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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Crime & criminology > Organized crime
"The Family Debt" is a tribute to the author's father, Giacomo "Jack" Bianco. He was a man who lived his life with passion for his family, a man who worked hard at everything he did. His unselfish nature was exposed year after year, experience after experience. Giacomo was undoubtedly a family man who never let his family down; no matter the cost. Never asking questions, he simply chose to rise to the occasion time after time to preserve the integrity of his family and to protect his personal and business interests. He didn't make excuses, he simply delivered what was required, when it was required. Then suddenly one day the core of the family was taken forever; his life was extinguished. Over time, more questions surfaced, but unfortunately no answers or explanations. Did he know how steep the price would be to protect his family? The detectives and investigators, they were simply told to "shelve the investigation." This happened only three days after this horrible murder, a file never to be opened again. Almost forty years later the same questions still pierce the silence once filled by a father's voice. His family's thoughts are finally revealed and shared for the first time.
Letty Davenport, the brilliant and tenacious adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport, takes the investigative reins in the newest thriller from #1 bestselling author John Sandford.By twenty-four, Letty Davenport has seen more action than most law enforcement professionals. Working a desk job for US Senator Christopher Colles, she's bored and ready to quit. But when her skills catch Colles' attention, she is offered a lifeline: real investigative work. Texas oil companies are reporting thefts of crude. Rumour has it that a sinister militia is involved. Who is selling the oil? And what are they doing with the profits? Letty is partnered with a Department of Homeland Security investigator, John Kaiser. When the case turns deadly, they know they're onto something big. The militia has an explosive plan... and the clock is ticking down. From the bestselling and unputdownable author of the Prey series, The Investigator is perfect for fans of James Patterson and Lee Child.
Certain types of crime are increasingly being perpetrated across national borders and require a unified regional or global response to combat them. Transnational criminal law covers both the international treaty obligations which require States to introduce specific substantive measures into their domestic criminal law schemes, and an allied procedural dimension concerned with the articulation of inter-state cooperation in pursuit of the alleged transnational criminal. The Routledge Handbook of Transnational Criminal Law provides a comprehensive overview of the system which is designed to regulate cross border crime. The book looks at the history and development of the system, asking questions as to the principal purpose and effectiveness of transnational criminal law as it currently stands. The book brings together experts in the field, both scholars and practitioners, in order to offer original and forward-looking analyses of the key elements of the transnational criminal law. The book is split into several parts for ease of reference: Fundamental concepts surrounding the international regulation of transnational crime. Procedures for international cooperation against alleged transnational criminals including jurisdiction, police cooperation, asset recovery and extradition. Substantive crimes covered by transnational criminal law analysing the current legal provisions for each crime. The implementation of transnational criminal law and the effectiveness of the system of transnational criminal law. With chapters from over 25 authorities in the field, this handbook will be an invaluable reference work for student and academics and for policy makers with an interest in transnational criminal law.
This edited collection provides an innovative and detailed analysis of the relationship between the financial crisis, risk and corruption. A large majority of the published research has concentrated on identifying the traditional factors that contributed towards the largest financial crisis since the Wall Street Crash and subsequent Great Depression. This original volume contests this, and provides the alternative view that white collar crime was also an underappreciated, and important factor. Divided into five parts: bribery and corruption; financial crime; market manipulation; technology and white collar crime; and the financial crisis, and based on contributions by a wide range of experts in the field, this book will be of great interest to policy makers and practitioners, researchers and students alike.
View the Table of Contents. 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 "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." "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" "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.'" "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." "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." "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." "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." "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." "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." "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." 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.
Drawing on extensive life-history interviews with serious violent offenders, this book offers a unique socio-historical analysis of gang membership and gang evolution in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. The book chronicles the lives of young men in and around Glasgow from early childhood to present day and examines the lived experience of family, friendship, community, and crime. It demonstrates how street reputations are won and lost and how gang membership is not a single event but an experiential process of offending, victimisation, consensus, and conflict. The book follows the young men's descent into knife crime and street violence and the impact of imprisonment on their life chances. Detailed narratives capture how they individually and collectively transitioned from street violence to profit-driven organised crime, before eventually disengaging from gangs and desisting from offending. The book concludes with an in-depth discussion of the evolution of gangs and organised crime in the 21st century and in the inner-workings of Scotland's marketplace for illegal goods and services, with implications for police, practitioners, and policymakers. A page-turner from start to finish, Scotlands' Gang Members is a truly unique contribution to knowledge about gangs and crime, written to high academic standards but readable and accessible to all.
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.
This book introduces 'convenience' as the key concept to explain financial crime by white-collar criminals. Based on a number of fraud examination- reports from the United States and Norway, the book documents empirical evidence of convenience among white-collar criminals. It advances our understanding of white-collar crime by drawing attention to private investigation reports by fraud examiners and financial crime specialists, who are in the growing business of fraud investigations. Reports of investigations have never before been researched in terms of white-collar criminals nor crime convenience. Reports of investigations by auditing and law firms represent a valuable empirical basis - in addition to court documents and other sources of information about financial crime. A methodical and well-researched study, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of criminological theory and law - in addition to ethics courses in business schools.
