- Series Information
- The Oxford Handbook of Organized Crime
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Organized Crime: A Contested Concept
- Theoretical Perspectives on Organized Crime
- Searching for Organized Crime in History
- How to Research Organized Crime
- The Italian Mafia
- The Italian-American Mafia
- the Russian Mafia: Rise and Extinction
- Organized Crime in Colombia: The Actors Running the Illegal Drug Industry
- Mexican Drug “Cartels”
- Chinese Organized Crime
- The Japanese Yakuza
- Nigerian Criminal Organizations
- Gangs Another Form of Organized Crime?
- Opportunistic Structures of Organized Crime
- Organizing Crime: The State as Agent
- The Social Embeddedness of Organized Crime
- Protection and Extortion
- Drug Markets and Organized Crime
- Human Smuggling, Human Trafficking, and Exploitation in the Sex Industry
- Illegal Gambling
- Money Laundering
- Arms Trafficking
- Organized Fraud
- CyberCrime
- The Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources
- Organized Crime Control in the United States of America
- U.S. Organized Crime Control Policies Exported Abroad
- European Union Organized Crime Control Policies
- The Fight Against the Italian Mafia
- Organized Crime Control in Australia and New Zealand
- Organized Crime “Control” in Asia: Experiences from India, China, and the Golden Triangle
- Finance-Oriented Strategies of Organized Crime Control
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
While the image of the state as a victim of organized crime is ubiquitous, the state is rarely seen as an actor proper in its own organized crime activities. As states, its institutions and organizations are “organized actors” by definition they seem to be organized crime actors by default. However, state crime comes in many and often “hybrid organizational form,” as state-sponsored crime, or as “state-private interaction.” Given the power that the modern state is capable of exerting over its citizens (and abroad), state crimes are crimes of extraordinarily serious nature. The contribution explores the institutional context and social relationships that provide fertile grounds for state-organized crime with a particular focus on unlawful state violence, and mass atrocity crimes. This exploration will be framed by two paradoxes: the paradox of the state as guardian against its own criminal activity, and the paradox of state strength and weakness as precondition for state-organized crime.
Keywords: state violence, crimes against humanity, paradox of state strength and weakness, failed states, protection rackets, security dilemmas, joint criminal enterprise
Susanne Karstedt, PhD, is Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Australia.
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- Series Information
- The Oxford Handbook of Organized Crime
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Organized Crime: A Contested Concept
- Theoretical Perspectives on Organized Crime
- Searching for Organized Crime in History
- How to Research Organized Crime
- The Italian Mafia
- The Italian-American Mafia
- the Russian Mafia: Rise and Extinction
- Organized Crime in Colombia: The Actors Running the Illegal Drug Industry
- Mexican Drug “Cartels”
- Chinese Organized Crime
- The Japanese Yakuza
- Nigerian Criminal Organizations
- Gangs Another Form of Organized Crime?
- Opportunistic Structures of Organized Crime
- Organizing Crime: The State as Agent
- The Social Embeddedness of Organized Crime
- Protection and Extortion
- Drug Markets and Organized Crime
- Human Smuggling, Human Trafficking, and Exploitation in the Sex Industry
- Illegal Gambling
- Money Laundering
- Arms Trafficking
- Organized Fraud
- CyberCrime
- The Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources
- Organized Crime Control in the United States of America
- U.S. Organized Crime Control Policies Exported Abroad
- European Union Organized Crime Control Policies
- The Fight Against the Italian Mafia
- Organized Crime Control in Australia and New Zealand
- Organized Crime “Control” in Asia: Experiences from India, China, and the Golden Triangle
- Finance-Oriented Strategies of Organized Crime Control
- Index
