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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Crime & criminology > Organized crime
2016 Outstanding Publication Award (The International Association
for the Study of Organized Crime) Organized Crime: Analyzing
Illegal Activities, Criminal Structures, and Extra-legal Governance
provides a systematic overview of the processes and structures
commonly labeled "organized crime," drawing on the pertinent
empirical and theoretical literature primarily from North America,
Europe, and Australia. The main emphasis is placed on a
comprehensive classificatory scheme that highlights underlying
patterns and dynamics, rather than particular historical
manifestations of organized crime. Esteemed author Klaus von Lampe
strategically breaks the book down into three key dimensions: (1)
illegal activities, (2) patterns of interpersonal relations that
are directly or indirectly supporting these illegal activities, and
(3) overarching illegal power structures that regulate and control
these illegal activities and also extend their influence into the
legal spheres of society. Within this framework, numerous case
studies and topical issues from a variety of countries illustrate
meaningful application of the conceptual and theoretical
discussion.
Human trafficking is consistently featured on the global political
agenda. This book examines the trafficking of adult female victims
for sexual exploitation, and specifically the understanding of
consent and its influence in the identification and treatment of
trafficking victims. Jessica Elliott argues that when applied to
situations of human trafficking, migration and sexual exploitation,
the notion of consent presents problems which current international
laws are unable to address. Establishing the presence of 'coercion'
and a lack of consent can be highly problematic, particularly in
situations of human trafficking and exploitative prostitution;
activities which may be deemed inherently coercive and
problematically clandestine. By examining legal definitions of
human trafficking in international instruments and their domestic
implementation in different countries, the book explores victimhood
in the context of exploitative migration, and argues that no clear
line can be drawn between those who have been smuggled, trafficked,
or 'consensually trafficked' into a situation of exploitation. The
book will be great use and interest to students and researchers of
migration law, transnational criminal law, and gender studies.
The first close-up look at the hidden world of Somali pirates by
a young journalist who dared to make his way into their remote
havens and spent a year infiltrating their lives.
For centuries, stories of pirates have captured imaginations around
the world. The recent ragtag bands of pirates off the coast of
Somalia, hijacking multimillion-dollar tankers owned by
international shipping conglomerates, have brought the scourge of
piracy into the modern era. Jay Bahadur's riveting narrative
expose--the first of its kind--looks at who these men are, how they
live, the forces that created piracy in Somalia, how the pirates
spend the ransom money, how they deal with their hostages, among
much, much more. It is a revelation of a dangerous world at the
epicenter of political and natural disaster.
In March 1972, four young black men were arrested by a specialist
pickpocket squad at Oval Underground Station and charged with theft
and assault of police officers. Sentenced to two years in prison,
the case seemed straightforward and credible to the judge and jury
who convicted them - but these young men were completely innocent,
victims of endemic police corruption. The real criminal in this
case was the notorious DS Derek Ridgewell, later proven to be
heavily involved in organised crime. Graham Satchwell, at one time
Britain's most senior railway detective, has worked with Oval Four
victim Winston Trew to reveal the rotten culture that not only
enabled Ridgewell to operate as he did, but also to subsequently
organise major thefts of property worth in excess of GBP1 million.
Winston Trew's case was finally overturned in December 2019, but
the far-reaching ramifications of Ridgewell's shocking activities
has irreparably damaged many lives and must never be forgotten.
Trying to Make It is R. V. Gundur's journey from the US-Mexico
border to America's heartland, from America's prisons to its
streets, in search of the true story of the drug trade and the
people who participate in it. The book begins in the Paso del Norte
area, encompassing the sister cities of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso,
which has been in the public eye as calls for securing the border
persist. From there, it moves on to Phoenix, which was infamously
associated with the drug trade through a series of kidnappings.
Finally, the book goes on to Chicago, which has been a lightning
rod of criticism for its gangs and violence. Gundur highlights the
similarities and differences that exist in the American drug trade
within the three sites and how they relate to current drug trade
narratives in the US. At each stop, the reader is transported to
the city's historical and contemporary contexts of the drug trade
and introduced to the individuals who have lived them. Drug
retailers, street and prison gang members, wholesalers, and the law
enforcement personnel who try to stop them offer readers a
comprehensive look at how various illicit enterprises work together
to supply the drugs that American users demand. Most importantly,
through a combination of macro- and microlevel vantage points, and
comparative analysis of three key sites in illicit drug operations,
the stories in Trying to Make It remind us that the people involved
in the drug trade, for the most part, do not deserve vilification.
Far from being a seemingly uniform, widespread threat or an
unlimited array of bogeymen and women, they are ordinary people,
living ordinary lives, just trying to make it.
