ABSTRACT
The destruction of national boundaries, and in particular the redundancy of cold war narratives, has resulted in an enormous growth in concern regarding transnational organised crime. Local criminal organisation was always deeply entrenched in the cultures of the urban working class, and de-industrialisation and the consequent fragmentation of traditional communities has resulted in their transformation into disordered mutations of traditional proletarian culture. This chapter focuses on two aspects of organised crime at opposite ends of the serious crime spectrum. First, it summarise preliminary findings from Hobbs and Dunnighan that relate to traditional local neighbourhood organised crime in two areas of England. Second the chapter reviews organised crime personnel and suggests that for a contemporary understanding of organised crime the career trajectories suggested by life histories emphasise characteristics of the current serious crime market that require a very different reading from that required of the traditional model.
