This article explores how organised criminal organisations exercise criminal governance over other individual criminals and gangs using lethal and extra-lethal violence. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, over 250 press reports, and an original database on inter-criminal lethal violence, we demonstrate that while these organisations use violence to build their reputation as actors willing to use force, they also provide benefits to other criminals such as financing and protection from state and competitors. This article contributes to the literature on criminal governance by expanding the understanding of how the criminal world is organised and how OCGs use their political influence to legitimize criminal governance.
This article investigates why organised criminal organisations opt for dismemberment, a costly and resource-intensive practice compared to targeted killings. We argue that dismemberment serves two functions for OCGs: first, it demonstrates OCGs' willingness to use gruesome violence against those who challenge their territorial hegemony, and second, it sustains criminal governance regimes by punishing individuals who violate OCGs' regulations. To demonstrate this argument, we analyse 25 cases of dismemberment in Colombia that we compiled during more than four years of fieldwork, review of press archives and databases provided by local authorities. This article contributes to extending the concept of extra-lethal violence to organised crime studies.
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