2nd General Conference on Organised Crime
University of Bath, UK, 7-8 July 2017

The ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime was established in 2001 and has almost 100 members. The Standing Group on Organised Crime (SGOC) promotes research on organised crime across disciplinary, regional and professional boundaries. To this end, it offers a number of platforms such as its own website, a blog, and diverse social media.

After the success of the first General Conference on Organised Crime, which was held in Naples from 11-12 December 2015, this edition of the conference has the main theme of 'Organised Crime Today: Networks, Routes and Criminal Partnerships'. This conference is organised in cooperation with the ECPR, the ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime and the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath.

The study of serious and organised crime has allowed a better understanding of many illicit activities including; drug trafficking, smuggling, political corruption, and extortion, as well as improving social-economic policies and policing responses. By developing case studies, research methods, and theoretical frameworks we are closer to tackling these social problems that are challenging democratic institutions in many different ways and levels. However, despite the advances over the last 30 years, we are also starting to realise that we need to go beyond our traditional and well established frameworks to un-package the complex and silent features of serious and organised crime. The reason is simple: criminal networks do not operate in isolation. They exist in a multiplex networked world where changes in one layer of the social or economic fabric enables new structures and activities at another layer, and vice versa. Identifying the overlapping relationships of outwardly disconnected spheres of social interaction is a major research puzzle this conference wishes to address.

For further information please contact ecprsgocbath2017@gmail.com

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