Rival Views of Organised Crime

The author critiques the mainstream definition of organised crime, which often views it as a structured, culturally homogenous conspiracy. The paper introduces four models of criminal coordination—hierarchy, networks, markets, and clans—and argues that real-world criminal entities are often hybrids of these. It specifically examines the application of these views in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and suggests that the term 'illicit enterprise' better captures the continuum between legal and illegal business activities.

• Criminal coordination can be understood through four distinct models: hierarchy (based on rules and central authority), networks (based on trust and mutual dependency), markets (based on competition and economic forces), and clans (based on loyalty, kinship, and tradition).
• The author argues that no single model fully describes organised crime; instead, criminal entities are typically hybrids that adapt their coordination mechanism based on their specific context and goals.
• The mainstream paradigm of organised crime is critiqued for treating it as an 'external threat' or a 'virus' that invades civil society, which the author claims obscures the fact that such crime is often an internal problem created by contradictions within the state and its laws.
• The document challenges the 'ethnicity trap' in mainstream discourse, which tends to label organised crime groups by nationality (e.g., Russian Mafia, Chinese Triads), arguing that this ignores the involvement of diverse nationalities and the role of powerful elites within the host nation.
• In the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, official definitions of organised crime are heavily influenced by American models, often relying on lists of traits such as hierarchy, secrecy, and the pursuit of profit.
• The author proposes replacing the terms 'organised crime' and 'white-collar crime' with the single concept of 'illicit enterprise', which views illegal activity as a continuum of business rather than a unique category of offender.
• The author suggests dividing the study of illicit enterprise into 'criminal economies' (prohibited goods and services) and 'criminalised economies' (legal goods and services that rely on criminal business practices).

APA

Institute for Security Studies (n.d.). Rival Views of Organised Crime. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono77.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Rival Views of Organised Crime. n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono77.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Rival Views of Organised Crime |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono77.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudiesndrival, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Rival Views of Organised Crime}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono77.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }