Klaus von Lampe

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.

Analyzing Illegal Activities, Criminal Structures, and Extra-legal Governance

Organized Crime

Dina Siegel

P. C. van Duyne

Georgios A. Antonopoulos

Jackie H. Harvey

Crime can be seen as an act of defiance against the rule of law, particularly if is committed with intent. This intension is often to make unlawful gains, whether by theft, corruption or taking part in illegal markets, which in Europe are most often cross-border in nature. This entails that criminal defiance is not just a national issue: theft or fraud can be committed locally, while handling the illicit proceeds may require a cross-border movement. Obviously not every state faces the same defiance, or prioritises the same defiance. That may induce stronger states, for example the USA in its 'war-on' policy, to exert pressure on smaller states to accept the same interpretation (and legislation) of criminal defiance. Such 'legislative imperialism' may itself be considered as defiant. Criminal defiance is risky: the authorities do not like to be seen as 'soft' and must visibly 'hit back'. So successful criminals must keep a low profile, though some crime groups, such as the criminal motor-cycle gangs, defy this principle by ostentatious conduct. Likewise, in the case of grand corruption in states where corruption has become endemic, we see criminal defiance, in the case of some eastern European countries the defiance by oligarchs, being a public matter. The 20th Cross-border Crime Colloquium, hosted in 2019 by the Willem Pompe Institute of Utrecht University, presents this peer-reviewed volume to which 32 authors from all over Europe have contributed. It covers a broad range of expertise and original research projects: from the UK, Germany and further to Russian Siberia and back to the frayed fringes of the Mediterranean shores where a host of migrant workers is ready to defy fate for a better life.

Criminal Defiance in Europe Beyond

Nikos Passas

Upperworld and Underworld in Cross-border Crime

Klaus von Lampe

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