Advanced Introduction to Organised Crime (Elgar Advanced Introductions series)

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.

Organised crime has become a major problem globally. Its negative impact on economies, societies, politics, human rights and security is profound: fraud, money-laundering, drug, arms and human trafficking, and collusion with both law enforcement and terrorists, for example, are all significant issues. Yet specialists disagree not only on the scale and nature of organised crime, but even on its definition. This Advanced Introduction to Organised Crime explores these disagreements, examines the nature and causes of contemporary organised crime, and offers constructive suggestions on how to counter it.

Key features include:

• Emphasis on the rapidly changing structures of organised crime, its increasingly transnational nature and sophisticated use of the internet.
• Psycho-social and cultural explanations, as well as system-related ones
• Explores the latest techniques for measuring organised crime
• Provides detailed analyses of six of the best known transnational organised crime syndicates
• Focuses on human trafficking to exemplify many of the key points
• Examines the many methods that can be used - not only by states and international organisations, but also by civil society and individuals - to combat organised crime.

Accessible and comprehensive, the Advanced Introduction to Organised Crime is an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying criminology, political science, international relations, law and sociology. Its profound insights are invaluable to practitioners, including law enforcement officers, investigative journalists and criminologists.

Leslie Holmes, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Melbourne, Australia, Recurrent Visiting Professor, Renmin University, Beijing, China and Former Recurrent Visiting Professor, University of Bologna, Italy and Graduate School for Social Research, Warsaw, Poland