Abstract
Leslie Holmes’ new book begins with an exploration of the concept of organised crime and a brief overview of organised crime activity before moving on to consider the impacts of such activity on individuals, organisations, and states (Chapters 1 and 2). Chapter 3 details the methods used to measure organised crime and their limitations, which Holmes notes are regrettably substantial. Chapter 4 provides a detailed examination of six major transnational organised crime groups, including the Sicilian Mafia, Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, Russian ‘Mafiya’, Mexican drug cartels, and Western biker gangs. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the causes of organised crime, and cover psycho-social and cultural approaches as well as systems-level explanations focusing on corruption, poverty, inequality, and weak government. Chapters 7 and 8 consider the functions of the state, international organisations, civil society, and individuals in combating organised crime. The book concludes with an overview of recent trends in organised crime and some thoughts on what the future holds.
The aim of Elgar Advanced Introductions is to pinpoint the essential principles of a particular field and to offer insights that stimulate critical thinking, and Holmes’ new book does an admirable job of achieving this aim in context of the study of organised crime. Holmes’ mastery of the subject is evidenced, somewhat ironically, by the simplicity and accessibility of his writing; to condense and synthesise such a broad array of material into a book that undergraduates and non-specialists can easily digest is no mean feat. Different readers with different interests are bound to find the author’s treatment of one or another topic unsatisfactorily short, but this is an issue that afflicts all books of this sort and Holmes cannot fairly be faulted for it. This being said, the book’s almost total neglect of organised cybercrime justly warrants criticism. As Holmes himself notes, cybercrime is one of the fastest growing organised crime activities, and the future heralds ever-greater reliance on the Internet. Insights into how to tackle organised crime in this area are therefore particularly pressing, but Holmes does not provide these. This issue could have been remedied by slimming down or even removing Chapter 4, which unnecessarily consumes 20 pages. Despite this significant oversight, however, Holmes’ book will prove to be of value to undergraduates and non-specialists seeking an overview of how and why organised crime came to look the way it does today.