Seminar Series in Organised Crime

Existing literature has addressed corruption both as an underlying cause and a facilitating factor of organised crime, hinting at their corrosive impact on communities, societies, and governance structures. Yet, scholars and experts still struggle to document the intriguing rapport and complex collusions between organised criminal actors, public and civil servants – an enterprise even more difficult considering the heterogeneity of organised crime and of contexts where the lines between each group of actors and transactions are becoming blurry. Multi-stakeholder initiatives are now flourishing to promote investigative reporting. From a policy perspective, “following the money” have been one of the main strategies adopted by intergovernmental organisations, development cooperation agencies, national governments and other relevant stakeholders to deconstruct and cope with the existing ties between corrupted and illicit practices and actors. Now, while concerns over corruption related to organized crime have increased in recent years, growing evidence shows that the tying mechanisms are even more complex and multidimensional. To add further impetus to this research agenda, our Standing Group on Organised Crime, together with the Standing Group on (Anti-)Corruption and Integrity, propose a series of thematic discussions on the dynamics of organised crime, impunity, rule of law and corruption.  Encouraging more in-depth dialogue across research communities, the series also provides an opportunity to reflect on possible avenues for future research agendas and policy thinking.