In 1978, the US government waged a war against organised crime. One
man was left behind the lines. From 1976 until 1981, Special Agent
Pistone lived undercover with the Mafia. Only able to visit his
young family once every few months, Pistone - under the alias
Donnie Brasco - ate, drank, partied, worked and sometimes killed
with the wiseguys. He got so close that his Mafia partner, Lefty
Ruggiero, asked him to officiate as best man at his wedding.
Pistone's eventual testimony, in such spectacular prosecutions as
'the Pizza Connection' and 'the Mafia Commission' resulted in more
than 200 indictments and 100 convictions of members of organised
crime.
'A gripping murder mystery and a vivid recreation of Paris under
German Occupation.' ANDREW TAYLOR *WINNER OF THE HWA GOLD CROWN
AWARD FOR BEST HISTORICAL FICTION* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA
HISTORICAL DAGGER AWARD* 'Terrific' SUNDAY TIMES, Best Books of the
Month 'A thoughtful, haunting thriller' MICK HERRON 'Sharp and
compelling' THE SUN * * * * * Paris, Friday 14th June 1940. The day
the Nazis march into Paris, making headlines around the globe.
Paris police detective Eddie Giral - a survivor of the last World
War - watches helplessly on as his world changes forever. But there
is something he still has control over. Finding whoever is
responsible for the murder of four refugees. The unwanted dead, who
no one wants to claim. To do so, he must tread carefully between
the Occupation and the Resistance, between truth and lies, between
the man he is and the man he was. All the while becoming whoever he
must be to survive in this new and terrible order descending on his
home... * * * * * 'Lloyd's Second World War Paris is rougher than
Alan Furst's, and Eddie Giral, his French detective, is way edgier
than Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther ... Ranks alongside both for its
convincingly cloying atmosphere of a city subjugated to a foreign
power, a plot that reaches across war-torn Europe and into the
rifts in the Nazi factions, and a hero who tries to be a good man
in a bad world. Powerful stuff.' THE TIMES 'A tense and gripping
mystery which hums with menace and dark humour as well as immersing
the reader in the life of occupied Paris' Judges, HWA GOLD CROWN
AWARD 'Excellent ... In Eddie Giral, Lloyd has created a character
reminiscent of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther, oozing with attitude
and a conflicted morality that powers a complex, polished plot.
Historical crime at its finest.' VASEEM KHAN, author of Midnight at
Malabar House 'Monumentally impressive ... A truly wonderful book.
If somebody'd given it to me and told me it was the latest Robert
Harris, I wouldn't have been surprised. Eddie Giral is a wonderful
creation.' ALIS HAWKINS 'A terrific read - gripping and well-paced.
The period atmosphere is excellent.' MARK ELLIS 'The best kind of
crime novel: gripping, thought-provoking and moving. In Detective
Eddie Giral, Chris Lloyd has created a flawed hero not just for
occupied Paris, but for our own times, too.' KATHERINE STANSFIELD
John Gilligan is one of the most notorious and hated criminal
figures in Irish history. His name is indelibly etched in the
national psyche a quarter of a century after he crossed the line to
organise the execution of the fearless, high-profile journalist
Veronica Guerin. Gilligan's motive for the assassination was, in
the words of the prosecution at a subsequent murder trial, 'the
necessity of having to protect an evil empire'. At the time
Gilligan was one of the most powerful and feared godfathers in the
country who controlled a colossal drugs empire and the underworld's
most dangerous mob. Gilligan tells the story of a young man's rise
through the ranks of gangland following his journey from petty
thief to public enemy number one. He was part of the generation of
young criminals - like the General, the Cahills, the Hutches - who
ushered in the phenomenon of organised crime in Ireland and became
household names in the process. This close-up look at a criminal
mastermind contains new details including a graphic account of the
planning of the Guerin murder, drawn from a sealed statement which
was never used, and the prison time and criminal activity which
have occupied Gilligan since, up to his recent arrest in Spain on
drug trafficking charges.
Piracy in Somalia sheds light on an often misunderstood world,
oversimplified and demonized in the media and largely
decontextualized in scholarly and policy works. It examines the
root causes of piracy in Somalia, its impact on coastal
communities, local views about it, and the measures taken against
it. Drawing on six years' worth of extensive fieldwork, Awet
Tewelde Weldemichael amplifies the voices of local communities who
have suffered under the heavy weight of illegal fishing, piracy and
counter-piracy and makes their struggles comprehensible on their
own terms. He also exposes complex webs of crimes within crimes of
double-dealing pirates, fraudulent negotiators, duplicitous
intermediaries, and treacherous foreign illegal fishers and their
local partners. In so doing, this book will help inform regional
and global counter-piracy endeavors, avoid possible reversals in
the gains so far made against piracy, and identify the gains that
need to be made against its root causes.
Gangsters dealt with in this book include Louis Lepke Buchalter,
Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, Arthur Dutch Schultz Flegenheimer, Meyer The
Little Man Lansky, Chalie King Solomon, Max Boo Boo Hoff and Abner
Longy Zwillman.
In the mid-1970s, there were a series of gangland murders,
committed by unknown killers, often wielding .22-caliber revolvers.
At first these murders seemed unconnected, but law enforcement
started noticing links to organized crime and by 1978, federal
authorities were involved in the investigations. The FBI compiled a
list of 25 gangland figures killed, from potential witnesses and
low-level associates, to made men. All shot with a .22 between 1975
and 1978, all from the same batch of guns purchased in Florida,
some even the same weapon. The main suspects were members of the
East Harlem Purple Gang. Starting on the fringes they quickly
became a violent offshoot syndicate of the Mafia, some even became
high-ranking members of the Genovese, Bonanno, and Lucchese
families. Often serving as freelance hitmen, kidnappers, and drug
traffickers, their exploits quickly crossed into mythology. The
Purple Gang became an almost obsession with the media. Accounts of
the Gang's activities popped up in the newspapers across the
country in the late 1970s. They were the shadow army of the
underworld and every law enforcement agency's favorite suspect.
They were accused of being behind all the major mob hits through
the early 1980s and became the ultimate boogeyman in the era of mob
upheaval and a flailing New York City mired in crime and financial
woes. Digging through the mystery and mythos, Scott Deitche brings
the gritty City of the late 1970s and early 1980s back to life in
this in-depth account of the Purple Gang, the real members, their
operations, and where some of the major players are today.
Presenting sociological as well as historical perspectives, this
book supplies readers with a fascinating, unprecedented look at the
most successful organized-crime family they've probably never heard
of. From the 1920s until the early 21st century, one Sicilian mob
family defied everyone from the California attorney general to J.
Edgar Hoover to chart their own American Dream. Unlike their
flashier rivals in New York and Chicago who met their end by the
knife, the bullet, or a judge's gavel, this crime family prospered
and grew alongside their adopted home of San Francisco. This book
tells how they did it. Readers will learn how the Lanzas managed to
retain control of their patch from the end of Prohibition through
the Summer of Love and into the beginnings of the dot-com era,
gaining insight into not only what the west-coast branch of the Mob
did, but also why they did it. The documentation of how this mostly
unknown crime syndicate formed, evolved, and eventually folded is
set against the backdrop of the city of San Francisco transforming
itself from a gritty port and manufacturing hub dominated by
Italian- and Irish-Americans into the multicultural intellectual
and services capital it is today. Sets forth the history of the San
Francisco branch of the Italian Mafia for the first time in print
Explains the specific societal and historical factors that gave
rise to Italian organized crime Provides a unique window into the
crime family's history via a compendium of primary document
resources that include newspapers such as the San Francisco
Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner as well as the Italian
Central Archives
'Action-packed, gripping, and wildly entertaining . . . Amen Alonge
is a powerful new voice in thriller writing and a talent to watch'
ADAM HAMDY Meet Pretty Boy. Vengeance is on his mind. His real
name: Unknown His code of conduct: Don't be a pawn in someone
else's game. Never underestimate the enemy. Above all, survive.
There is no glory in death. His mission: It's been ten years since
Pretty Boy left the big city - today he's back. No one knows why,
but it's clear that revenge is on his mind: he is determined to
make the person responsible for his exile from the London scene
finally pay. But his plans seem derailed when he takes possession
of a bracelet, unaware that its original owner has set a high price
for its safe return. Suddenly, the hunter becomes the hunted and
Pretty Boy will have to find out if it is indeed a 'good day to
die'. Jam-packed with action, an unforgettable cast of characters
and peppered with dry humour, A Good Die To Die marks the arrival
of a fresh and exciting new voice in thriller writing.
The cover illustration of Mafia: Penge & politik pa Sicilien
1950-1994 represents a picture of Antonio Salvo. Salvo was a
Mafioso, but he did not traffic in narcotics, he did not run
weapons, he did not kill anyone, and he did not take part in the
'ordinary' Mafia activities. Antonio Salvo was a business man, one
of the wealthiest business men in Sicily. He took an interest in
all important lines of business and had close political connections
at the highest levels in Rome. Antonio Salvo represented another,
but not less important side of the Mafia. He was a central part of
the far-reaching network of economic and political interests that
dominated Sicily through decades. All the threads of the network
came together in one place: the Mafia.
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