Books in the Studies of Organized Crime series

Philadelphia's 'Black Mafia' could be used as primary reading in deviance and organized crime courses.

This book presents a vivid description of the solutions that researchers have discovered for ethical dilemmas that pose themselves at studying disadvantaged, vulnerable and victimized populations. Ethical codes prescribe that the scholar should in all circumstances avoid potential harm, that informed consent is necessary and that the limits of confidentiality should always be respected. However, in the practice of research among women involved in prostitution, illegal immigrant workers, enslaved children, people who sell their organs and all the traffickers thereof, the ethical rules cannot always be followed. This book shows that there is a surprising variety of arguable possibilities in dealing with ethical dilemmas in the field. Authors reflect on concrete experiences from their own fieldwork in a wide variety of settings such as the USA, Singapore, Kosovo and The Netherlands. Some choose to work on the basis of conscientious partiality, others negotiate the rules with their informants and still others purposely break the rules in order to disclose and damage the exploiters. Researchers may find themselves in a vulnerable position. Their experiences, as presented in this volume, will help field workers, university administrators, representatives of vulnerable groups, philosophers of ethics and most of all students to go into the field well-prepared.This is a book that every researcher planning to do fieldwork in the difficult field of hidden, illicit and victimized people should read in advance.Dr. Frank Bovenkerk, Professor (Emeritus), Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, Universiteit Utrecht, The NetherlandsThis book allows a peek in the kitchen of empirical fieldwork, going into not only "best practices," but mistakes made, in a frank, courageous and honest way.Dr. Brenda C. Oude Breuil, Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands

The insightful essays in this book shine a new light on the roles of women within criminal networks, roles that in reality are often less traditional than researchers used to think. The book seeks to answer questions from a wide range of academic disciplines and traces the portrait of women tied to organized crime in Italy and around the world.

This volume represents the first attempt to systematically compare organised crime concepts, as well as historical and contemporary patterns and control policies in thirteen European countries. These include seven 'old' EU Member States, two 'new' members, a candidate country, and three non-EU countries.

With more than 70 per cent of murders of Partido de la Revolucion Democratica members remaining unsolved, this study of the causes of political killings in Mexico's ongoing process of democratization puts them firmly in the context of political repression.

This book covers two lesser known but important members of the Italian Mafia: the 'Ndrangheta and the Sacra Corona Unita. Italian criminal organizations, in particular Mafia, are one of the most commonly researched organized crime groups, usually focusing on the Sicilian Mafia, Cosa Nostra, or the Neapolitan Mafia, Camorra.

This book covers organized crime groups, empirical studies of organized crime, criminal finances and money laundering, and crime prevention, gathering some of the most authoritative and well-known scholars in the field.

In this book the author examines the illegal wildlife trade from multiple perspectives: the historical context, the impact on the environment, the scope of the problem internationally, the sociocultural demand for illegal products, the legal efforts to combat it, and several case studies from inside the trade.

This book discusses the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the practice of medicine, and the observed and potential pitfalls of such partnerships.