Varieties of Criminal Organisation

John Lea (2008)

Introduction

Many criminal organisations are forms of 'government', that is to say that they exercise control over populations and resources. This is done often in the face of the agencies of the legitimate state which seek to disrupt and repress such organisations. But sometimes these criminal organisations are more powerful than legitimate states or, on occasion, act as their proxies. At the same time criminal organisations may be powerful economic agencies, manufacturing and trading resources over wide areas of the globe, again, in the face of opposition by legitimate states and economic enterrises or, on occasion, in collusion with them. Criminal organisations have developed modern and sophisticated forms of communication and networking which respond very well to the requirements of global communication and interaction. 

In these four sessions we shall take a glimpse at some aspects of these processes. In the first two sessions we shall look at two forms of criminal government - mafias and warlords - and in the second two sessions at two forms of criminal communications - traffickers and terrorist networks. We shall also attempt to investigate the blurred boundaries between and interactions, among, all four

A useful introductory essay which you should begin by reading is 

Lea, J., & Stenson, K. (2007). Security, Sovereignty, and Non-State Governance “From Below”. Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 22(2), 9-27.

1. Mafias

The Sicilian Mafia is one of the oldest and most well known criminal organisations in Europe. It was not simply a group involved in various forms of criminal enterprise such as extortion or trading illegal commodities. It was also a system of power and local political rule. Indeed some commentators would argue this was its main activity. In recent years commentators (e.g. Frederico Varese) have drawn analogies between the Sicilian Mafia and the newer powerful systems of organised crime (popularly known as 'Mafiya') that developed in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. Also during the wars in former Yugoslavia during the mid 1990s the role of Mafia-type organisations in the organisation of war economies was also noted.

reading - introduction

Lea, John (2002) Crime and Modernity. London: Sage Publications (especially pp 70-74, 149-160)

the Sicilian Mafia as a system of rule

Paoli, Letizia (2003) Mafia brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Paoli, Letizia (2005) 'Italian Organised Crime: Mafia Associations and Criminal Enterprises' in Mark Galeotti ed. Global Crime Today: The Changing Face of Organised Crime. London: Routledge

Paoli, Letizia (2002) 'The Paradoxes of Organised Crime' Crime Law and Social Change (37)1: 51-97

Arlacchi, Pino (1985) Mafia business: The Mafia ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gambetta, Diego (1993) The Sicilian Mafia: the business of private protection. New York: Harvard University Press.

Catanzaro, Raimondo (1994) 'Violent Social Regulation: Organized Crime in the Italian South' Social and Legal Studies (3) pp 267-79

Catanzaro, Raimondo (1992) Men of Respect: a social history of the sicilian mafia. New York: The Free Press

Blok, Anton (1974) The Mafia of a Sicilian Village 1860-1980: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Dickie, John (2004) Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia. London: Hodder

Lewis, Norman (1964) The Honoured Society: The Sicilian Mafia Observed . London: Eland Books

Hess, Henner (1973) Mafia and Mafiosi: The Structure of Power. Farnborough: Saxon House

comparing Sicilian and Russian systems of organised crime

Varerse, Frederico (2001) The Russian Mafia: Private Protection in a New Market Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Varese, Frederico (1994) 'Is Sicily the Future of Russia? Private Protection and the rise of the Russian Mafia.' European Journal of Sociology 35(2) 224-258

Volkov, Vadim (2002). Violent Entrepreneurs: The Use of Force in the Making of Russian Capitalism. New York: Cornell University Press.

Rawlinson, Patricia (1998) 'Mafia, Media and Myth: Representations of Russian Organised Crime' Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 37:4 pp 346-358

Rawlinson, Patricia (1998) 'Russian Organised Crime: moving beyond ideology' in Ruggiero, V. South, N. Taylor, I. eds. The New European Criminology: crime and social order in Europe. pp. 242-263 London: Routledge

Mafias in war situations: building criminal states

Tilly, C. (1985). War Making and State Making as Organized Crime. In P. Evans, D. Rueschemeyer, & T. Skocpol (eds), Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (pp169–91).

Strazzari, F. (2003) Between Ethnic Collusion and Mafia Collusion: The "Balkan Route" to State-Making. In D. Jung (ed), Shadow Globalisation, Ethnic Conflicts and New Wars: a political economy of intra-state war. London: Routledge.

Schlichte, K. (2003). State formation and the economy of intra-state wars. In D. Jung (ed), Shadow Globalization, Ethnic Conflicts and New Wars: a political economy of intra-state war. London: Routledge.
 

