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Warwick International Intensive Study Programme (WIISP)

History of Global Organised Crime


History of Global Organised Crime

This residential module will take place in Venice and aims to tell the story of the rise and fall of large--scale organised crime groups during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will be asked to engage with literature from history, criminology, and political science.


Who is this module open to?

Credit bearing:

Open to all intermediate level (second year) students at Warwick, with a priority given to History students.

Open to students from partner institutions.

  • HI2K8-15 - Intermediate, for 15 CATS credit in current year (2024/25)

Key dates

This module will take place 16-27 June 2025.

  • Teaching (in Venice): 16-27 June 2025
  • Final assessment deadline: tbc

Costs

Students would be required to fund their travel to, and living expenses (accommodation and subsistence) in Venice for this module.

Warwick students may be eligible to apply for Turing funding if taking two WIISP modules back-to-back in Venice and residing for at least 28 days.

Location

This is a residential module and will be taught in Venice, Italy.

What's special about our modules?

This programme will challenge your thinking, develop your confidence and open up a world of new opportunities. You’ll consider new ideas, apply theory to real world issues working in teams and individually, and develop new networks, connections and friendships. This will provide you strong analytical and research methods skills which also enhance your employability profile for a globalised world of work, derived from a transformative blend of online learning and intercultural engagement.

Access to Intercultural Training will provide further enhancement of your skills.

The intensive nature of our programme lets you focus purely on your chosen modules.

You should expect around two weeks of daily face-to-face sessions (on location) and possibly one week of preparatory online activities. The aim is to work in groups consisting of incoming students (from partner institutions) and Warwick students during the module. Assessments will consist of a mix of group and individual activities.

There are no additional programme fees for Warwick students to take our modules.

Where will you be taught?

Our intensive modules are taught in various ways: mostly face-to-face (combing some online learning and face-to-face teaching). Modules will be based at Warwick central campus, or our overseas residentials will be based at selected European locations relevant to module content. Our modules are designed to be taught in an intensive way, combining physical teaching, and online activities.

All participants will be expected to attend all lectures and group work activities in real time; this might include some online activities in the prep week (where listed in Key dates). As modules are intensive there is not expected to be free time during the teaching period for you to undertake other activities; there will be limited time available during the teaching period to explore the surrounding area.

Students are responsible for checking their own visa requirements and all associated applications and costs.

For overseas modules students are responsible for identifying and booking their own accommodation.


Prof Benjamin Smith

 


Module aims

Two big stories dominate the history of the past two centuries - the formation of the modern nation state and the global rollout of liberal capitalism. Organised criminal groups have been integral to both. They have taxed and protected what the state can't or won't. And they have pioneered forms of trade and economic administration when legal corporations have remained risk averse. This course introduces students to the world of the Italian and American mafias, the Japanese Yakuza, the Chinese Tong gangs, and the Mexican cartels and places them at the centre of the story of the modern world.

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

  • Session 1 What is organized crime?
  • Session 2 Early forms of organized crime
  • Session 3 The Japanese Yakuza
  • Session 4 The Chinese Tongs
  • Session 5 The Italian Mafia 1: Beginnings
  • Session 6 The Italian Mafia 2: Smuggling
  • Session 7 The Italian Mafia 3: The State
  • Session 8: Globalisation
  • Session 9: The Colombian Cartels
  • Session 10: The Mexican Cartels

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

  • To evaluate and critique the relationship between organised crime and capitalism
  • To evaluate and critique the relationship between organised crime and state formation
  • To engage with historiographical debates and think about the history and legacy of different historical concepts
  • To encourage independent research, historiographical engagement, and the development of critical analysis
  • To gain interpersonal and communication skills through the delivery of a presentation

