When a Mafia Dies: the Criminogenic Effects of the Fight against Organised Crime

This project addresses the question of what happens when mafias are weakened, focussing on Japan and Italy.

According to Diego Gambettas protection framework, which was expanded by Federico Varese, mafias replace the state in the everyday life of the local communities in which they operate.

Indeed, both the Italian mafias and the Japanese yakuza have exerted control over local communities, providing extra-legal protection and limiting the scope of ordinary criminality.

Over the past fifty years, the struggle between mafias and the state has threatened democratic institutions and impacted the relationship between the state and society, prompting the state to introduce increasingly severe anti-organised crime (OC) legislation, which contributed to the weakening of these groups.

While considerable efforts have been invested in this conflict, little research has addressed what happens when these policies are successful.

The overall objective of the study is to identify the criminogenic effects resulting from the power vacuum left by a declining mafia, by: 1) analysing what determines the decline of a mafia in advanced liberal economies; 2) determining the socio-structural factors that favour the rise of new forms of criminality; 3) identifying the structure and modus operandi of the actors who take up the governing role in the markets previously monopolised by a mafia; 4) theorising an interdisciplinary approach to understand the long-term effects of the fight against OC; 5) suggesting anti-OC policies that empower civil society.

JEOC will employ traditional archival, ethnographical, and visual research based on established research networks in Japan and Italy.

The outputs will include a monograph on post-mafia governance and insurgent OCGs, a journal article on research methods, an open-access English database with a photo exhibition, and a photo book.