We investigate the long-run relationship between organized crime and corruption using data from 20 Italian regions over 30 years. As Rose-Ackerman and Palifka (2018) argue, corruption and organized crime often go together. Our study contributes to the literature in several ways in terms of...

We study the long-run health effects of illegal toxic waste disposal conducted by organized crime in Italy. We exploit quasi-random variation in historical wind direction around contaminated sites combined with a difference-in-differences design. Using administrative data on cancer deaths...

International cocaine trafficking from South America has increased significantly over the past decade. Based on mixed-methods research, we hypothesize that this change has been driven primarily by the globalization of its logistics, which has led to relevant technical and political changes along...

This study examines how dismantling Mafia-connected firms affects banks' lending practices. Using a unique dataset of 667 such firms and loan-level data from the European Central Bank, our analysis shows that anti-Mafia operations precede an increase in bank loans to businesses that operate in...

Do criminal groups which help maintain order strengthen the fiscal contract or weaken it? This paper examines how the presence of organized-crime groups shapes Mexican municipalities' ability to collect revenue, deliver public goods, and earn citizens' trust. Survey data show that residents...

How does criminal group taxation affect participation in elections? I argue that criminal groups that tax public service provision use it as a technology of governance, which gives them a comparative advantage in voter mobilization. I predict that higher levels of criminal taxes on services...

We document the transplantation of the Sicilian Mafia to the United States in the 1920s, when a large-scale repression campaign in Italy targeted Mafia strongholds and forced many Mafiosi to migrate, and study the resulting short- and long-term effects across neighborhoods in U.S. cities. Using...

We show that credit constraints significantly increase the risk that firms are infiltrated by organized crime, defined as the covert involvement of criminal organizations in corporate decision-making. Using confidential data on criminal investigations, credit ratings, and loan histories for the...

Infiltration of the legal economy by criminal organizations (OCGs) is potentially significant, though how pervasive remains uncertain. Beyond the volume, the motives driving infiltration are of serious policy concern. We introduce a conceptual framework to differentiate between OCGs’ motives...

Infiltration of the legal economy by criminal organizations (OCGs) is potentially significant, though how pervasive remains uncertain. Beyond the volume, the motives driving infiltration are of serious policy concern. We introduce a conceptual framework to differentiate between OCGs' motives for...

Geldwäsche ist ein transnationales Phänomen. Inkriminierte Vermögenswerte werden über Grenzen hinweg verschoben - gerade im Bereich organisierter Kriminalität gelangen die in einem Staat erzielten Erträge aus kriminellen Aktivitäten regelmäßig ins Ausland, um sie dem Zugriff der...

Money laundering enables criminal organizations to integrate illicit funds into the legal economy while evading detection, posing significant challenges for regulators and policymakers. We develop a formal framework to examine criminal organizations' choice between two money laundering methods....

This paper examines how scam compounds, money mules and crypto-assets operate as interdependent elements of contemporary money-laundering chains. It assesses whether existing anti-money laundering (AML) and crypto-asset regulatory frameworks are capable of disrupting these chains holistically,...

This study is an attempt to establish a Money Laundering Attractiveness Index (MLAI) for the countries that are preferred for money laundering. The study first discussed the concept of money laundering and also highlighted the size or volume of money laundered we are trying to deal with....

This is a review of the 2020 IASOC Prize Winner Intimate Crimes: Kidnapping, Gangs and Trust in Mexico City by Rolando Ochoa. Ochoa provides a masterful account of how private citizens understand risk, as kidnapping continues to be a significant problem in Mexico, and manage their private...

We investigate the impact of childhood exposure to organized criminal violence on sociopolitical attitudes in Mexico, where an entire generation of youths has been raised amid the country's most violent conflict over the past century. We fielded an in-person survey to nearly 3,000 urban youths,...

When does organized crime resort to assassinating politicians? In narcocracies, criminal groups co-opt political elites through bribery in exchange for protection to traffic illegal drugs. When criminal groups compete, they may also resort to political violence to influence which candidate wins...

Organised crime tightens its corrupting influence on politics through violent intimidation. Anti-crime measures that increase the cost of corruption but not of the exercise of violence might accordingly lead mafia-style organizations to retaliate by resorting to violence in lieu of bribery. On...

The fight against organised crime is a priority for the EU and its Member States. In October 2023, the European Commission presented a Communication on an EU Roadmap to fight drug trafficking and organised crime, including a proposal to set up a network of specialised prosecutors and judges to...

This article analyses the expansion of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) across the Sahara-Sahel, using the transplantation framework from criminology to explore how the group relocated. By focussing on this case study, the article offers an examination of how JNIM strategically embedded...

The author, Stephen Schneider, undertakes a holistic analysis of the numerous definitions, descriptions, and concepts that represent the criminological construct referred to as "organized crime." He provides a critical analysis of those researchers who have trafficked in ethnic and racial...

As the incidences of traditional crime rates have begun to decline, there has been a surge and shift in the kinds of criminal activities perpetuated by individuals. The recent shift in criminal activities includes organized crime, white-collar crime, and cybercrime.The increased use and access...

Based on empirical evidence, this research: highlights the timeline of changes in Ukrainian agricultural sector since the onset of the full-scale war in 2022 and the maritime blockade affecting exports; examines the relevant transformation of the illegal grain market amid these extraordinary...

Environmental crime, ranked as the fourth-largest criminal enterprise after drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and human trafficking, encompasses illegal activities such as mineral extraction, land clearance, and waste trafficking. These crimes are closely linked to financial crimes due to their...

Europol is the EU's law enforcement agency, supporting the 27 EU Member States in their fight against serious international crime and terrorism. Europol also works closely with non-EU partner countries, other EU agencies and international organisations, strengthening global security through...

Data for this year's IOCTA has been collected from a variety of sources. These include an analysis of cases supported by the Europol European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3), interviews with Europol operational team experts, and input from members of Europol EC3 Advisory Groups. The report is also...

ADVANCE COPY: This chapter is an advance excerpt from the upcoming World Bank report "Organized Crime and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean" which will be released on Monday, April 28th, 2025

This analysis uses known corruption cases, serious enough to be prosecuted by governments, to develop an empirical description of the nature of corruption and its connections to organized crime. More than 200 cases from the U.S. covering an entire year are compared with nearly 300 corruption...

Traditional 20th century public responses to Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) were oftentimes singular, siloed, and exclusive; state entities and resources were used to detect, deter, and combat the issue. The expansion and emergence of new types of organized crime in the 21st century has made...