Organized crime
| Autor | Klaus Von Lampe |
| Cargo del Autor | Profesor de Criminología en la Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht de Berlín |
| Páginas | 153-170 |
153
BREVE BIOGRAFÍA DEL AUTOR
Klaus von Lampe es Profesor de Criminología en la Hochschule für Wirts-
chaft und Recht de Berlín. Ha sido profesor en el Department of Law,
Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration de la John Jay College
of Criminal Justice de New York. De 2007 a 2017 ha sido editor de la re-
vista internacional Trends in Organized Crime. Ha publicado numerosas
investigaciones sobre análisis y prevención del delito, tráfico de drogas y
crimen organizado, destacando el libro «OrganizedCrime: Analyzing ile-
gal activities, criminal structures and extra-legal governance».
1. INTRODUCTION
Organized crime receives a great deal of attention in the media and in
criminal policy debates, yet among criminologists, it appears to be more of
a fringe topic. For example, one cannot necessarily expect to nd elaborate
examinations of organized crime in criminology textbooks. Often enough
only eeting references are made. For a long time, empirical research was
likewise scant. While scholars showed some interest early on, such as Cesare
Lombroso (1911) and representatives of the Chicago School (rasher 1927;
Landesco 1929), the overwhelming sentiment among criminologists appears
CHAPTER 8
ORGANIZED CRIME
Klaus von Lampe
CRIMINOLOGÍA APLICADA
B. ROMERO FLORES DIRECTORA | A.L. CUERVO GARCÍA, A.M. VINAGRE GONZÁLEZ COORDINADORAS
154
to have been to stay away from studying organized crime. It was only after
Donald R. Cressey, one of the most distinguished American criminologists
of his time (1919-1987), published a book on the topic (Cressey 1969) that
the study of organized crime became «a respectable area of research for social
scientists» (Akers and Matsueda 1989: 434; see also Laub 1983: 162). It is
worth noting that the rst cohort of organized crime researchers who fol-
lowed Cressey, for the most part, were not even criminologists in the narrow
sense of the word. Some of the most inuential pertinent studies from the
1970s and 1980s were authored by researchers from other disciplines, namely
anthropology (Ianni and Reuss-Ianni, 1972; Ianni, 1974), economics (An-
derson, 1979; Reuter, 1983), and history (Block, 1983; Smith, 1975). is is
not entirely surprising since crime per se has never been the exclusive domain
of criminology. Yet, there are reasons why the subject of organized crime has
limited appeal to criminologists. First of all, criminologists tend to focus on
individuals. Organized crime, in contrast, has to do with the interaction and
association of numerous criminals. Second, organized crime encompasses a
complex and confusing multitude of factors and facets of social reality that, for
a variety of reasons, are dicult to capture in statistical analyses as the dom-
inant methodological approach in the eld of criminology. ird, organized
crime encompasses phenomena that criminologists are ill-equipped to study.
For example, a meaningful analysis of illegal markets is dicult to accomplish
without at least a basic understanding of economics, and the study of criminal
organizations requires some insights into organization theory. Perhaps most
importantly, however, organized crime is a fuzzy concept that has provoked a
great deal of futile denitional controversies and talking at cross purposes and
therefore is not a very inviting area of study (von Lampe, 2016).
2. KEY REFERENCE POINTS IN THE
DEBATE ON ORGANIZED CRIME
When reviewing what has been said and written on the subject of orga-
nized crime over the past few decades one will encounter essentially three dif-
ferent notions of what it is about (von Lampe, 2016). According to one view,
organized crime is primarily about the organization of crimes. e focus is on
how crimes are committed in ways that increase eciency and protability,
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