half-dozen nations and two continents, and linked to thousands of grisly murders each year. Through the story of former gang member Norman and his family, journalist Steven Dudley brings readers inside the deadly group.

A single breakthrough could change the world forever.Having just completed a complex recovery assignment, covert salvage specialist Korso is in no mood to take on another job so soon, but he has little choice when he's contacted by Cole Ashcroft, an ex-colleague who's calling in a debt. An official at the US Embassy in Bulgaria has approached Cole with a well-paying salvage job, but only if he can persuade Korso to plan the whole operation. A chemist for a pharmaceutical company has secretly developed a revolutionary glaucoma pill, one with an unexpected side effect that could make it the discovery of the century. But the chemist has since been found dead, and the prototypes are missing... Aware that ownership of these pills could shift the balance of military power overnight, the embassy man offers to pay Korso handsomely to locate and recover them using any means necessary. But with a job this big Korso also knows he'll have to assemble a team to help him, and that brings its own set of problems. Because with potential profits in the billions, can he really trust anyone...? A full-throttle thriller that will keep you guessing to the very end, perfect for fans of Mark Greaney, Ben Coes and Adam Hamdy.

This book is a systematic study of New York City's Chinatown gangs. First-hand data was collected from a substantial number of gang victims, gang members, community leaders, and law enforcement authorities. Also examined are the details and severity of gang extortion, gang characteristics, gang violence, gang enterprise, and gang control strategies.

Although much has been written about Al Capone, there has not been--until now--a complete history of organized crime in Chicago during Prohibition. This exhaustively researched book covers the entire period from 1920 to 1933. Author John J. Binder, a recognized authority on the history of organized crime in Chicago, discusses all the important bootlegging gangs in the city and the suburbs and also examines the other major rackets, such as prostitution, gambling, labor and business racketeering, and narcotics. A major focus is how the Capone gang -- one of twelve major bootlegging mobs in Chicago at the start of Prohibition--gained a virtual monopoly over organized crime in northern Illinois and beyond. Binder also describes the fight by federal and local authorities, as well as citizens' groups, against organized crime. In the process, he refutes numerous myths and misconceptions related to the Capone gang, other criminal groups, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and gangland killings. What emerges is a big picture of how Chicago's underworld evolved during this period. This broad perspective goes well beyond Capone and specific acts of violence and brings to light what was happening elsewhere in Chicagoland and after Capone went to jail. Based on 25 years of research and using many previously unexplored sources, this fascinating account of a bloody and colorful era in Chicago history will become the definitive work on the subject.

This exploration of the full diversity of the Italian Antimafia draws on primary sources and interviews to provide a complete analysis of social, political and grassroots efforts since 1922. The murders of judges Falcone and Borsellino in 1992 caused an institutional crisis in Italy, aggravated by evidence of rampant corruption in political and business life. Since then, exceptional law enforcement successes have been undermined by inadequate efforts to address the underlying social and economic conditions that facilitate the expansion of the Mafia. This study looks at Antimafia initiatives within the context of international initiatives against organized crime.