Organised and transnational crime

Life-Course Criminal Trajectories of Mafia Members

“…Other studies on organized crime trajectories found large proportions of low-frequency, adult-onset offenders. These accounted for up to 40% in the Dutch sample by Van Koppen and colleagues (2010), 48% among Australian offenders (Morgan et al, 2018), and 53% in the more recent Dutch sample (Kleemans et al, 2017). Although the mafias need accountants, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and politicians, they also need truck drivers, customs officials, public employees, and bank clerks.…”

“…Given the peculiarity of our sample, official crime records can provide useful insights into the criminal careers of organized crime offenders. Nevertheless, these sources imply a number of limitations, as official convictions might underestimate the criminal careers of mafia members for several reasons: The dark number (difference between the number of actual crimes and the recorded crimes) may be particularly relevant for organized crime cases (Francis et al, 2013; Morgan et al, 2018; Van Koppen, De Poot, Kleemans, et al, 2010); the PMM data set only focuses on final convictions, thus excluding pending cases or convictions successfully appealed; some convictions, for example, for minor offenses and crimes committed by juveniles may not be recorded in the registry as a special benefit to the offender; the CRR only includes offenses relevant to the Italian law, thus, potentially missing crimes committed abroad, although most offenders were born and resident in Italy; the crime year (and, therefore, the age of the individual) was initially unavailable for nearly 11% of the offenses. 3 All these considerations suggest that particular care is needed to analyze the criminal career of mafia offenders through official crime data.…”

“…L. Piquero, Piquero, & Weisburd, 2016; N. L. Piquero & Weisburd, 2009; Van Onna, Van der Geest, Huisman, & Denkers, 2014; Weisburd & Waring, 2001) and organized crime (Francis, Humphreys, Kirby, & Soothill, 2013; Kleemans & De Poot, 2008; Kleemans & Van Koppen, 2014; Kleemans, Van Koppen, Van der Geest, Kruisbergen, & Madarie, 2017; Morgan et al, 2018; Van Koppen, De Poot, & Blokland, 2010; Van Koppen, De Poot, Kleemans, et al, 2010). These works have argued that the career of complex criminals often follows patterns different from the general offending population, particularly for adult-onset offenders.…”

“…The authors concluded that only 18% of the sample followed the conventional pattern of offending (high rates during teenage years with a decline at the end of teenage or early adulthood). Recently, Morgan and colleagues analyzed a sample of 3,262 Australian organized crime offenders from age 20 to 42 (Morgan et al, 2018). They identified three trajectories: a late-onset, low-offending trajectory (48% of the sample); a moderate-offending trajectory (42%); and a smaller trajectory (10%) with very high rates (5.4 yearly offenses on average between age 20 and 42).…”

“…In the last decade, however, several contributions have applied the framework of life-course criminology and criminal career to white-collar and organized crime. This research suggested that such offenders may follow patterns partially different than the general population, for example, that late-onset offenders made up to 60% of the sample (Van Koppen, De Poot, Kleemans, & Nieuwbeerta, 2010), or that the offending frequency remained stable into the 30s (Morgan, Brown, & Fuller, 2018). These results question whether the general findings of the life-course framework apply to organized crime offenders, often characterized by having persistent, prolific, and violent criminal careers.…”