Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

A qualitative reading of the ecological (dis)organisation of criminal associations. The case of the ‘Famiglia Basilischi’ in Italy

  • Published:
Trends in Organized Crime Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper combines the theoretical foundations of organisational ecology - one of the most important approaches in economic sociology - with classic criminological theories to interpret the birth, evolution and death of criminal associations. This mixed approach will support the interpretation of organised crime groups as phenomena strictly linked to the environment as well as to other competitors in criminal markets. This paper analyses the birth, evolution and death of a criminal association in Basilicata, Southern Italy, known as the ‘Famiglia Basilischi’. The case is exemplary of how ecological conditions affect the success or failure of a newly formed criminal association. These conditions can therefore be indicators to interpret organised criminal activities in similar environments.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aldrich H, Ruef M (2006) Organizations evolving. SAGE, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Aldrich H (1999) Organizations evolving. SAGE, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Aldrich H (2011) An evolutionary perspective on entrepreneurship: selected essays by howard E. Edward Elgar, Aldrich, Cheltenham, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Amato L. (2009) Cossidente «doppiogiochista». Il Quotidiano Della Basilicata 25 November

  • Amato L. (2010) Si è pentito antonio cossidente. Il Quotidiano Della Basilicata 22 October

  • Amato L. (2011a) Quinta mafia, Basilishi, Cosentino e il Codice dell’Omertà Il Quotidiano Della Basilicata 25 May

  • Amato L. (2011b) Quinta mafia, Cossidente Verso la Libertà Il Quotidiano Della Basilicata 17 August.

  • Amato L. (2012a) I comparaggi del ‘vicepresidente. Il Quotidiano della Basilicata 9 November 2012,: 8.

  • Amato L. (2012b) Nel mirino anche il re preferenze del capoluogo. Il Quotidiano della Basilicata 9 November 2012: 9

  • Amato L. (2012c) A potenza in giunta c’era la mafia. Lacrime Amare per Rocco Lepore Il Quotidiano Della Basilicata 14 June

  • Amato L. (2013a) Quinta mafia. Le Bugie dell’ex Pentito Faccia d’Angelo/2 Il Quotidiano Della Basilicata 18 September

  • Amato L. (2013b) Quinta mafia. Le Bugie dell’ex Pentito Faccia d’Angelo ad un Bivio/1 Il Quotidiano Della Basilicata 17 September

  • Amato L. (2015) I rapporti tra politica e mafia lucana. Assolto Galante, a Giudizio tutti gli Altri Il Quotidiano Della Basilicata 11 May 2015

  • Amendolara F. (2006a) La quinta mafia. Controllo del Territorio e Scontro tra Clan Il Quotidiano Della Basilicata 18 November 13

  • Amendolara F. (2006b) La Quinta Mafia. L’ombra dei Morabito dietro i Basilischi. Il Quotidiano della Basilicata 17 novembre 2006: 10

  • Amendolara F. (2006c) La Quinta Mafia. Li chiamavano basilischi, parola di pentito. Il Quotidiano della Basilicata 15 November: 11

  • Ansa. (2000) Matera: pizzo per non turbare festa patrona, Arresti Ansa 23 May

  • Ansa. (2001a) Mafia: la banca dei clan, “Lavanderia” di Denaro Sporco Ansa 23 February

  • Ansa. (2001b) Mafia: scoperta nel potentino la banca dei clan, Nove aRresti Ansa 22 February

  • Arlacchi P, Ryle MH (1988) Mafia business : The mafia ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Asmundo A (2011) Indicatori e costi della criminalita’ mafiosa. In: sciarrone R and fondazione Res (eds) alleanze nell’ombra: mafie ed economie locali in Sicilia e nel mezzogiorno. Donzelli, Roma

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett WP, Amburgey TL (1990) Do larger organizations generate stronger competition? In: Singh JV (ed) Organizational evolution: New directions. Sage, Newbury Park, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Baum JA (1999) Organizational ecology. In: Clegg S, Hardy C (eds) Studying organization: theory and method. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Baum JAC and Amburgey TL. (2002) Organizational Ecology In: Baum JAC (ed) Companion to Organizations Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