2. Warlords

The study of 'warlords' has become increasingly important in recent years. Warlords are similar to Mafia in the exercise of non-state power, backed by armed force to control resources and populations in a particular region. But unlike the Sicilian Mafia, warlords exercise power less in collusion with state authorities and more likely as a result of the collapse of legitimate state regimes. They play a significan role in what have come to be termed 'new wars'. We saw in the previous session that some organised crime groups certainly operate in such circumstances and so the boundary between mafias and warlords in blurred.  Two areas in which warlord regimes are particularly important at the present time are Africa and Afghanistan. The latter is interesting as a case study of the complex relations between regional warlords and the attempts to stabilise and extend the power of central government. In the African context the main focus will be on role of warlords in the recent conflict in Sierra Leone, though at the present time the situation in Somalia and Congo DRC are important examples. However in all the case studies the role of illegal commodities ( for example opium for illegal heroin in Afghanistan and 'blood diamonds' in Sierra Leone) and the popular notion that areas run by warlords are 'failed states', leads to a focus on the complex connections between warlord regimes, international organised crime and transnational corporations

reading – introduction and general surveys

MacKinlay, John (2000) ‘Defining warlords’, International Peacekeeping 7:1 (download)

Roberts, J. (1989) ‘Warlordism in China’, Review of African Political Economy, 16:45/46 

Duffield, Mark (1998) 'Post-Modern Conflict: Warlords, Post Adjustment States and Private Protection,' Civil Wars, vol. 1, no. 1

Kaldor, Mary (1999) New and Old Wars: organized violence in a global era. Cambridge: Polity Press

Muenkler, Herfried (2005) The New Wars. Cambridge: Polity

Jackson, Paul (2003). Warlords as alternative forms of Governance. Small Wars and Insurgencies, 14(2): 131-150.

Duffield, Mark (2001) Global Governance and the New Wars: the merging of development and security. London: Zed Books

Simpson, Gerry (2004) Great Powers and Outlaw States: Unequal Sovereigns in the International Legal Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Jung, Dietrich (ed.) (2003) Shadow Globalization, Ethnic Conflicts and New Wars: Political Economy of Intra-State War. London: Routledge, 

Reno, William (2002) 'Mafiya Troubles, Warlord Crises,' in Mark R. Beissinger and Crawford Young, eds., Beyond State Crisis? Postcolonial Africa and Post-Soviet Eurasia in Comparative Perspective. Woodrow Wilson Center Press 

Michael Mann, “The Dark Side of Democracy,” New Left Review 235 (1999), pp. 18-45

Africa

Reno, William (1998) Warlord Politics and African States. Boulder: Lynne Rienner

Orugun, Paul (2003) 'Plunder, Predation and Profiteering: the Political Economy of Armed Conflicts and Economic Violence in Modern Africa.' Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, 2(2): 283-313

Orugun, Paul (2004) 'Blood Diamonds’ and Africa’s Armed Conflicts in the Post-Cold War Era,' World Affairs, 166(3): 151-61

Chabal, P. and Daloz, J. (1999) Africa Works: Disorder as a Political Instrument. Oxford: International African Institute /James Currey. (esp chapter 6)

Giustozzi, Antonio (2005) The Debate on Warlordism: The Importance of Military Legitimacy. Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science. Discussion Paper 13. London: LSE (download here)

Keen, David (2005) Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone. London: James Currey 

Soggot, M. (2002).  Conflict Diamonds Are Forever.  International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. (webpage here)

Bayart, J.F., Hibou, B., & Ellis, S. (1999). The Criminalization of the State in Africa. Oxford: International African Institute /James Currey.
 

Recent conflicts in Congo DRC

To familiarise yourself with the recent history of the region you could do no better than go to the Open Democracy website and read the recent (November 2008) article by Gérard Prunier (webpage here) The page contains numerous links to other information. Also useful is Guardian correspondant Chris McGreal's introduction to the current confict (view here)

More in-depth is Gabi Hesselbein (2007) THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE CONGOLESE STATE. LSE Crisis States Research Centre (download here) Frederick Golooba-Mutebi's paper on neighbouring Rwanda is also useful (download here)

Specifically on warlords, one of the most important and high profile current 'warlords' is General Laurent Nkunda. Typing his name into Google will yield a large number of results. There is a useful Guardian profile here  and a similar profile on the BBC website here.

Afghanistan

Giustozzi, Antonio (2003) Respectable Warlords? The Politics of State-Building in Post-Taleban Afghanistan. Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science. Working Paper 33. London: LSE (download here)

Giustozzi, Antonio (2006) "Tribes" and Warlords in Southern Afghanistan, 1980-2005 Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science. Working Paper 7 (series 2) (download here)

Giustozzi, Antonio (2004) 'Good' State vs. 'Bad' Warlords? A Critique of State-Building Strategies in Afghanistan. Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science. Working Paper 51 (download here)

Rashid, Ahmed (2001). Taliban: The Story of the Afghan Warlords. London: Pan Books

Gannon, Kathy (2004) 'Afghanistan Unbound,' Foreign Affairs, (May/June) and reply letter by Kimberly Marten, 'Warlords as Stakeholders' in same.