Indicative reading list

  • Paolo Buonanno, Durante Ruben, Prarolo Giovanni, Vanin Paolo
  • Poor institutions, rich mines: resource curse in the origins of the Sicilian mafia, Econ. J., 125 (2015), pp. F125-F202
  • Paoli, L. (2002). The paradoxes of organized crime. Crime, Law and Social Change, 37(1), 51– 97
  • Paoli, L. (2008). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style (first edition). Oxford University Press
  • Paoli, L. (Ed.). (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Organized Crime (1 edition). Oxford University Press
  • Paoli, L. (2020). What Makes Mafias Different? Crime and Justice, 49(1), 141–222
  • Catino, M. (2019), Mafia Organizations: The Visible Hand of Criminal Enterprise. Cambridge University Press
  • Leonardo Schiascia, Days of the Owl
  • Mafia and Mafiosi, Henner Hess
  • Global Mafia, Antonio Nicasso and Lee Lamothe
  • Mafia Brotherhoods, John Dickie
  • Mafia and Antimafia, Umberto Santino
  • Anton Blok, The Mafia of a Sicilian Village
  • Roberto Dainotto, The Mafia: A Cultural History
  • Dash, M., The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder and the Birth of the American Mafia. Ballantine Books, 2010
  • Gambetta, Diego. Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate. Princeton University Press, 2011
  • Jamieson A., The Antimafia. Italy’s Fight Against Organized Crime. St. Martin’s Press, 2000
  • Lupo, S., History of the Mafia. Columbia University Press, 2009
  • Follain, J., The Last Godfathers. The rise and fall of the mafia’s most powerful family. Hodder, 2009
  • Reppetto, T. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. Holt, 2004
  • Schneider P., Schneider J., Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo. UCP, 2003
  • Behan T., See Naples and Die. The Camorra and Organized Crime. Tauris, 2002
  • Duggan C., Fascism and the Mafia. New Haven Press, 1989
  • Fiandaca G., Women and the Mafia: Female Roles in Organized Crime Structures. Springer, 2007
  • Gambetta D., The Sicilian Mafia. The Business of Private Protection. Harvard University Press, 1996
  • Paoli L., Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style. Oxford, 2003
  • Glenny M., McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld. Knopf, 2008
  • Raab S., Five Families. The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. Robson Books, 2006
  • Reppetto T., Bringing Down the Mob: The War against the American Mafia. Henry Holt, 2004
  • Federico Varese, Mafia Life
  • Federico Varese, Mafias on the Move
  • Letizia Paoli, The Oxford Handbook of Organized Crime
  • David Kaplan, Yakuza : Japan's criminal underworld
  • Ioan Grillo, Gangster Warlords
  • Charles Tilly, Warmaking and Statemaking as Organized Crime, Center for Research on Social Organization, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1982
  • Pen Wang, Hong Kong triads: the historical and political evolution of urban criminal polity, 1842–2020, Urban History , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , August 2023 , pp. 445 - 467
  • B.G. Martin, The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919–1937 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1996)
  • F. Varese, The Russian Mafia: Private Protection in A New Market Economy (Oxford, 2001)
  • P. Wang, The Chinese Mafia: Organized Crime, Corruption, and Extra-Legal Protection (Oxford, 2017)

Interdisciplinary

  • History
  • Criminology
  • Anthropology
  • Political Science

International

The module will be taught in Venice and likely involve students from different educational backgrounds. Students will engage with comparative and transnational methodologies and will do so in an intercultural context.

Transferable skills

  • Work effectively with others in group tasks and in teams
  • Plan and manage time in projects
  • Develop strong analytical skills
  • Use appropriate analytic methods to analyse texts on crime, state and capitalism
  • Read academic papers effectively in the context of an intensive programme
  • Communicate clearly and effectively in discussions
  • Communicate ideas effectively in writing.

Study time

Type Required
Seminars 10 sessions of 1 hour (6.5%)
Seminars 10 sessions of 1 hour (6.5%)
Private study

130 hours (87%)

  • History modules require students to undertake extensive independent research and reading to prepare for seminars and assessments. As a rough guide, students will be expected to read and prepare to comment on three substantial texts (articles or book chapters) for each seminar taking approximately 3 hours. Each assessment requires independent research, reading around 6-10 texts and writing and presenting the outcomes of this preparation in an essay, review, presentation or other related task
Total 150 hours

Assessment

You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.

  Weighting Study time

Individual class presentation

(10 minutes)

 20% 10 hours

Class presentation and guidance through reading
3,000 word essay

80%

12 hours

Students will reflect on a question related to the themes of the module, with reference to relevant historiographical debates
Feedback on assessment
  • Written feedback will provided via Tabula
  • Optional oral feedback in office hours
  • Peer feedback on presentations.

Before you apply

You can take a maximum of two WIISP modules, and cannot take them at the same time. This module runs at the same time as the following modules, so you cannot choose these as a second module:

The preparatory reading week for the following module overlaps with this module:

Please note

  • Warwick students will need to check with their department before applying to take a WIISP module
  • Students from partner institutions will need to apply via their home institution
  • You are expected to fully engage and participate in the module, including in any group activities, if not your registration will be cancelled
  • Module details provided on these pages are supplementary to module details in the module catalogueLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window. Subsequently individual module pages (moodle/my.wbs) will provide live details
  • All modules require minimum numbers to run. This is set by each module leader.

How to apply

If you want to make an enquiry before applying, please contact the WIISP team at WIISP at warwick dot ac dot uk

Apply - Warwick students