Unlicensed capitalism Greeg style

Manifestations of what mainstream criminology currently identifies as'organised crime' have long existed in Greece and in some respects exhibitdeep roots in the country's economic and cultural history. The term as such,'organised crime', was only brought to currency in the 1990s by the mediain the country. Curiously this was not a development preceded or followedby extensive and reliable research. From a criminological viewpoint, verylittle is known on 'organised crime' in Greece either in general or onspecific types of 'organised crime'. As case studies and official accountsare few and far apart, the widespread use of the term in public debatesbears more the unmistakable marks of truthiness than factuality. Thepurpose of this book, which comprises a number of previously publishedcase studies, is precisely to challenge the taken-for-granted, mainstreamaccounts featuring a certain exceptionalist notion of 'organised crime';that 'organised crime' is invariably associated with certain groups andmilieus, a dark and obscure underworld radically separated from anorderly and lawful upperworld. The five case studies included in this bookdirectly challenge this view across a range of illegal markets: the cigaretteblack market, the car theft and trafficking business, the Ecstasy market,human smuggling and trafficking, and the counterfeit CD/DVD market.The concluding chapter provides a synthesis of the empirical evidencepresented and attempts to connect research findings with a series ofquestions of both theory and policy.