Roy, Olivier (1986) Islam and resistance in Afghanistan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Rupp, Richard (2006) 'High Hopes and Limited Prospects: Washingtonʹs Security and Nation Building Aims in Afghanistan' Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 19(2)

global links – to terrorism and organised crime

Farah, Douglas (2003) The Role of Conflict Diamonds and Failed States in the Terrorist Financial Structure (webpage here) 

Barnes, Sandra (2005) 'Global Flows: Terror, Oil and Strategic Philanthropy,' African Studies Review, 48, 1 : 1-22

Nguyen, M. (2005) 'The Question of Failed States' Briefing Paper, UNIYA Jesuit Social Justice Center. (webpage here) (a useful overview with an Australian orientation and list of web resources on failed states) 

UN Report (2001) on illegal exploitation of mineral resources in Central Africa (illustrating role of mining companies)

3. Traffickers 

While a vast amount of illegal economic transactions are carried out by perfectly legal entities including states, trafficking in illegal commodities is a major activity of organised crime groups. In this session the stress will be on links between traffickers and the other groups we are discussing in these seminars: notably warlords and terrorists and those forms of trafficking which most closely relate to the relations between these groups (e.g. drugs and small arms).  You can read my lecture on relations between terrorism and organised crime here

reading-general 

special issue of CONNECTIONS journal (volume 24, Issue 3, 2001) on criminal networks. Articles by Rothenberg, Krebs and Klerks

Armao, Fabio (2003) 'Why is organized crime so successful?' in Felia Allum and Renate Siebert eds. Organized Crime and the Challenge to Democracy. London: Routledge

Friman, Richard and Peter Andreas (eds.), (1999) Illicit Global Economy and State Power. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield

Andreas, Peter (2004) 'Illicit International Political Economy: the Clandestine Side of Globalization'. Review of International Political Economy 11(3): 641-652

Naylor, Tom (2002) Wages of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance, and the Underworld Economy.  Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press

Mittelman, James and Robert Johnston, (1999),'The Globalization of Organized Crime: the Courtesan State, and the Corruption of Civil Society' Global Governance, 5(1): 103-127

Williams, Phil  (1994) 'Transnational Criminal Organisations and International Security', Survival, 36(1): 96-113

Williams, Phil  (1999) Getting Rich and Getting Even: Transnational Threats in the Twenty-First Century? in Einstein, S. and Amir, M. (eds.)  Organised Crime: Uncertainties and Dilemmas. Chicago: University of Illinois

Bruinsma, Gerben and Wim Bernasco (2004) Criminal groups and transnational illegal markets. Crime, Law & Social Change 41: 79–94

Berdal, Mats (ed) (2002) Transnational Organized Crime & International Security. Boulder: Lynne Rienner

arms and drugs trafficking 

Naim, Moises (2005) Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy. London: Heinemann (esp. chapters 1-4)

Zaitch, Damian (2002) Trafficking Cocaine Colombian Drug Entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. The Hague: Kluwer Law International


Lumpe, Lora ed., (2000) Running Guns: The Global Black Market in Small Arms. London: Zed Books

Ruggiero, Vincenzo (1996) 'War Markets: Corporate and Organized Criminals in Europe' Social and Legal Studies 5 pp 5-20

Chouvy, Pierre-Arnaud (2003) 'Opiate smuggling routes from Afghanistan to Europe and Asia'  Jane's Intelligence Review, March, pp28-31

Buddenberg, D and W. Byrd eds (2006) Afghanistan's Drug Industry.  New York: UN Office on Drugs and Crime/ World Bank (download here) 

Dupuy. P et al. (2006)  Violence, Crime and Illegal Arms Trafficking in Colombia. Bogota: UN Office on Drugs and Crime (download here)

Cragin, K. and B. Hoffman (2003) Arms Trafficking in Colombia. Washington DC Rand Corp. (download here)

Cornell, S. (2007). 'Narcotics and Armed Conflict: Interaction and Implications'. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 30(3), 207-227

Goodson, Larry (2005) 'Bullets, Ballots, and Poppies in Afghanistan' Journal of Democracy, 16(1) 

Goodhand, Jonathan (2005). "Frontiers and Wars: the Opium Economy in Afghanistan".  Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 5, No. 2 (April).

forms of criminal organisation

Coles, N (2001) 'It's not what you know - it's who you know that counts: analysing serious crime groups as social networks.' British Journal of Criminology Vol 41, pp 580-594

Chattoe, Edmund and Heather Hamill (2005). 'It's Not Who You Know - It's What You Know About People You Don't Know That Counts: Extending the
Analysis of Crime Groups as Social Networks'. British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 45, pp. 860-876

Naylor, Tom (1997). 'Mafias, Myths and Markets: On the Theory and Practice of Enterprise Crime'.  Transnational Organized Crime, Vol 3, No 3.

