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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Crime & criminology > Organized crime
Discover the secret history behind the headlines. The Mexican drug
wars have inspired countless articles, TV shows and movies. From
Breaking Bad to Sicario, El Chapo's escapes to Trump's tirades,
this is a story we think we know. But there's a hidden history to
the biggest story of the twenty-first century. The Dope exposes how
an illicit industry that started with farmers, families and healers
came to be dominated by cartels, kingpins and corruption. Benjamin
T Smith traces an unforgettable cast of characters from the early
twentieth century to the modern day, whose actions came to
influence Mexico as we now know it. There's Enrique Fernandez, the
borderlands trafficker who became Mexico's first major narco and
one of the first victims of the war on drugs; Eduardo 'Lalo'
Fernandez, Mexico's most prominent heroin chemist and first major
cocaine importer; Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, the brilliant doctor
and Marxist who tried (and failed) to decriminalize Mexico's drugs;
and Harry Anslinger, the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics
whose sensationalist strategies paved the way for U.S. interference
and the extraordinary levels of violence in Mexico today. The Dope
is the epic saga of how violence and corruption came to plague
modern Mexico, and the first book to make sense of the political
and economic big picture of the Mexican drug wars.
The great founding figures of organized crime in the 20th century
were born and bred in New York City, and the city was the basis of
their operations. Beginning with Prohibition and going on through
many illegal activities the mob became a major force and its
tentacles reached into virtually every enterprise, whether legal or
illegal: gambling, boxing, labor racketeering, stock fraud, illegal
unions, prostitution, food service, garment manufacturing,
construction, loan sharking, hijacking, extortion, trucking, drug
dealing - you name it the mob controlled it. The men who organized
crime in America were the sons of poor immigrants. They were hungry
for success and would use whatever means available to achieve their
goals. They were not interested in religious identity and ethnic
identity. Their syndicate of criminals was made up, primarily of
Italians and Jews, but also Irish and black gangsters who could
further their ambitions. Their sole objective was always the same -
money. It began with Arnold Rothstein, who not only helped to fix
the 1919 World Series, but who also mentored and financed the
individuals who would control organized crime for decades.
Individuals such as Frank Costello, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel,
Joe Adonis, and Meyer Lansky, who would then follow suit setting up
other criminal organizations. They established rules of governance,
making millions of dollars for themselves and their cohorts. All
the organized crime bosses and their cohorts had the same modus
operandi: they were far-seeing opportunists who took advantage of
every illegal opportunity that came their way for making money. Big
Apple Gangsters: The Rise and Decline of the Mob in New York
reveals just how influential the mob in New York City was during
the 20th century. Jeffrey Sussman entertainingly digs into the
origins of organized crime in the 20th century by looking at the
corporate activity that dominated this one city and how these
entrepreneurial bosses supported successful criminal enterprises in
other cities. He also profiles many of the colorful gangsters who
followed in the footsteps of gangland's original founders.
Throughout the book Sussman provides fascinating portraits of a
who's who of gangland. His narrative moves excitingly and
entertainingly through the pivotal events and history of organized
crime, explaining the birth, growth, maturation, and decline of
various illegal enterprises in New York. He also profiles those who
prosecuted the mob and won significant verdicts that ended many
careers, responsible for bringing many organized crime figures to
their knees and then delivering a series of coups de grace - such
as Burton Turkus, Thomas Dewey, Robert Kennedy, and Rudolph
Giuliani.
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.
Murder Inc. is the latest blockbuster by Ireland's most respected
crime writer and journalist, Paul Williams. Murder Inc. is the
definitive account of how organized crime exploded in Limerick from
the 1990s and in the noughties. It describes the depravity and
decadence of the gangs, their deadly rivaliries, and their reigns
of terror over the community in which they lived. Finally, Williams
traces the faultlines that eventually led to the implosion of the
gangs and their defeat. Drawing on his vast inside knowledge of the
criminal underworld, an unparalleled range of contacts and eye
witness interviews, Paul Williams provides a chilling insight into
the mobsters and events that corroded entire neighbourhoods and
devastated countless lives.
COSA NOSTRA is the compelling story of the Sicilian mafia, the
world's most famous, most secretive and most misunderstood criminal
fraternity. The mafia has been given many names since it was
founded one hundred and forty years ago: the Sect, the Brotherhood,
the Honoured Society, and now Cosa Nostra. Yet as times have
changed, the mafia's subtle and bloody methods have remained the
same. Now, for the first time, COSA NOSTRA reconstructs the
complete history of the Sicilian mafia from its origins to the
present day, from the lemon groves and sulphur mines of Sicily, to
the streets of Manhattan. COSA NOSTRA is a definitive history, rich
in atmosphere, and with the narrative pace of the best detective
fiction, and has been updated to make it the most vital
contemporary account of the mafia ever published. The mob genre has
finally grown up.
Philadelphia's 'Black Mafia' could be used as primary reading in
deviance and organized crime courses. Academicians in the fields of
criminology, sociology, history, political science and
African-American Studies will find the book compelling and
important. This book provides the first sociological analysis to
date of Philadelphia's infamous "Black Mafia" which has organized
crime (with varying degrees of success) in predominantly
African-American sections of the city dating back to the late
1960's.
Philadelphia's 'Black Mafia':
-is a first step in developing both data and sophisticated
theoretical propositions germane to the ongoing study of organized
crime;
-uses primary source documents, including confidential law
enforcement files, court transcripts and interviews;
-explores the group's activities in detail, depicting some of the
most notorious crimes in Philadelphia's history;
-thoroughly examines the organization of the Black Mafia and the
group's alliances, conspiracies and conflicts;
-challenges many of the current historical and theoretical
assumptions regarding organized crime.
From Los Angeles and New York to Chicago and Miami, street gangs
are regarded as one of the most intractable crime problems facing
our cities, and a vast array of resources is being deployed to
combat them. This book chronicles the astounding
self-transformation of one of the most feared gangs in the United
States into a social movement acting on behalf of the dispossessed,
renouncing violence and the underground economy, and requiring
school attendance for membership.
What caused the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation of New York
City to make this remarkable transformation? And why has it not
happened to other gangs elsewhere? David C. Brotherton and Luis
Barrios were given unprecedented access to new and
never-before-published material by and about the Latin Kings and
Queens, including the group's handbook, letters written by members,
poems, rap songs, and prayers. In addition, they interviewed more
than one hundred gang members, including such leaders as King Tone
and King Hector. Featuring numerous photographs by award-winning
photojournalist Steve Hart, the book explains the symbolic
significance for the gang of hand gestures, attire, rituals, and
rites of passage. Based on their inside information, the authors
craft a unique portrait of the lives of the gang members and a
ground-breaking study of their evolution.
In the post-Cold war period new security threats have arisen in
Western Europe. Amongst these, organized crime and illegal
immigration are acknowledged to represent significant security
challenges. The European Union and Internal Security analyses the
nature of these challenges and investigates how the EU has been
evolving to counter them. Written by experts in the fields of
political science and law, this book addresses a hitherto neglected
area of study.
With the advent of Aboriginal street gangs such as Indian Posse,
Manitoba Warriors, and Native Syndicate, Winnipeg garnered a
reputation as the "gang capital of Canada." Yet beyond the
stereotypes of outsiders, little is known about these street gangs
and the factors and conditions that have produced them. "Indians
Wear Red" locates Aboriginal street gangs in the context of the
racialized poverty that has become entrenched in the colonized
space of Winnipeg's North End. Drawing upon extensive interviews
with Aboriginal street gang members as well as with Aboriginal
women and elders, the authors develop an understanding from
"inside" the inner city and through the voices of Aboriginal people
- especially street gang members themselves. While economic
restructuring and neo-liberal state responses can account for the
global proliferation of street gangs, the authors argue that
colonialism is a crucial factor in the Canadian context,
particularly in western Canadian urban centres. Young Aboriginal
people have resisted their social and economic exclusion by acting
collectively as "Indians." But just as colonialism is destructive,
so too are street gang activities, including the illegal trade in
drugs. Solutions lie not in "quick fixes" or "getting tough on
crime" but in decolonization: re-connecting Aboriginal people with
their cultures and building communities in which they can safely
live and work.
'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
What is human trafficking? Despite legislative developments and
national and international interventions, we still lack firm
definitions, estimates of its full extent, effective responses to
perpetrators and sound survivor care. This volume critically
examines the competing discourses surrounding human trafficking,
the conceptual basis of global responses and the impact of these
horrific acts worldwide.
'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.
'Brilliant seaside noir, the action play[s] out at cracking pace in
the rough and seedy resort' Sunday Times Crime Club 'Be prepared to
immerse yourself in Great Yarmouth's murky underworld with this
great thriller' Five Stars, The Sun - 'Book of the Week' For the
first time in years, Tatiana Goodwin feels in control. She has
survived events which would make most people give up and go into
hiding. Yet Tati is still here, surrounded by her loyal family and
even daring to expand the Goodwin empire. But when her son Ben gets
kidnapped by a rival gang and the blame lies with her, the ghosts
of Tati's past catch up and she begins to crumble. Now, it is down
to the ever-loyal Frank to do everything he can to get Ben back and
keep the family together. Frank has been in this business for a
long time - he knows who to confide in and who will give up the
information he so desperately needs. But what he doesn't realise is
that there is a new threat in town, and all those old trusted
sources are answering to a different power. Tati needs to wake up
fast to the fact that it is not just their empire on the line -
their lives are at serious risk, and only a heartbreaking sacrifice
can save them. More praise for the series so far: 'The Godfather in
Great Yarmouth' Ian Rankin 'An atmospheric and riveting tale'
Guardian * * * * * The Sun 'Harry Brett writes a fun plot with
witty elegance' The Times 'Fearsomely good' Nicci French 'A 21st
century Long Good Friday' Tony Parsons 'Taut and atmospheric' Eva
Dolan 'Gripping, compelling, original crime drama' Dreda Say
Mitchell 'Darkly brooding and atmospheric' M.J. McGrath 'Time to
Win redraws the landscape of British noir' Stav Sherez 'A tour de
force' William Ryan 'I loved Time to Win' Julia Crouch 'Gritty and
stark' Sunday Mirror
In the post-Cold War era, economic globalization has resulted in
the buying and selling of human beings. Poverty, social
instability, lawlessness, gender biases, and ethnic hostility have
entrapped millions in the world of modern day slavery, with the
result that human trafficking is one of the fastest growing
criminal industries in the world. Every year, men, women, and
children from across the globe are transported within or across
borders for the purpose of forced labor and sexual exploitation.
Despite the plethora of journalistic articles written on human
trafficking there is a need for more rigorous academic analysis of
the phenomenon. Although groups from many different ideologies have
embraced policies to end human trafficking, there are still many
gaps and unanswered questions, particularly with regard to the
amount of, and nature of the phenomenon. This book provides an
insight into the complexity of human trafficking by addressing both
how the scope of globalization impacts the sex industry and forced
labor, and how vulnerability is a growing cause of human
trafficking, affecting traditional diasporic and migratory
patterns. This book was originally published as a special issue of
the Journal of Intercultural Studies.
Digital Pirates examines the unauthorized creation, distribution,
and consumption of movies and music in Brazil. Alexander Sebastian
Dent offers a new definition of piracy as indispensable to current
capitalism alongside increasing global enforcement of intellectual
property (IP). Complex and capricious laws might prohibit it, but
piracy remains a core activity of the twenty-first century.
Combining the tools of linguistic and cultural anthropology with
models from media studies and political economy, Digital Pirates
reveals how the dynamics of IP and piracy serve as strategies for
managing the gaps between texts-in this case, digital content.
Dent's analysis includes his fieldwork in and around Sao Paulo with
pirates, musicians, filmmakers, police, salesmen, technicians,
policymakers, politicians, activists, and consumers. Rather than
argue for rigid positions, he suggests that Brazilians are pulled
in multiple directions according to the injunctions of
international governance, localized pleasure, magical consumption,
and economic efficiency. Through its novel theorization of "digital
textuality," this book offers crucial insights into the qualities
of today's mediascape as well as the particularized political and
cultural norms that govern it. The book also shows how twenty-first
century capitalism generates piracy and its enforcement
simultaneously, while producing fraught consumer experiences in
Latin America and beyond.
'A gripping true crime mystery... a must-read' Greg Grandin,
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The End of Myth 'An essential
book' Joe Jackson, author of The Thief at the End of the World Deep
in the heart of the Amazon, an entire region has lived under the
control of one notorious land baron: Joselio de Barros. Joselio cut
a grisly path to success: having arrived in the jungle with a shady
past, he quickly made a name for himself as an invincible thug who
grabbed massive tracts of public land, burned down the jungle and
executed or enslaved anyone trying to stop him. Enter Dezinho, the
leader of a small but robust farm workers' union fighting against
land grabs, ecological destruction, and blatant human rights
abuses. When Dezinho was killed in a shocking assassination, the
local community held its breath. Would Joselio, whom everyone knew
had ordered the hit, finally be brought to account? Or would
authorities look the other way, as they had hundreds of times
before? Dezinho's widow, Dona Joelma, was not about to let that
happen. After his murder, she stepped into the spotlight,
orchestrating a huge push to bring national media attention to the
injustices in the Amazon. Set against the backdrop of Bolsonaro's
devastating cuts to environmental protections, Brazil's rapidly
changing place in the geopolitical spectrum, and the Amazon's
crucial role in climate change, Masters of the Lost Land is both a
gripping epic into one of the last wild places on Earth and an
urgent illustration of how people are fighting for - and winning -
justice for their futures and the environment.
A collection of ten papers, some about organized crime in the
Netherlands published over the past five years, and others more
recent studies of the cross-border species. They discuss business
crime-enterprises in the Netherlands, relations with legitimate
industry, implications for crime risks in an
"Fighting the Mafia" is his dramatic tale of witness and survival,
of his effort to expose Mafia infiltration of the highest levels of
Italy's national politics, and of the movement he helped build-in
the schools and churches, and at the ballot box - to recapture
Sicilian culture and inspire a renaissance of democracy.
When we think of the Italian Mafia, we think of Marlon Brando, Tony
Soprano, and the Corleones--iconic actors and characters who give
shady dealings a mythical pop presence. Yet these sensational
depictions take us only so far. The true story of the Mafia reveals
both an organization and mindset dedicated to the preservation of
tradition. It is no accident that the rise of the Mafia coincided
with the unification of Italy and the influx of immigrants into
America. The Mafia means more than a horse head under the
sheets--it functions as an alternative to the state, providing its
own social and political justice. Combining a nuanced history with
a unique counternarrative concerning stereotypes of the immigrant,
Salvatore Lupo, a leading historian of modern Italy and a major
authority on its criminal history, has written the definitive
account of the Sicilian Mafia from 1860 to the present. Consulting
rare archival sources, he traces the web of associations, both
illicit and legitimate, that have defined Cosa Nostra during its
various incarnations. He focuses on several crucial periods of
transition: the Italian unification of 1860 to 1861, the murder of
noted politician Notarbartolo, fascist repression of the Mafia, the
Allied invasion of 1943, social conflicts after each world war, and
the major murders and trials of the 1980s. Lupo identifies the
internal cultural codes that define the Mafia and places these
codes within the context of social groups and communities. He also
challenges the belief that the Mafia has grown more ruthless in
recent decades. Rather than representing a shift from "honorable"
crime to immoral drug trafficking and violence, Lupo argues the
terroristic activities of the modern Mafia signify a new desire for
visibility and a distinct break from the state. Where these
pursuits will take the family adds a fascinating coda to Lupo's
work.
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