International organised crime
Week 1
Lecture 1: from Mafia to Transnational Organised Crime
Definitions
Cross border crime/transnational crime = behaviour which jeopardizes the legally protected
interest in more than one national jurisdiction and which is criminalized in at least one of the
states/jurisdictions concerned e.g. drug smuggling from NL to VS
Transnational organized crime = transnational crime carried out by organizations: a structured
group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim
of committing one or more serious crimes or offenses in order to obtain (in)directly, a financial
or other material benefit.
- What is a period of time? What is serious crime? Besides the material benefit, organized
crime is also committed for power.
Structure and organisations
1. Pyramid: hierarchical structure in which there is a boss at the top and soldiers at the
bottom. Orders flow from the top to the bottom. This is the traditional
organization e.g. Italian mafia
2. Patron-Client network: crime groups operate as smaller units within
an umbrella organisation. At the centre of each organized unit is a
boss and underboss. They are surrounded by captains. Orbiting
around the captains are the members of the unit, who act as partrons.
Each unit is tied to another ’family’ whose sovereignty is recognized
by the boss. Offenders cooperate in changing links, dependent on
which link they need. e.g. Ndrangheta
Mafia groups
Mafia families impose a life-long status contract on their members. Members are required to
assume a new identity: the status of men of honour and to subordinate all loyalties to mafia
membership.
There are different initiation rituals:
1. The use of symbols like knives, blood, blindsfolds and oaths
2. No use of symbols, but only questions and answers
The contracts are also fraternisation contracts: recruits are bound to become brothers of other
members. Trust and solidarty created by fraternisation contracts enable the achievement of
goals and the satisfaction of members’ instrumental needs.
Principles of mafia
1. Vendetta = code of honour: if someone kills a family member of yours, you are obliged to
take revange
2. Omerta = obligation of silence
Principles of organized crime: secrecy, trust and violence.
The principles of organized crime is the reason why organized crime continues to exist.
1. Secrecy: in order to conceal illicit activities and to protect contracts, clients, partners
from competition. Two main consequences of the secretive character:
I. Distinction between hieracy of roles and hierarchy of knowledge: the hierarchy
of roles is random and any event may influence the position in the hierarchy, the
level of knowledge is a permanent acquirement that is far more significant.
II. Interactions with non-members is only possible in the ‘’grey zone’’. Issues of the
grey zone: influence the political and economy systems by fuelling unfair
1
, competition e.g. offering politicians the possibility of buying votes and difficult to
find evidence.
2. Trust: criminals trust each other because of reputation, family ties, satisfaction with
profits: if a business was successful before, it will be successful in the future as well
3. Violence: reasons to use violence
I. To fight the competition and establish monopoly.
II. To settle the conflict between the rival parties
III. To guarantee loyalty and respect for prevailing norms and codes of behaviour
Violence is the last resort, because violence gets the attention of the police and it gives a
negative image of the leader.
Chapter 1: Reflections on the Sicilian Mafia (Siegel)
The setting
Mafia developed in Italy when a modern state structure imposed itself on an agrarian society. In
the absence of effective control over means like violence, Italian politicians chose to rule Siciliy
through its dominant class of absentee landlords. The absentee landlords entrusted its
management to leaseholders who had a reputation for violence. These leaseholders formed the
backstone of the rural mafia, which consisted of loosely formed coalitions called cosche/families.
The Sicilian mafia was not criminal in the beginning.
Profile
Mafioso controlled local resources, like property, markets, services and votes. They operated in
collusion with members of the elite: landlords, politicians, governments officials and
bussinessmen. This relationship involved mutual protection and exchange of favours. Mafiosi
successfully infiltrated public institutions, including political parties, local governments and
legal firms through their own personal network. The Mafiosi had a great impact on the
government. Inspired by the fear and admiration of the Mafiosi, the local population would
rarely turn against them prosecution of Mafiosi was not possible.