This book presents an historical and sociological account of the Italian mafia-type organisation known as the 'ndrangheta. It draws together diverse perspectives on the various 'ndrangheta clans and their behavioural models, focusing specifically on their organisational skills, their bonds with Calabrian society and Calabrian communities around the world, their mobility, and their characterisation as poly-crime organisations. The authors demonstrate that 'ndrangheta clans have an innovative way of being and doing mafia work through a dense network of relationships both in the 'upperworld' and in the 'underworld', a particularly acute sense of business, a reputation built on the protection of blood and family ties, and, last but not least, a symbiotic relationship and camouflage within Calabrian society. By focusing on both the structures and the activities of the clans and with findings based on judicial documents, this book explores why the 'ndrangheta is today labeled as "the most powerful Italian mafia". It will be of great interest to upper-level students and scholars of organised crime and sociology.
Unlike much of the existing literature on organised crime, this book is less focused on the problem per se as it is on understanding its implications. The latter, especially in fragile and conflict regions, amount to strategic challenges for the state. Whereas most commentators would agree that criminal activities are harmful, this volume addresses the questions of 'how?', 'for whom?' and, controversially, 'are they always harmful?' The volume is authored by experts with multi-year experience analysing criminal and other non-state activities. They do so through different lenses - conflict and security, development, and technology - engaging academics, practitioners and policy makers. They offer a comprehensive integrated response to the challenges of transnational organised crime beyond traditional law-enforcement driven recommendations.
This edited collection provides an original and comprehensive take on retail crime and its prevention, by combining international data and multidisciplinary perspectives from criminologists, economists, geographers, police officers and other experts. Drawing on environmental criminology theory and situational crime prevention, it focusses on crime and safety in retail environments but also the interplay between individuals, products and settings such as stores, commercial streets and shopping malls, as well as the wider context of situational conditions of the supply chain in which crime occurs. Chapters offer state-of-the-art research on retail crime from a range of countries such as Australia, Brazil, Israel, Italy, Sweden, the UK and the USA. This methodological and well-researched study is devoted to both academics and practitioners from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds whose common interest is to prevent retail crime and overall retail loss. The chapters 'Crime in a Scandinavian Shopping Centre' and 'Perceived Safety in a Shopping Centre' are published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.
Reconceptualizing Security in the Americas in the Twenty-First Century illustrates the various security concerns in the Americas in the twenty-first century. It presents the work of a number of prolific scholars and analysts in the region. The book offers new theoretical and analytical perspectives. Within the Americas, we find a number of important issues security issues. Most important are the threats that supersede borders: drug trafficking, migration, health, and environmental. These threats change our understanding of security and the state and regional process of neutralizing or correcting these threats. This volume evaluates these threats within contemporary security discourse.
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.
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.
A JUDGE MURDERED IN A CITY PARK
Terrorism has become an everyday reality in most contemporary societies. In a context of heightened fear can juries be trusted to remain impartial when confronted by defendants charged with terrorism? Do they scrutinize prosecution cases carefully, or does emotion trump reason once the spectre of terrorism is invoked? This book examines these questions from a range of disciplinary perspectives. The authors look at the how jurors in terrorism trials are likely to respond to gruesome evidence, including beheading videos. The 'CSI effect' is examined as a possible response to forensic evidence, and jurors with different learning preferences are compared. Virtual interactive environments, built like computer games, may be created to provide animated reconstructions of the prosecution or defence case. This book reports on how to create such presentations, culminating in the analysis of a live simulated trial using interactive visual displays followed by jury deliberations. The team of international, transdisciplinary experts draw conclusions of global legal and political significance, and contribute to the growing scholarship on comparative counter-terrorism law. The book will be of great interest to scholars, students and practitioners of law, criminal justice, forensic science and psychology.
"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.
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.
This book presents primary research conducted in Italy, USA, Australia and the UK on countering strategies and institutional perceptions of Italian mafias and local organized crime groups. Through interviews and interpretation of original documents, this study firstly demonstrates the interaction between institutional understanding of the criminal threats and historical events that have shaped these perceptions. Secondly, it combines analysis of policies and criminal law provisions to identify how policing models which combat mafia and organised crime activities are organized and constructed in each country within a comparative perspective. After presenting the similarities between the four differing policing models, Sergi pushes the comparison further by identifying both conceptual and procedural convergences and divergences across both the four models and within international frameworks. By looking at topics as varied as mafia mobility, money laundering, drug networks and gang violence, this book ultimately seeks to reconsider the conceptualizations of both mafia and organized crime from a socio-behavioural and cultural perspective.
This book analyzes how strategic intelligence can support decision-makers in national policing organizations to anticipate transnational organized crime (TOC). The authors examine case studies from Australia, Canada and the UK, and argue for the development of empirically-grounded intelligence theory to aid the policy process and law enforcement. |
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