Class Organised Crime - Structures, Contexts and Manifestations

The course unit analyses the nature, organisation and dynamics of organised criminal groups, as well as the social, economic and political contexts that favour their emergence and expansion, drawing on contributions from criminology, sociology, law, economics and international relations. It operates at the interface between research and practice, in contexts such as criminal police bodies, the Public Prosecution Service, intelligence services, financial supervisory authorities, international organisations and applied research. Its areas of intervention include explanatory theories and models, criminal structures and networks, trafficking in human beings and narcotics, economic and financial crime and money laundering, corruption, cybercrime, and the transnational dimension of the phenomenon.

Not applicable

a. Conceptual issues underlying organised crime; b. Historical framework; c. Legal instruments and control institutions; d. International strategies and agreements to control the phenomenon; e. Latent opportunity factors in society; f. The predatory and parasitic nature of organised crime; g. The diversity of structures and expressions; h. Corruption as an antechamber and instrument of organised crime; i. The typological structures of organisations, groups and networks; k. The actors, the places, the modi operandi; l. The costs associated with predatory activity; m. New challenges and approaches to the need to control the phenomenon.

Theoretical lectures on the syllabus, and theoretical-practical lectures, in which the lecturer complements his presentation by inviting students to reflect and debate. The theoretical component consists of the presentation to the students of the various items that will be worked on in the practical part of the lessons, accompanied by the reading and discussion of texts.

ANDERSON, Annelise (1995). The Red Mafia: A Legacy of Communism in Economic Transition in Eastern Europe and Russia. Ed. Edward P. Lazear. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, pp. 340-367. ALBANESE, Jay S. (2002). The prediction and control of organized crime: a risk assessment instrument for targeting law enforcement efforts, National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), Research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. ANTUNES, Manuel António Ferreira (1984). Técnicas de investigação criminal, in Boletim do Ministério da Justiça, Lisboa, N.º 338 (julho 1984), p. 7-44. BARRETO, António (2000). "Portugal e a Europa: quatro décadas", em A situação Social em Portugal, 1960-1999, António Barreto, Clara Valadas Preto, Maria João Valente Rosa, Marina Costa Lobo, e Paulo Chitas, Lisboa, Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa, pp 37-75.