Mafia beyond the borders. Expansion of Italian mafias in Europe

The paper deals with the international expansion of Italian mafias through Europe. We use the concept of mafia to denote a particular form of organized crime that is capable of infiltrating the legal economy and politics, and of offering protection, thus gaining a certain social acceptance. Historically, we can distinguish between three types of mafia in Italy: Cosa Nostra, ‘Ndrangheta and Camorra, originally embedded in specific areas of the South. Signs of mafia settlement are dotted throughout a number of European countries, including Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France, with negative effects on the economic, political and social sphere. The mafia’s presence distorts the markets’ regular operation, putting law-abiding enterprises at a disadvantage. It discourages the more dynamic economic investors who are unwilling to engage in informal or illegal activities, furthers the spread of forms of corruption that make bedfellows of politics and economics, threatens the public’s safety and that of institutions, and favors processes of adverse selection in economics and politics by benefiting candidates and businesses who have mafia ties. For these reasons, the spread of the Italian mafias in Europe has become a topic of growing interest, for European institutions as well as for scholars, public opinion, and law enforcement. Accordingly, the paper aims to identify the factors that contribute to the mafia’s processes of international expansion, by distinguishing between agency and context factors. Moreover, the study will identify how and where the Italian mafia is present in Europe, the factors that make areas vulnerable to mafia encroachment, and case studies that can be explored in subsequent empirical studies.