Book Review: Organized crime: A very short introduction

• Date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Pallie Koehn
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567719851836
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Of course, some of the book is dry and complicated. Organizational theory is rarely turned into a

Broadway musical, but there are moments of poetry such as the funeral of a mafia don in Rome

(funerals and weddings are legitimate commercials for mafia organizations, showing power but not

secrets to the public). The crowds were huge, traffic cops and helicopters overhead, over a 100

luxury cars in the procession. Outside the giant cathedral, the band played the theme to the

Godfather. Posters were everywhere showing the departed don dressed as the Pope, with the caption

“He conquered Rome, now he’ll conquer Heaven.”

This book shows the organization of various mafias, along with current trends—the decline of the

American Cosa Nostra and the rise of the ‘Ndranghetta, for example. The section on Hong Kong

triads was very relevant, especially after gangs attacking prodemocracy protesters in Hong Kong this

summer.

There was very little mention of the cartels an d South American mafias, yet their power is

increasing in the United States. Hopefully, that will be Mr. Catino’s next excellent book.

ORCID iD

James Timothy Linehan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4909-2992

Antonopoulos, G. A., & Papanicolaou, G. (2018).

Organized crime: A very short introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 152 pages. $11.95. ISBN 978-

0-19-879554-4.

Reviewed by: Pallie Koehn , George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567719851836

Organized crime, far removed from most of our everyday lives, seems to exist only on another

planet. Yet its publicity in recent years gives it a near-normalized facade. These contrasting percep-

tions of organized crime make it complicated and commonly misunderstood. Antonopoulos and

Papanicolaou in Organized Crime: A Very Short Introduction argue that rapid globalization and

mediatization often limit organized crime to Mafia-esque characteristics or exaggerated, inaccurate

depictions. For these reasons, they endeavor to take organized crime back to its basics; they

impressively provide a very short introduction of 10 types of organized crime in seven regions

around the world in just over 100 pages.

Straightaway, Antonopoulos and Papanicolaou warn those with limited knowledge about orga-

nized crime that their previous notions are probably wrong or at least inadequate. Organized crime is

said to be impossible to define because we are nowhere near reaching an inter- or intranational

consensus regarding what comprises an illegal enterprise. Nonetheless, “there is some agreement”

(p. 2) that organized crime is the illegal activity, usually for financial gain, having taken place for a

while and “in various geographical contexts, and economic, social, and political conditions” (p. 3).

They leave it at that before parsing apart organized crime (1) structures around the world—from

Russia to Latin America to Japan—and (2) types of business, such as human trafficking, counter-

feiting, and corporate crime.

The authors use the second half of their book to discuss historical progress in mediating organized

crime and current responses and solutions for regulating it in terms of politics and law, practice, and

prevention. These solutions, argued to be spearheaded by the United States’ “aggressive and intru-

sive law enforcement approaches” (p. 93), exist in multiple forms including technology-based

surveillance, legal reform for harsher sentencing guidelines, and so on. Antonopoulos and

350 International Criminal Justice Review 30(3)