  • Baum JAC, Dobrev SD, Av W (2006) Ecology and strategy. Elsevier JAI, Amsterdam; Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck N (2008) Organizational ecology as a theory of competition. In: Ebner A, Beck N (eds) The institutions of the market: organizations, social systems, and governance. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Breslin D (2008) A review of the evolutionary approach to the study of entrepreneurship. Int J Manag Rev 10(4):399–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Busso S and Storti L. (2011) I contesti di alta densita’ mafiosa: un quadro socio-economico. In: Sciarrone R and Fondazione Res (eds) Alleanze nell’Ombra: Mafie ed economie locali in Sicilia e nel Mezzogiorno. Roma: Donzelli

  • Calderoni F, Caneppele S (2009) La geografia criminale degli appalti: le infiltrazioni della criminalità organizzata negli appalti pubblici nel Sud italia. Franco Angeli, Milan

    Google Scholar 

  • Calderoni F (2011) Where is the mafia in Italy? Measuring the presence of the mafia across Italian provinces. Global Crime 12(1):41–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Calderoni F (2012) The structure of drug trafficking mafias: the ‘ndrangheta and cocaine. Crime, Law and Social Change 58(3):321–349

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campana P (2011) Eavesdropping on the mob: the functional diversification of mafia activities across territories. Eur J Criminol 8(May):213–228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell DT (1965) Variation and selective retention in socio-cultural evolution. In: Barringer HR, Blanksten GI, Mack RW (eds) Social changein developing areas: A reinterpretation of evolutionary theory. Shenkman, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Catino M (2014) How do mafias organize? Eur J Soc 55(2):177–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Centro Studi Unioncamere della Basilicata (2011) L’economia della Basilicata nel 2011. Osservatorio Economico della Basilicata

  • Ciconte E (2010) ‘Ndrangheta padana. Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli

    Google Scholar 

  • Ciconte E (2011) ‘Ndrangheta. Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli

    Google Scholar 

  • Ciconte E. (2015) Riti criminali. I Codici di Affiliazione Alla ‘Ndrangheta, Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino

  • Cloward R, Ohlin L (1960) Delinquency and opportunity. Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman JS (1990) Foundations of social theory. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Coles N (2001) It’s not what you know—it’s who you know that counts. Analysing serious crime groups as social networks. Br J Criminol 41(4):580–594

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia. (1992) Relazione sulle risultanze dell’attività del gruppo di lavoro incaricato di svolgere accertamenti sullo stato della lotta alla criminalità organizzata in Basilicata: Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia e sulle altre associazioni criminali similari - X Legislatura

  • Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia. (1997) Relazione sulle risultanze dell’attività del gruppo di lavoro incaricato di svolgere accertamenti sullo stato della lotta alla criminalità organizzata in Basilicata: Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia e sulle altre associazioni criminali similari - X Legislatura

  • Cozzi M (2010) Quando la mafia non esiste. Malaffare e affari della mala in Basilicata. Torino, EGA-Edizioni Gruppo Abele

    Google Scholar 

  • Cozzi M. (2014) Poteri invisibili. Viaggio in Basilicata tra Affari, mafie, Omicidi e Verità Sepolte, Milano: Melampo Editore

  • Dalla CN (2010) La convergenza. Mafia e politica nella Seconda Repubblica Milano, Melampo

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Forti F (1982) Per una psicoanalisi della mafia : radici, fantasmi, territorio e politica. G. Bertani, Verona

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickie J. (2013) Mafia Republic: Italy’s Criminal Curse. Cosa Nostra, ‘ndrangheta and camorra from 1946 to the present, London: Sceptre

  • DNA (2011) Relazione annuale sulle attività svolte dal procuratore nazionale antimafia e dalla direzione nazionale antimafia nonché sulle dinamiche e strategie della criminalità organizzata di tipo mafioso. Direzione Nazionale Antimafia, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • DNA (2014) Relazione annuale sulle attività svolte dal procuratore nazionale antimafia e dalla direzione nazionale antimafia nonché sulle dinamiche e strategie della criminalità organizzata di tipo mafioso. Direzione Nazionale Antimafia, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards A, Gill P (2002) Crime as enterprise? - the case of "transnational organised crime". Crime Law and Social Change 37(3):203–223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards A, Gill P (2003) Transnational organised crime : perspectives on global security. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards A, Levi M (2008) Researching the organization of serious crimes. Criminology and Criminal Justice 8(4):363–388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FATF. (2013) Money laundering and terrorist financing related to counterfeiting of currency. In: Force FAT (ed). Paris: FATF/OECD.

