Organized Crime and States - 9780230622869

"This is just the kind of book that is presently needed. It has a precise focus: delinquency and the power of the state. It transcends ethnocentricity through its transnational approach and breaks away from the single discipline perspective by bringing together different methods of analysis. A seminal book on an important subject."---Jean-Paul Brodeur, Director, International Centre for Comparative Criminology, Universite de Montreal

Going against a globalizing approach of "transnational organized crime," this edited volume studies socio-historical environments in which mafia type violence has found a fertile ground for growth and development within the political game. The various chapters explore through empirical data how political-criminal configurations emerge and are formed and allow for interactions between the official power stakeholders and professionals of the use of force. The essays cover topics such as the links between military know-how and political power in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey; re-conversion of entrepreneurs of violence into the Russian or Bulgarian political games; political racketeering activities of leaders of the armed nationalist movement in Corsica; interactions between the Calabrese mafia and business; investment of the Belizean government in illegal activities; and monetary illegalism in the Somalia conflict. The various chapters of the book encourage a comparative approach on the use of mafia violence in the making and running of State power.