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Hale et al: Criminology 2e

Chapter 14

References from the book:

Ryan, P.J. and Rush, G.E. (eds) (1997) Understanding Organized Crime in Global Perspective: A Reader. California: Sage Publications.
This is a perfect introduction to American perceptions of organized crime and includes wide ranging debates about the nature of organized crime and how different American administrations have responded to it. Its contributors include some of the leading US specialists on organized crime.

Edwards, A. and Gill, P. (eds) (2003) Transnational Organized Crime: Perspectives on Global Security. London: Routledge.
One of the first books published in Britain dedicated solely to transnational organized crime. Its importance lies in the fact that it contains contributions from practitioners as well as academics from a number of different specialist backgrounds.

Hobbs, D. (1988) Doing the Business. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
One of the classic texts on professional crime in the UK based on ethnographic research into illegal business in the East End. Hobbs not only provides a unique insight into the penumbral world of business and informal relations between the police and the criminal fraternity, but describes the rewards and problems (the latter sometimes with wry humor) of ethnographic research.

Howard Journal of Criminal Justice (Special Edition on Organized Crime), edited by Michael Levi. 37/4, 1998.
This special edition brings together a variety of perspectives on organized crime, including money-laundering, fraud, police strategies, media representations, and geographies written by academics and practitioners.

Ruggiero, V. (2000) Crime and Markets: Essays in Anti-Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ruggiero’s essays look at criminal activities within licit and illicit markets in a number of European countries. He discusses the ‘causality of contraries’, the notion that this type of crime is motivated by different causes involving a whole range of actors. This is an essential text for a critical perspective on the amorphous world of ‘organized crime’.

Other recommended sources:

The following is a list of personal favorites, media depictions of the criminal underworld that do not succumb to the usual over-dramatization of many Hollywood blockbusters. The strength of each is the social and personal context in which the main protagonists are placed.

The Sopranos HBO.
Shown on Channel 4. A hugely successful television series, which tells the story of Tony Soprano, a middle-aged crime boss, who struggles to manage family traumas, work problems, and his own neuroses.

Carlito’s Way (1993) Director, Brian de Palma. Universal Studios.
A former drug-dealer, Carlito Brigante, attempts to go straight on his release from prison, but finds himself getting dragged deeper back into the only life he has ever known.

A Bronx Tale (1993) Director, Robert de Niro, HBO.
Narrated by the adult Calogero Anello, he tells of his childhood and adolescence as an Italian-American in the Bronx during the 1960s, and the effect that his father and the boss of the local mob had on his life.

Goodfellas (1990) Director, Martin Scorsese, Warner Studios.
Based on the novel Wiseguys by Nicolas Pileggi, the film tells the story of real-life gangster, Henry Hill, whose increasing cocaine dependency leads him from successful ‘entrepreneur’ to desperation and a life-saving
Witness Protection Programme.

The Godfather Trilogy (1972, 1974, 1990) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and based upon the novels by Mario Puzo. They tell the story of a Mafia family named the ‘Corleones’. Their history, evolution and ultimate failings; widely regarded as one of the greatest movie series in film history.