How Mafias Migrate: The Case of the `Ndrangheta in Northern Italy

Varese, Federico

doi:10.1111/j.1540-5893.2006.00260.x

Cited by 96 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This finding is consistent with what has been put forth in the academic research, which has emphasized the substantial presence of OC in the central and northern regions of the country (Varese 2006;Lavorgna et al 2013;Calderoni 2011Calderoni , 2014. It should also be noted that only a limited number of news articles (14, equal to only 3,2 percent of the total number of news articles) covered the presence of OC in a foreign country.…”

Section: Wheresupporting

confidence: 81%

“…The presence of OC groups, moreover, seems not to be geographically constrained to the southern regions of the country, but rather to have also "colonized" and been "transplanted in" (Varese 2006;Lavorgna et al 2013: 268) the northern (and richer) areas, as well as abroad. As regards to Italy, the Mafia Presence Index (MPI) developed in Savona and Riccardi (2015) confirms the strong mafia presence in traditional southern regions (Puglia, Calabria, Campania, and Sicilia) and reveals a strong mafia presence in certain areas of north-western and central Italy, particularly Lazio, Liguria, Piemonte, Basilicata, and Lombardia (Savona 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

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Changing representations of organized crime in the Italian press

Ronco

Lavorgna

2016

Trends Organ Crim

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Organized crime has long captured the attention of media, with books, movies, television, and the press offering different representations of what organized crime is. These representations tend to vary in different countries according to the specific coverage and reporting preferences of local media. The ways in which organized crime is framed by the media is of great importance, as mediated images of organized crime may have powerful effects on both the general public and policy-makers. The narrative presented, however, might be distorted and not fully correspond to the notion of organized crime as framed by academic communities.Particularly in the Italian scenario, scholarly definitions and narratives around organized crime have evolved and have been refined meaningfully over the years, presenting a complex, multi-layered, and diversified criminal panorama. Several studies have recently addressed press representations of Italian organized crime in the foreign press. However, the way in which the Italian press has represented the changing rhetoric on organized crime has so far been under-investigated. This research presents the results of a longitudinal media analysis of a selection of Italian newspapers, which aims to inspect the ways in which the press has represented the threats posed by organized crime over time.

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Section: Wheresupporting

confidence: 81%

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Changing representations of organized crime in the Italian press

Ronco

Lavorgna

2016

Trends Organ Crim

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“…Putnam (1993), pp. 146-148), and may also be relevant for studies on transplantation of organized crime ( Varese (2006)). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic structure and vulnerability to organised crime: Evidence from Sicily

Lavezzi¹

2008

Global Crime

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The economic analysis of organized crime suggests that some economic activities are particularly vulnerable to penetration by criminal organizations. This paper provides an analysis of the structure of the Sicilian economy and shows that, when compared to other Italian regions, it is characterized by a disproportionate presence of such activities. In particular, the economy of Sicily appears characterized by: (i) a large dimension of traditional sectors, such as the Construction sector, which also has a strong territorial specificity; (ii) a large presence of small firms; (iii) a low level of technology; (iii) a large public sector. The joint presence of these features creates fertile soil for the typical activities of organized crime, such as extortion and cartel enforcement. Hence, we propose an alternative explanation of the persistence of organized crime with respect to explanations based on cultural and social factors.

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“…The necessity for the state intervention relates back to the analytical framework for the insurgence of organised crime. In order for associationalism to develop and to be beneficial for the society, the state has to unfold its territorial sovereignty through extensive infrastructural investments and efficient bureaucracy (Skocpol, 1996); where these conditions are unfulfilled, social capital per se has proven to be unable to prevent the proliferation of mafia groups (Varese, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, Varese (2006) argues that the recent proliferation of mafia groups in Northern Italy mainly depends on the lack of institutional control over certain sectors of the local economy: the 'Ndrangheta succeeded in migrating there because the state had retreated, generating a power vacuum and replicating the same conditions that flawed the Italian state-building process in the 19 th century. Whilst this explanatory pattern is backed by other authors' argumentations (Tilly, 1985;Gambetta, 1996), Varese himself talks about the migration of pre-existing mafia groups rather than the insurgence of autochthonous organised crime (Varese, 2006). Thus, holding true the importance of the historical legacy of the mafia, its account cannot be reduced to sole economic factors (Paoli, 2002;Allum and Sands, 2004).…”

Section: Historical Sociological and Legal Accounts Of The Mafia Phmentioning

confidence: 99%

A tale of reverse deviance: non-compliant spatial practices in the land of Gomorrah

Trifuoggi

2015

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

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Racketeering local activities, though less relevant in terms of financial turnover, still represents a distinctive feature of mafia-like organisations for it provides them with striking social power. Mafias constitute indeed forms of governance that heavily rely on the acquiescence, if not on the consensus, of the community which they are rooted in. I thus argue that territoriality is critical for a comprehensive understanding of the mafia phenomenon: territories contribute to the reproduction of mafia groups not only in ecological terms, providing human and economic resources to organised crime, but also in cultural ones, forming symbolic and representational spaces that play an active role in the socialisation of the norms at the bottom of people's compliance. The production of space in areas policed by mafia groups is the dynamics that I sought to account for by undertaking field research in the surroundings of Caserta, also known as Gomorrah, where the clout of the Camorra (the Neapolitan mafia) is notorious and yet to be tarnished. I focused on non-compliant spatial practices for illuminating, by contrast, how space takes part to the construction of the mafia governance: the findings presented in this paper come from participant observation and in-depth interviews conducted in former properties of the Camorra where two worker cooperatives installed themselves and started legal businesses in outright contrast with organised crime. This process of reterritorialisation, I argue, discloses the sociological intersection between space and mafia, raising relevant policy implications about the fight against such form of organised crime.2

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How Mafias Migrate: The Case of the `Ndrangheta in Northern Italy

Cited by 96 publications

References 14 publications

Changing representations of organized crime in the Italian press

Changing representations of organized crime in the Italian press

Economic structure and vulnerability to organised crime: Evidence from Sicily

A tale of reverse deviance: non-compliant spatial practices in the land of Gomorrah

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