Introduction

There are as many definitions of organised crime as there are analytical perspectives and political backgrounds. Organised crime may be equated to ‘war making and state making’ (Tilly, 1985) as well as to criminal conspiracies formed by individuals whose surname ends with a vowel. The former definition is the result of political and historical analyses of how ruling groups establish their supremacy, how states claim a monopoly in the use of force, and how violence establishes the mystical foundation of authority and the law (Benjamin, 1921; Weber, 1947; Derrida, 1994; 2009). The latter definition derives from North-American enquiries identifying organised crime as one single, wide group of Italian migrants, whose hunger for money and power is alien to, and threatens, the society of the United States (Kefauver Committee, 1951; Cressey, 1969; Fijnaut, 1990). The definition adopted by the editors of this book will become clear after a review of the literature preceding the present work, and of course, will reflect our own analytical perspective and political background.