  • di Finanza G (1996) Relazione annuale sulla criminalità organizzata. Guardia di Finanza, Roma

    Google Scholar 

  • Gambetta D. (1993) The Sicilian Mafia : the business of private protection, Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press

  • Gelormini G (1990) Relazione sulla’amministrazione della giustizia nell’anno 1989. Potenza

  • Greyl L, Vegni S, Natalicchio M, et al. (2013) The waste crisis in Campania. In: Healy H, Martinez-Alier J, Temper L, et al. (eds) Ecological economics from the ground up. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hannan MT, Freeman J (1977) The population ecology of organisations. Am J Sociol 82(5):929–964

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hannan MT and Freeman J. (1984) Structural inertia and organizational change. American sociological review (149–164)

  • Hannan MT, Freeman J (1989) Organizational ecology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass

  • Heitgard JL, Bursik RJJ (1987) Extracommunity dynamics and the ecology of delinquency. Am J Sociol 92:775–787

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobbs D (1997) Professional crime: change, continuity and the enduring myth of the underworld. Sociology 31(1):57–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobbs D (1998) Going down the glocal: the local context of organised crime. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 37(4):407–422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hope T, Sparks R (2000) Introduction: risk, inseurity and the politics of law and order. In: Hope T, Sparks R (eds) Crime, risk, and insecurity: law and order in everyday life and political discourse. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Iovino S (1999) Relazione sull’amministrazione della giustizia nell’anno 1999. Potenza

  • Kenney M (2007) The architecture of drug trafficking: network forms of organisation in the Colombian cocaine trade. Global Crime 8(3):233–259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kissner J, Pyrooz DC (2009) Self-control, differential association, and gang membership: a theoretical and empirical extension of the literature. J Crim Just 37(5):478–487

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kleemans ER, de Poot CJ (2008) Criminal careers in organized crime and social opportunity structure. Eur J Criminol 5(1):69–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lavorgna A (2015) Dirty business: Italy cracks down on environmental crime. Jane’s Intelligence Review June

  • Lombardo R (2014) Sociology fights organised crime: the story of the chicago area project. The European Review of Organised Crime 1(1):10–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Lomi A, Larsen ER, Freeman J (2005) Things change: dynamic resource constraints and system-dependent selection in the evolution of organizational populations. Manag Sci 51(6):882–903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lomi A. (1995) The population ecology of organizational founding: Location dependence and unobserved heterogeneity. Administrative Science Quarterly (111–144).

  • Macrì V, Ciconte E (2009) Autralian ‘ndrangheta. Rubbetino, Soveria Mannelli

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsueda RL (1988) The current state of differential association theory. Crime & Delinquency 34(3):277–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKelvey B, Aldrich H (1983) Populations, natural selection, and applied organizational science. Adm Sci Q 101-128

  • Milio S, Todaro L (2013) Evaluation of the main achievements of cohesion policy programmes and projects over the longer term in 15 selected regions: Basilicata case study. European Policies Research Centre and London School of Economics, Glasgow

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicaso A, Gratteri N (2012) Dire e non dire: i dieci comandamenti della ‘ndrangheta nelle parole degli affiliati. Mondadori, Milan

    Google Scholar 

  • Obokata T (2010) Transnational organised crime in international law. Hart, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Paoli L, Fijnaut C (2006) Organised crime and its control policies. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice 14(3):307–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paoli L (2002) The paradoxes of organized crime. Crime, Law and Social Change 37(1):51–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paoli L (2003) Mafia brotherhoods : organized crime, italian style. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson WS (1950) Ecological correlations and the behavior of individuals. Am Sociol Rev 15:351–357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sampson RJ, Morenoff JD, Gannon-Rowley T (2002) Assessing" neighborhood effects": social processes and new directions in research. Annu Rev Sociol 443-478

