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 examines the role of religion and spirituality in desistance from crime and disengagement from gangs. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with male gang members and offenders as well as insights gathered from pastors, chaplains, coaches and personal mentors, the testimonials span three continents, focusing on the USA, Scotland, Denmark and Hong Kong. This volume offers unique empirical findings about the role that religion and spirituality can play in enabling some male gang members and offenders to transition into a new social sphere characterised by the presence of substitute forms of brotherhood and trust, and alternative forms of masculine status. The author presents critical insights into the potential relationship between religious and spiritual participation and the emergence of coping strategies to deal with the 'stigmata' that gang masculinity leaves behind. With its wide-ranging and multi-perspective approach, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of gang culture, masculinity and spirituality, as well as policy makers and practitioners.

This book provides practical recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of AML compliance by introducing the theory, framework and approach for dealing with the concerns of Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs) within the UK banking industry. Accordingly, Bello focusses on providing a theoretical explanation of compliance behaviour which is inadequately covered. Although the research is centred on MLROs within the UK banking industry, the self-protecting theory discovered from the research has general application to other compliance officers within and outside the UK. It is also applicable to regulatory environments in other economic sectors. The choice of MLROs and the UK as the focus of the study was because these individuals are arguably the most important stakeholders in AML and the UK is one of the largest financial centres in the world that provides opportunity for money laundering activities. A methodological and detailed study, this book will be of particular interest to practitioners and the regulatory authorities, as well as scholars of criminology and finance.

This book responds to the claim that criminology is becoming socially and politically irrelevant despite its exponential expansion as an academic sub-discipline. It does so by addressing the question 'what is to be done' in relation to a number of major issues associated with crime and punishment. The original contributions to this volume are provided by leading international experts in a wide range of issues. They address imprisonment, drugs, gangs, cybercrime, prostitution, domestic violence, crime control, as well as white collar and corporate crime. Written in an accessible style, this collection aims to contribute to the development of a more public criminology and encourages students and researchers at all levels to engage in a form of criminology that is more socially relevant and more useful.

This important reference work examines trafficking from a geographic perspective and investigates the driving forces behind it and the powers that are trying to curtail the problem. The worldwide crime of trafficking involves countless people, animals and animal parts, and illicit goods such as drugs and weapons being moved and sold illegally. Often, the trafficking occurs with the local government or law enforcement's knowledge and complicity. This one-volume encyclopedia sheds light on a frightening and major issue, investigating the geography of trafficking and examining a range of examples of illegal human, animal, drug, and weapons movement around the world. After a preface and introduction that provides an exact definition of trafficking, the encyclopedia presents thematic essays that explore the various specific kinds of trafficking. Approximately 30 country profiles describe who and what is trafficked in each country, the motivations of those doing the trafficking, where people and things are being moved to, how the trafficking occurs, and what actions are being taken in an effort to prevent it. An appendix of primary documents, interesting sidebars, a bibliography, and a glossary listing key terms and important organizations round out the work. Provides a comprehensive look at the geography of trafficking as a whole that highlights how different kinds of trafficking are often related Supplies a much-needed reference book on a topic that is of perennial interest and often mentioned in media Includes an appendix of primary documents that includes excerpts from anti-trafficking acts and policies, declarations, human rights campaigns, and other important sources, each with an introduction

This book provides a critical discussion of the way in which religion influences: criminal and antisocial behaviour, punishment and the law, intergroup conflict and peace-making, and the rehabilitation of offenders. The authors argue that in order to understand how religion is related to each of these domains it is essential to recognise the evolutionary origins of religion as well as how genetic and cultural evolutionary processes have shaped its essential characteristics. Durrant and Poppelwell posit that the capacity of religion to bind individuals into socially cohesive 'moral communities' can help us to understand its complex relationship with cooperation, crime, punishment, inter-group conflict and forgiveness. An original and innovative study, this book will be of special interest to criminologists and other social scientists interested in the role of religion in crime, punishment, intergroup conflict and law.

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.

The threat of terrorism, if not adequately managed, is likely to increase exponentially. As terrorist groups' influence and networks spread globally, a concerted effort in counterterrorism strategy is critical to mitigating the threat they present. Governments facing the threat of terrorism are typically strengthening their law enforcement, military and intelligence capabilities, but more complex initiatives such as deradicalisation and terrorist rehabilitation are more time-consuming and less attention-grabbing and so tend to be neglected. It is all too easy to 'do' rehabilitation ineffectively or to simply ignore it altogether. This is unfortunate, as an effective rehabilitation strategy can yield dividends over the longer term. Every committed terrorist is a potential recruiter, whether in prison or at liberty, for more terrorists. Even in death, they can potentially be presented as martyrs. Conversely, successfully rehabilitated terrorists can be valuable assets in the public relations theatre of battle. There is no single, simple solution to the challenges of deradicalisation and rehabilitation, but this book places examples of best practice within a robust, but flexible, conceptual framework. It gives guidelines for establishing and implementing a successful deradicalisation or rehabilitation programme, derived from a series of empirical case studies of successful projects around the world. It sets out both the necessary and desirable facets of such a programme, identifying which areas to prioritise and where budgets can be best spent if resources are tight. The authors provide detailed case studies of each step to illustrate an approach that has worked and how best to replicate this success.

