Criminal Contagion: How Mafias, Gangsters and Scammers Profit from a Pandemic Reitano Tuesday, and Mark Shaw Oxford University Press, 2021, 304 pp., ISBN: 9781787384460

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• Author: Heidi Rimke
• Date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.540

DOI: 10.1002/wmh3.540

BOOK REVIEW

Criminal Contagion: How Mafias, Gangsters

and Scammers Profit from a Pandemic

Reitano Tuesday, and Mark Shaw

Oxford University Press, 2021, 304 pp., ISBN: 9781787384460

Criminal Contagion: How Mafias, Gangsters and Scammers Profit from a Pandemic is an

important book written by international crime experts, Tuesday Reitano and Mark Shaw.

Using multiple cases, statistical analyses, and comparative observations, they present a

sophisticated, social scientific study on the ways criminals exploited the global pandemic to

their advantage. Thus, while criminals of all kinds benefitted from the heavy‐handed

lockdowns, ordinary people shouldered the twofold brunt of a public health crisis and an

epidemic of crime. The authors argue public safety and security were endangered due to the

flawed state response that policed citizens rather than criminals. Although crime activity was

at its greatest, according to the authors, the overall government response to illicit activities

during the pandemic was at its weakest.

Using the medicalized language of “contagion”and “disease”to emphasize the

parasitic and infectious nature of the crime as a social pathology, the book describes

criminality as “a virus, epidemic or cancer that mutates or undergoes a metastasis that

undermines the body politic and political institutions”(p. 208). Illness metaphors are used

to emphasize the human, social, ecological, and economic costs of globalized crime that

increased significantly due to the problematic pandemic response by officials. The authors

criticize the United Nations for choosing to focus on other issues rather than prioritizing

and tackling the urgent problem of crime that is harming communities and society,

especially the most vulnerable and marginalized. The authors claim that “if action is not

taken immediately, the damage may become irreversible. Especially given that society

itself was already sick”(p. 209).

The book analyzes the criminological problem of “virtual violence”such as cyberattacks

on the educational sector, unemployment systems, health and medical research institutes,

and logistics and transport companies, as well as the rising problem of data breaches and

malware crime, the legal streaming of sexual exploitation and domestic violence against

women and children, and other forms of online abuse. The authors explain that criminals

took advantage of and adapted to an already weak or failing regulatory system. Also

examined are various environmental violations that increased in the pandemic such as

illegal deforestation, mining, fishing, and other wildlife crimes, including the problem of wet

markets relating to the pandemic. Other crimes discussed include human trafficking and

smuggling, ghost payrolls, corruption in health sectors, counterfeiting and pirating health

products, and peddling fake pharmaceuticals, as well as fraud, doorstep scammers, drug

trafficking, identity theft, and kidnapping.

The book also considers the negative pandemic effects on the criminal justice system—

such as releasing prisoners into society, disabling the courts from operating, and decreased

numbers of available law enforcement officers while also highlighting innovations such as

World Med. & Health Policy. 2023;15:706–707.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/wmh3706

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