Author:

Keywords:

organised crime, mafia, illegal markets, Europe, Social Sciences, Criminology & Penology, Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary, Social Sciences - Other Topics, BLACK-MARKET, ENTERPRISE, ECONOMY, 1602 Criminology, 1606 Political Science, 1801 Law, Criminology, 4402 Criminology, 4404 Development studies, 4803 International and comparative law

Abstract:

The paper argues that the concept of organised crime inconsistently incorporates the following notions: a) the provision of illegal goods and services and b) a criminal organization, understood as a large-scale collectivity, primarily engaged in illegal activities with a well-defined collective identity and subdivision of work among its members. Against this superimposition, the author's contention is twofold: (1) The supply of illegal commodities mainly takes place in a 'disorganized' way and, due to the constraints of product illegality, no immanent tendency towards the development of large-scale criminal enterprises within illegal markets exist. (2) Some lasting large-scale criminal organizations do exist, but they are neither exclusively involved in illegal market activities, nor is their development and internal configuration the result of illegal market dynamics.