  • Sciarrone R, Storti L (2014) The territorial expansion of mafia-type organized crime. The case of the Italian mafia in Germany. Crime, Law and Social Change 61(1):37–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sciarrone R. (2011) Mafie, relazioni e affari nell’area grigia. In: Sciarrone R (ed) Alleanze nell’ombra. Mafie ed economie locali in Sicilia e nel Mezzogiorno. Roma: Donzelli

  • Sciarrone R. (2014) Tra Sud e Nord. Le mafie nelle aree non tradizionali. In: Sciarrone R (ed) Mafie al Nord. Strategie criminali e contesti locali. Rome: Donzelli Editore

  • Sergi A. (2012) Fifth Column, Italy’s Basilischi Mafia Crime Group re-emerges. Jane’s Intelligence Review (June): 40–44

  • Sergi A. (2013) La Perduta Lucania Felix. I Basilischi e gli ultimi 20 anni di criminalità organizzata in Basilicata. In: Ciconte E, Forgione F and Sales I (eds) Atlante delle mafie (vol. II). Storia, economia, società, cultura. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino

  • Sergi A (2014) Organised crime in criminal law. Conspiracy and membership offences in Italian. English and International frameworks King’s Law Journal 25(2):185–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Sergi A (2015a) The evolution of the Australian ‘ndrangheta. An historical perspective. Aust N Z J Criminol 48(2):155–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sergi A (2015b) Mafia and politics as concurrent governance actors. Revisiting political power and crime in Southern Italy. In: Van Duyne PC, Maljević A, Antonopoulos GA, et al. (eds) The relativity of wrongdoing: corruption, organised crime, fraud and money laundering in perspective. Wolf Legal Publishers, Oisterwijk

    Google Scholar 

  • Sergi P (2001) La mafia in Basilicata dal 1981 al 2000 nelle relazioni dei procuratori generali. Rivista Storica lucana 33-34

  • Sergi P. (2003) Gli anni dei basilischi. Mafia, Istituzioni e Società in Basilicata, Milano: Franco Angeli

  • Shapiro JN (2012) Terrorist decision-making: insights from economics and political science. Perspectives on Terrorism 8(4–5)

  • Shaw CR, McKay HD (1942) Juvenile delinquency and urban areas, a study of rates of delinquents in relation to differential characteristics of local communities in American cities, Chicago. The University of Chicago Press, Ill

  • Sutherland E (1947) Principles of criminology. Lippincoat, Philadephia

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor RB, Covington J (1988) Neighborhood changes in ecology and violence. Criminology 26(4):553–590

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trist E (1977) A concept of organizational ecology. Aust J Manag 2(2):161–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Duyne PC. (2011) (Transnational) Organised Crime, Laundering and the Congregation of the Gullible 14 March 2011. Tilburg University. Valedictory 14 March 2011(Tillburg University)

  • Varese F (2005) How mafias migrate : the case of the ‘ndrangheta in northern Italy. University of Oxford, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Varese F. (2011) Mafias on the move : how organized crime conquers new territories, Princeton, N.J.; Woodstock: Princeton University Press

  • Von Lampe K, Johansen PO (2004) Organized crime and trust: on the conceptualization and empirical relevance of trust in the context of criminal networks. Global Crime 6(2):159–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Von Lampe K (2008) Organized crime in europe: conceptions and realities. Policing A Journal of Policy and Practice 2(1):7–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Lampe K (2011) The application of the framework of situational crime prevention to ‘organized crime. Criminology and Criminal Justice 11(2):145–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wikstrom P-OH, Loeber R (2000) Do disadvantaged neighborhoods cause well-adjusted children to become adolescent deliquents? A study of male juvenile serious offending, individual risk and protective factors and neighborhood context. Criminology 38(4):1109–1142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young JK, Dugan L (2014) Survival of the fittest: why terrorist groups endure. Perspectives on Terrorism 8

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Criminology, Department of Sociology, Wivenhoe Park, CO43SQ, Colchester, England

    Anna Sergi

Authors
  1. Anna Sergi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna Sergi.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of interest

The Author declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sergi, A. A qualitative reading of the ecological (dis)organisation of criminal associations. The case of the ‘Famiglia Basilischi’ in Italy. Trends Organ Crim 19, 149–174 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-015-9254-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-015-9254-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation