TASK FORCE REPORT..... FIFTY YEARS LATER

As a leading African human security research institution, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) works towards a stable and peaceful Africa characterised by sustainable development, human rights, the rule of law, democracy, collaborative security and gender mainstreaming. The ISS realises this vision by: Undertaking applied research, training and capacity building Working collaboratively with others Facilitating and supporting policy formulation Monitoring trends and policy implementation

SUMMARY This paper presents the key issues of organized crime researched by famous criminologists (among others Landesco, Thrasher,.). They have had a decisive influence on the way we understand it today and allowed us to better understand the parts of a complex mosaic that it embodies. In that mosaic there is a place for poor people from the bottom of the social ladder who want to get rich (" to succeed in life ") illegaly and for unscrupulous extortionists and those who were pushed due to vice into the criminal network; there are also inocent victims and drug addicts who seek products and services without which they (seemingly) can not; in this conglomerate are police officers and other officials of the judiciary who paid with their own life the desire to eradicate this social evil and also their corrupt colleagues who serve criminal clans instead citizens; there are politicians who honestly advocate for combating organized crime, and those who have established modus vivendi in which both parties win; the part of the story are citizens intimidated by media sensationalism but who in the same time buy smuggled goods because it is cheaper; the picture would not be complete without the actors in the " above-ground economy " who due to organized crime have huge losses but also the part of the legitimate business which cooperates with the criminal underground. Finally, in respect to states, some of them use a story of organized crime in order to introduce a complete control of citizens, the other to achieve geostrategic objectives, the third tolerate when it brings them benefit, the fourth are indirectly involved in its activities... However, it should be noted that despite all the efforts invested by many scientists and their research institutions, we still do not have complete knowledge on organized crime. Therefore, we are not able to give the answer to many questions (some are mentioned in this paper); organized crime in XXI century is therefore an open area for research that presents a real challenge for workers in social sciences. Much will depend on their ability to comprehend so far neglected aspects of this phenomenon and on their willingness to investigate in teams.

Society, 1979

or the past two decades the specter of "Mafia" has haunted America. The criminologist Donald Cressey has expressed fears that the Mafia might some day control the occupant of the White House. New York Times columnist William Safire fears it nearly succeeded in the case of John F. Kennedy; and journalist Robert Sam Anson even suggests that the Mafia was involved in Kennedy's assassination. Nicholas Gage adds, "If the Mafia were a legitimate corporation, it would top the list of Fortune magazine's Five Hundred largest corporations." Most Americans now take for granted that a secret criminal society of Sicilian origins, variously called the "Mafia" or "Cosa Nostra," lies at the heart of American organized crime. While belief in the Mafia was once derided, its acceptance has grown steadily since the sensational testimony of Joseph Valachi in the early 1960s. Today it is a journalist's clichr, the basis for numberless exposes and essays, and the cornerstone of public policy against organized crime. The image of Mafia is ominous but hazy. Its label is joined to a core of fearful but unproven assumptions endorsed by many criminologists, lawmen, and journalists and expounded in such places as the President's Crime Commission Report and Donald Cressey's Theft of the Nation.

2002

2014

2012

After Lyndon Johnson’s election in 1964, his administration focused increased energy on the issue of crime. The “Omnibus Crime Bill and Safe Streets Act of 1968” is a landmark piece of legislation that arose out of that focus. This essay will examine the social and political impetus for the bill. It will consider what assumptions, fears and agendas lead to this law, and how its sweeping powers and funding infrastructure radically expanded law enforcement apparatuses at the federal, state and local levels. As a result, the administration that postulated the “Great Society” arguably laid significant legal and ideological groundwork for the highly racialized hyper-incarceration of the last 35 years and the rise of the U.S. as a surveillance state.

2013

review-ro utledge-handbo o k-o f-transnatio nal-o rganized-crime/ By Ro bert Bunker Review -Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime By: Felia Allum and Stan Gilmour, eds. London: Routledge, 2012 T he Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime was f inished in the Spring of 2011 and provides a comprehensive and detailed 576 page overview of the topic of transnational organized crime (T OC). It is part of the acclaimed Routledge International Handbook series. T he work is edited by Felia Allum, University of Bath, and Stan Gilmour, T hames Valley Police. T his partnership very much helps to create a more usef ul and hybrid product melding academia (theory) with policing (practice). It contains the contributions of about f our-dozen authors, ranging f rom senior and established scholars through to younger academics, legal practitioners, and policing and intelligence services personnel. T he authors are, however, mostly f rom academia-with criminology, law, sociology/anthropology, and politics dominant. Geographically, the authors are primarily representative of the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, although a number of scholars f rom the Netherlands and Canada are also contributors. T he handbook is complimentary to some of the more general and country specif ic encyclopedias of organized crime-f illing the niche between them and those works f ocusing on specif ic individual or genres of transnational actors. It is a contemporary publication to Philip L. Reichel and Jay S. Albaneses' (eds) Handbook of Transnational Crime & Justice (Sage, 2013), and Mitchel P. Roth's, smaller and single authored, Global Organized Crime: A Reference Handbook (ABC-Clio, 2010). T he work, containing thirty-six chapters, is divided into six parts; (I) T heories, concepts, def initions and laws, (II) Origins and manif estations, (III) Contagion and evolution, (IV) Intensity and impact, (V) Governance, and (VI) Reaction and f uture. An individual chapter and author listing can be accessed via the publisher website. T he handbook also includes the prerequisite f ront pieces-such as a list of illustrations, f oreword, acknowledgements, contributor biographies, and introduction-and an index in the back of the work.

With the recent terrorist attacks on America and high profile cases of international computer crime and illegal trafficking in drugs and other goods, the Nation's law enforcement agencies are acutely aware of the imminent challenge of dealing with transnational criminal and terrorist organizations. In the project described in this report, NIJ sought to develop an exploratory, national survey to obtain data on transnational crime activity, perceptions of the problems these activities pose for local law enforcement and the resources needed to address these problems, and interagency communication and collaboration. Due to resource limitations, this report is restricted to a review of the literature, a description of research method development and data collection, and a descriptive overview of responses to the survey.

Being tough is not enough. Curbing transnational Organized Crime, 2013