This book develops the idea that the Cosa Nostra Sicilian mafia likes and, more than any other criminal organization, follows the patterns of capitalist transformation. The author presents analysis of the mafia under post-fordism capitalism, showing how they rely on increasingly more flexible networks for reasons of both cost and dodging police control, as well as changing their core businesses in relation to the risk that some activities, such as drug trafficking, are likely to incur. Combining sociology, criminology and labour sociology, the book provides an interpretation of Cosa Nostra which focuses on the connection between legal and illegal economies and politics, thus doing away with the idea that organized crime is always an external entity to society. An authoritative and original study, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of criminal justice, politics and economics.

A tour de force of investigative journalism, Killing Pablo tells the story of the violent rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, the head of the Colombian Medellin cocaine cartel. Escobar's criminal empire held a nation of thirty million hostage in a reign of terror that would only end with his death. In an intense, up-close account, award-winning journalist Mark Bowden exposes details never before revealed about the covert sixteen-month manhunt that was led by US Special Forces and intelligence services. With unprecedented access to important players - including Colombian president Cisar Gaviria and the incorruptible head of the special police unit that pursued Escobar, Colonel Hugo Martinez - as well as top-secret documents and transcripts of Escobar's intercepted phone conversations, Bowden has produced a gripping narrative that is a stark portrayal of rough justice in the real world.

Ultras are often compared to punks, Hell's Angels, hooligans or the South American Barras Bravas. But in truth, they are a thoroughly Italian phenomenon... From the author of The Dark Heart of Italy, Blood on the Altar and A Place of Refuge. Italy's ultras are the most organised and violent fans in European football. Many groups have evolved into criminal gangs, involved in ticket-touting, drug-dealing and murder. A cross between the Hell's Angels and hooligans, they're often the foot-soldiers of the Mafia and have been instrumental in the rise of the far-right. But the purist ultras say that they are are insurgents fighting against a police state and modern football. Only amongst the ultras, they say, can you find belonging, community and a sacred concept of sport. They champion not just their teams, they say, but their forgotten suburbs and the dispossessed. Through the prism of the ultras, Jones crafts a compelling investigation into Italian society and its favourite sport. He writes about not just the ultras of some of Italy's biggest clubs - Juventus, Torino, Lazio, Roma and Genoa - but also about its lesser-known ones from Cosenza and Catania. He examines the sinister side of football fandom, with its violence and political extremism, but also admires the passion, wit, solidarity and style of a fascinating and contradictory subculture.

Representing over four decades of work, this monograph by historian Mark H. Haller includes his work on organized crime in Chicago, particularly the origins of John Landesco's now classic work titled Organized Crime in Chicago (1929), written for the Illinois Crime Survey. Essays on organized crime in both Philadelphia and Chicago, as well as vignettes on Al "Scarface" Capone, Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, and Max "Boo Boo" Hoff, provide readers with a lively selection of Haller's commentary. Finally, this book incorporates Haller's critique of the Mafia model of organized crime and his elaboration of the illegal enterprise model of gangsters and their role in the American subeconomy, including the historical importance of prohibition and 19th century gambling syndicates in urban America.

Phases of Terrorism in the Age of Globalization considers terrorism as an aspect of the capitalist world system for almost five centuries. Jalata's research reveals that terrorism can emerge from above as state terrorism and below as subversive organizations or groups.

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.

The second volume of Sex Trafficking: International context and response Human trafficking and modern slavery have captured the imagination and attention of the international community. This book builds on the authors' first volume, Sex Trafficking: International context and response. Much has changed since the first volume was published, not least the shift away from sex trafficking to modern slavery as the dominant focus in policy and advocacy. Yet, as the authors argue, little has changed with regards to how nations respond. This volume re-examines the international counter-trafficking scholarship and policy response, to offer an analysis based on original and new data. This book lays the ground for specific forms of research and inquiry that are necessary to better understand and respond to the range of exploitative practices and conditions that give rise to human trafficking. This book offers a detailed analysis of the dominant response to human trafficking, which is framed by the criminal justice process. Examining the identification of victims, the investigation of cases, victim support, prosecutorial decisions and repatriation practices, the authors draw upon original research from Australia, Serbia and Thailand: three diverse nations that, like nations across the globe, have invested heavily in criminalisation as the dominant response to counter trafficking. They argue that exploitation sits at the nexus of global migration patterns and emphasise the importance of speaking to those directly affected by counter-trafficking policies and those directly involved in their implementation in order to produce empirical data to inform how we make sense of the numbers that are produced, the outcome of the policies and how we ought to determine success in this context. An empirical, criminologically informed opportunity to reconsider the dominant ways of understanding and strategies of responding to human trafficking, this multi-disciplinary book will be of interest to those engaged in criminology, sociology, law, political science, public policy and gender studies.

Human trafficking has emerged as one of the top international and domestic policy concerns, and is well covered and often sensationalized by the media. The nature of the topic combined with various international pressures has resulted in an array of government-led mandates to combat the issue. The Domestication of Human Trafficking examines Canada's criminal justice approaches to human trafficking, with a particular focus on the ways in which the intersecting factors of race, class, gender, and sexuality impact practice. Using a wide range of qualitative and empirically grounded research methods, including extensive analysis of court documents, trial transcripts, and interviews with criminal justice actors, this book contributes to much-needed research that examines, specifies, and sometimes complicates the narratives of how trafficking works as a criminal offence. The Domestication of Human Trafficking turns our attention to the ways in which the offence of human trafficking is made on the front lines of criminal justice efforts in Canada.

This timely volume is an anthology of writings in Italian which examine the origins, nature and culture of the Sicilian mafia. Separate chapters are devoted to the culture from which the mafia emerged, the economic and business activities in which it is now engaged, its relations with politics and politicians, as well as its structure and historical evolution. There are portraits of prominent mafiosi as well as of the people and organisations that have struggled against mafia crime. The individual pieces come from the most diverse sources, including newspapers, historical and sociological works. There is an introduction in English as well as a full vocabulary and a glossary of terms associated with the mafia. From these composite elements a complete and rounded picture of the mafia is constructed, making it an invaluable text for those interested in Italian culture.

Graphic narratives of tragedies involving the journeys of irregular migrants trying to reach destinations in the global north are common in the media and are blamed almost invariably on human smuggling facilitators, described as rapacious members of highly structured underground transnational criminal organizations, who take advantage of migrants and prey upon their vulnerability. This book contributes to the current scholarship on migration by providing a window into the lives and experiences of those behind the facilitation of irregular border crossing journeys. Based on fieldwork conducted among coyotes in Arizona - the main point of entry for irregular migrants in the United States by the turn of the 21st Century - this project goes beyond traditional narratives of victimization and financial exploitation and asks: who are the men and women behind the journeys of irregular migrants worldwide? How and why do they enter the human smuggling market? How are they organized? How do they understand their roles in transnational migration? How do they explain the violence and victimization so many migrants face while in transit? This book is suitable for students and academics involved in the study of migration, border enforcement and migrant and refugee criminalization.

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.

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.

The first English-language book to document the men who emerged from the gulags to become Russia's much-feared crime class: the vory v zakone Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime in Russia, consulted by governments and police around the world. Now, Western readers can explore the fascinating history of the vory v zakone, a group that has survived and thrived amid the changes brought on by Stalinism, the Cold War, the Afghan War, and the end of the Soviet experiment. The vory-as the Russian mafia is also known-was born early in the twentieth century, largely in the Gulags and criminal camps, where they developed their unique culture. Identified by their signature tattoos, members abided by the thieves' code, a strict system that forbade all paid employment and cooperation with law enforcement and the state. Based on two decades of on-the-ground research, Galeotti's captivating study details the vory's journey to power from their early days to their adaptation to modern-day Russia's free-wheeling oligarchy and global opportunities beyond.

Human trafficking has emerged as one of the top international and domestic policy concerns, and is well covered and often sensationalized by the media. The nature of the topic combined with various international pressures has resulted in an array of government-led mandates to combat the issue. The Domestication of Human Trafficking examines Canada's criminal justice approaches to human trafficking, with a particular focus on the ways in which the intersecting factors of race, class, gender, and sexuality impact practice. Using a wide range of qualitative and empirically grounded research methods, including extensive analysis of court documents, trial transcripts, and interviews with criminal justice actors, this book contributes to much-needed research that examines, specifies, and sometimes complicates the narratives of how trafficking works as a criminal offence. The Domestication of Human Trafficking turns our attention to the ways in which the offence of human trafficking is made on the front lines of criminal justice efforts in Canada.

This unique volume unpacks the concept and practice of naming and shaming by examining how governments, NGOs and international organisations attempt to change the behaviour of targeted actors through public exposure of violations of normative standards and legal commitments.