Book Review: Alan Wright Organised Crime Cullompton, Devon: Willan, 2006. 237 pp. £18.99 ISBN—10: 1— 84392—140—5; ISBN—13:978—1—84392—140—0
| Author | Rob Hornsby |
| DOI | 10.1177/17488958080080030702 |
| Published date | 01 August 2008 |
| Date | 01 August 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Alan Wright
Organised Crime
Cullompton, Devon: Willan, 2006. 237 pp. £18.99 ISBN–10:
1– 84392–140–5; ISBN–13:978–1–84392–140–0
•Reviewed by Rob Hornsby, University of York, UK
At a far less challenging level than the previous book, Alan Wright’s
Organised Crime aims at providing an approachable introduction for
novices to the study of organized crime. The book examines four principal
themes of historical and contemporary perspectives of the study of organ-
ized criminal activities. These themes usefully examine the contentious
aspects that continue to beleaguer the characteristic features and concepts
attached to the ‘organized crime’ label. Wright’s well-resourced account of
criminological theory and state interventions to combat the real or per-
ceived threats created by organized criminal activities, and law enforcement
activities to combat them, covers much of the already exposed terrain of
knowledge on organized crime and adds a useful chapter on British organ-
ized criminal firms. The book has nine chapters, which examine:
•The contested terrain on the conceptualization of ‘organized crime’.
•Gangs.
•Historical and contemporary perspectives on political economy of crime
for profit activities.
•The illicit drug and people trafficking trades.
•Traditional organized crime groups.
•The changing patterns and concepts of organized crime in the USA.
•Transnational organized crime.
•British organized crime.
•Policy and law enforcement responses.
The book opens with a useful discussion of the contentious label of
‘organized crime’ and addresses the diversity of definitions from official and
empirical sources that generally reflect diversity in their theoretical under-
standings, which continue to muddy the waters on conceptual clarity of the
term ‘organized crime’. What follows in the remaining chapters are discus-
sions on a variety of compositional, facilitation and policy responses to the
challenges posed by organized criminal activity. In the main, as any good
introductory text book should, and this is one, this overview of organized
crime provides an accessible account of some of the key areas of discourse.
However, there is a lack of clarity in defining what constitutes ‘organized
crime’. For instance, the inclusion of a chapter on gangs is misplaced, in this
reviewer’s opinion, in the analysis of serious organized criminal activities. In
1960, Cloward and Ohlin argued that gangs lacked co-ordinated structure
and the commercial ability to organize their activities in an appropriate
manner. And despite a great deal of empirical research into gangs since that
Book Reviews 351
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