Representation: hierarchy vs segmentation
Mafia are structured by ties of kinship, marriage, and friendship, who control local resources
with violent methods while enjoying impunmity because of their contiguity with members of the
elite. The relationship between ‘’families’’ are characterized by conflict and accommodation,
rather than coordinated or controlled from the top. Breaches of conventions and betrayal are
common in mafia structures. There are failed attempts to coordinate the relations of ‘’families’’
from above by a Commision. The Commission of Cosa Nostra was put together to coordinate
intra-mafia violence and to impose a pax mafiosa.
Pax Mafiosa = international organised crime groupings are efficiently working together.
There is no violence in the territories of organized crime groups, because there is an
agreement not to interfere in criminal activities.
The Comission fell apart, because the representatives could not agree on an overall policy or
tried to outmanoeuvre each other and dominate the Comission. The Ciaculli affair 1 officially
ended what had remained of the Comission. There was a second mafia war in which thousand
Mafiosi died. This demonstrates that the Mafia cannot be understood as a single entity: there
was a changing alliance in and between ‘’families’’ hierarchy gave way for segmentation.
Transitions
The Scilian mafia lost its relationship with the state and disappeared as public figures. There are
several circumstances responsible for this transition:
1
Massacre caused by a car bomb that killed police and military officers. The bomb was however intented
to kill the head of the Scilian Mafia Commission and the one responsible for the attack was another mafia
boss.
2
, 1. The mafia moved into the international trade in narcotics which produced huge profits
but entailed high risks struggles between rival ‘’families’’. Interference of the state in
this struggle, lead to terror against the representatives = conflict between Mafiosi and
Italian state. The state could not accept this warfare and had to take a strong position
against the mafia – state repression: effective proceedings against Mafiosi, because some
mafisio provided evidence to the state (=pentit).
2. Demise of communism in Europe: when the communist party was still big, the Italian
Christian Democrats could not turn away from the informal support: mafioso supported
the Christian Democrats by providing votes. However the demise of communism
undermined the reason for the mafia to exist.
Introduction: Global Crime Today (Galeotii)
Globalisation of the legal economy prosperty fuels demand for more illicit services, improved
policing forced criminals to become more organised. Global organised crime is moving from
traditional hierarchies towards more flexible forms of organisation. Criminal networks operate
as very loose networks, they may work together in specific cases and cooperate against common
threats, but there is no top-down control or coordination.
- Globalisation + flexible forms of organisation diffusion of identities of organized
crime: a gang no longer includes just one ethnic group, but people with the right skills
and contacts are accepted in the network as long as they are able to operate within the
dominant culture. There is a bigger network between gangs from a variety of ethnic
groups e.g. Turks might use Albanians to move heroin through Italian-control channels for
distribution in the Netherlands by local gangs.
There is also a blurring of the boundaries between crime and the state: involvement of the state
with crime does not become a short-term aid, but a basic policy.
Drivers
Changes which influence the way in which crime operates:
1. Technological drivers: new tools like internet banking, security of cell phone. It also
increases the ease of travellig and introduces new illicit items/services to be sold e.g.
synthetic drugs/waste disposal
2. Political drivers: political changes provide both opportunities (new trade in refugees,
Schengen Akkoord2) and barriers for criminals.
3. Economic drivers: the increase/decrease in demand influences the illicit trade. Besides
that, economic growth may create new illicit opportunities e.g. creating passage to
Europa, trading in new drugs.
4. Enforcement drivers: police operations influence global crime e.g. pressure against the
Italian Mafias has forced them to become more cautions, geographical displacement
5. Internal drivers: alliances between organisations maximises efficiency, while
competition may destroy an organisation.
Criminal Clusters: State and Organised Crime in a Globalised World (Armao)
Globalisation and deconstruction of the state
State-building follows diverging patterns, but there are some constants in the developing of a
modern state:
1. Monopolisation = construction of a centralised military, judicial and administrative
apparatus.
2. Passage from a ‘’private’’ monopoly3 to a ‘’public’’ monopoly4: the sovereign is dependent
on those who contribute to the procurement of the resources of the state. As soon as the
2
Verdrag dat vrij verkeer van personen mogelijk maakt
3
Production is owned, controlled and managed by the individual/private organization = profit-oriented
4
Government agency is the sole provider of a good or service, there is no competton
3