Reuter, Peter (1983) Disorganized Crime: Illegal Markets and the Mafia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hobbs, D. (1998) 'Going down the Glocal: The Local Context of Organised Crime'. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 37:4 pp 407-422

Williams, Phil (2001) 'Transnational Criminal Networks' in John Arquilla, and David Ronfeldt (editors) Networks and Netwars The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy. Washington DC Rand Corporation (download here)

Carter, David (1997) 'International Organized Crime Emerging Trends in Entrepreneurial Crime. in Ryan, P. Rush, G. eds. Understanding Organized Crime in Global Perspective. London Sage Publications

Kenny, M. (2007) 'The Architecture of Drug Trafficking: Network forms of organisation in the Colombian Cocaine Trade'. Global Crime 8(3): 233-259

4. Terrorists 

Since '9/11' terrorism has had a high media profile and is a major focus of law enforcement and politics. Our themes in this session will be (1) how far do modern forms of terrorism - such as Al Quaeda - exhibit a decentralised network form of organisation, similar to that which we discussed with regard to organised crime and (2) what are the links, if any, between terrorist and organised crime networks?

reading - contemporary terrorism

special issue of CONNECTIONS journal (volume 24 Issue 3, 2001) on terrorist and criminal networks. Articles by Klerks Krebs and Rothenberg

Burke, J. (2004) Al-Qaeda : The True Story of Radical Islam.  London, New York: I.B. Tauris (review)

Mohamedou, M. (2007). Understanding Al Qaeda: The Transformation of War. London: Pluto Press

Wieviorka, Michel (2007) 'From Classical Terrorism to “Global” Terrorism' International Journal of Conflict and Violence  1(2): 92–104 (download here)

Guelke, Adrian (2006) Terrorism and Global Disorder. London: I.B. Tauris

Hoffman, Bruce (2003) 'Terrorism: Trends and Prospects.' in Ian Lesser, Bruce Hoffman et al. eds. Countering the New Terrorism. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation (download here)

Olivero, A. and Lauderdale, P. (2005) 'Terrorism as Deviance or Social Control: Suggestions for Future Research' International Journal of Comparative Sociology 46(1-2): 153-169) (online here)

Cunningham, W. et al (2003) Terrorism: Concepts, Causes and Conflict Resolution. Washington DC: George Mason University (download here)

Pape, Robert (2005) Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. New York: Random House

Hess, H. (2003). Like Zealots and Romans: Terrorism and Empire in the 21st Century. Crime, Law and Social Change , 4(4), 339-357

Morrison, Wayne (2006). Criminology, Civilisation and the New World Order. London: Routledge. (chapter 1)

Hobsbawm, E. (1994). Barbarism: A Users Guide. New Left Review (206), 44-54

Mann, M. (2001). Globalization and September 11. New Left Review (new series), 12, 51-72.

Mythen, G., & Walklate, S. (2006). Criminology and Terrorism: Which Thesis? Risk Society or Governmentality? British Journal of Criminology, 46, 379-398.

network organisation of terrorist groups

Arquilla, J. and D. Ronfeldt.  “The Advent of Netwar (Revisited).”  In John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, editors, Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy. Santa Monica, CA: RAND  (download here)

Takayh, R, and Gvosdev, N. (2002) Do Terrorist Networks Need a Home? The Washington Quarterly 25(3): 97–108 (download here)

Zanini, M., & Edwards, S. (2001). The Networking of Terror in the Information Age. In J. Arquilla & D. Ronfeldt (Eds), Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.  (download here)

links between terrorist and organised crime groups

Lea, J. (2007) Crime, War and Security. (on my website here)

Schmid, A. “Links between terrorist and organized crime networks: emerging patterns and trends” Transnational Organised Crime 2: 40-82

Dandurand, Y. and Chin, V. (2004) Links between terrorism and other forms of crime. Vancouver: International Centre for Criminal Law Reform (download here)

Oscapella, E. (2003) “How Drug Prohibition Finances and Otherwise Enables Terrorism“ Lisbon International Symposium on Global Drug Policy (October 2003) (download here)

Makarenko, Tamara (2002) Crime, Terror and the Central Asian Drugs Trade. Harvard Asia Quarterly 6(3) (online here)

Makarenko, Tamara (2004) 'The Crime-Terror Continuum: Tracing the interplay between Transnational Organised Crime and Terrorism' Global Crime 6(1):129-45

Global Witness (2003)  For a Few Dollars More: How al Qaeda Moved into the Diamond Trade (download here) 

Picarelli, John (2006) 'The Turbulent Nexus of Organised Crime and Terrorism: A theory of malevolent international relations.' Global Crime 7(1); 2-24

Dishman, C. (2001) 'Terrorism, crime and transformation' Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 24(1): 43-58