Introductory description

This module aims to tell the story of the rise and fall of large--scale organised crime groups during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will be asked to engage with literature from history, criminology, and political science.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Session 1 What is organized crime?
Session 2 Early forms of organized crime
Session 3 The Japanese Yakuza
Session 4 The Chinese Tongs
Session 5 The Italian Mafia 1: Beginnings
Session 6 The Italian Mafia 2: Smuggling
Session 7 The Italian Mafia 3: The State
Session 8: Globalisation
Session 9: The Colombian Cartels
Session 10: The Mexican Cartels

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• To evaluate and critique the relationship between organised crime and capitalism
• To evaluate and critique the relationship between organised crime and state formation
• To engage with historiographical debates and think about the history and legacy of different historical concepts
• To encourage independent research, historiographical engagement, and the development of critical analysis
• To gain interpersonal and communication skills through the delivery of a presentation

Indicative reading list

Paolo Buonanno, Durante Ruben, Prarolo Giovanni, Vanin Paolo
Poor institutions, rich mines: resource curse in the origins of the Sicilian mafia, Econ. J., 125 (2015), pp. F125-F202
Paoli, L. (2002). The paradoxes of organized crime. Crime, Law and Social Change, 37(1), 51– 97.
Paoli, L. (2008). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style (first edition). Oxford University Press.
Paoli, L. (Ed.). (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Organized Crime (1 edition). Oxford University Press.
Paoli, L. (2020). What Makes Mafias Different? Crime and Justice, 49(1), 141–222.
Catino, M. (2019), Mafia Organizations: The Visible Hand of Criminal Enterprise. Cambridge University Press.
Leonardo Schiascia, Days of the Owl
Mafia and Mafiosi, Henner Hess
Global Mafia, Antonio Nicasso and Lee Lamothe
Mafia Brotherhoods, John Dickie
Mafia and Antimafia, Umberto Santino
Anton Blok, The Mafia of a Sicilian Village
Roberto Dainotto, The Mafia: A Cultural History
Dash, M., The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder and the Birth of the American Mafia. Ballantine Books, 2010
Gambetta, Diego. Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate. Princeton University Press, 2011
Jamieson A., The Antimafia. Italy’s Fight Against Organized Crime. St. Martin’s Press, 2000
Lupo, S., History of the Mafia. Columbia University Press, 2009
Follain, J., The Last Godfathers. The rise and fall of the mafia’s most powerful family. Hodder, 2009
Reppetto, T. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. Holt, 2004
Schneider P., Schneider J., Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo. UCP, 2003
Behan T., See Naples and Die. The Camorra and Organized Crime. Tauris, 2002
Duggan C., Fascism and the Mafia. New Haven Press, 1989
Fiandaca G., Women and the Mafia: Female Roles in Organized Crime Structures. Springer, 2007
Gambetta D., The Sicilian Mafia. The Business of Private Protection. Harvard University Press, 1996
Paoli L., Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style. Oxford, 2003
Glenny M., McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld. Knopf, 2008
Raab S., Five Families. The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. Robson Books, 2006
Reppetto T., Bringing Down the Mob: The War against the American Mafia. Henry Holt, 2004
Federico Varese, Mafia Life
Federico Varese, Mafias on the Move
Letizia Paoli, The Oxford Handbook of Organized Crime
David Kaplan, Yakuza : Japan's criminal underworld
Ioan Grillo, Gangster Warlords
Charles Tilly, Warmaking and Statemaking as Organized Crime, Center for Research on Social Organization, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1982
Pen Wang, Hong Kong triads: the historical and political evolution of urban criminal polity, 1842–2020, Urban History , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , August 2023 , pp. 445 - 467
B.G. Martin, The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919–1937 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1996).
F. Varese, The Russian Mafia: Private Protection in A New Market Economy (Oxford, 2001)
P. Wang, The Chinese Mafia: Organized Crime, Corruption, and Extra-Legal Protection (Oxford, 2017).

Interdisciplinary

History, Criminology, Anthropology, Political Science

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes

Transferable skills

Work effectively with others in group tasks and in teams; Plan and manage time in projects; Develop strong analytical skills; Use appropriate analytic methods to analyse texts on crime, state and capitalism. Read academic papers effectively in the context of an intensive programme; Communicate clearly and effectively in discussions; Communicate ideas effectively in writing.