Principles of Imperfect Organized Crime Prevention

“In  Principles of Imperfect Organized Crime Prevention , John Braithwaite offers the first global analysis of organized crime and its entanglements with state corruption, war crimes, and corporate crime, drawing on evidence from more than 50 countries. Through a distinctive empirical and normative lens, Braithwaite combines fine-grained analyses and illuminating insights with thought-provoking recommendations grounded in restorative justice, responsive regulation and a theory of assemblages. Essential reading for scholars of organized crime, this book is equally valuable for social scientists, policymakers, and practitioners seeking innovative strategies to loosen organized crime’s grip on societies and mitigate resulting harms.”
–Leticia Paoli , Professor, Institute of Criminology, KU Leuven, Belgium

This open access book is a novel contribution to criminology, a radical conjuncture in the evolution of restorative justice and responsive regulatory theory.

When Brazil’s President Lula returned to power, he backed an assemblage of movements that included environmentalists, Indigenous leaders who were river keepers, forest keepers, and regulators to reduce deforestation of the Amazon at the hands of assemblages of illegal loggers, wildlife smugglers, agro-business, and corrupt officials. This steeply slowed accelerating destruction of the Amazon ecosystem. Simple reforms like resourcing forest fire brigades and environmental crime prosecutors also helped. Braithwaite’s theoretical point is that disassembling harm-producing assemblages, and replacing them with harm-preventing assemblages, helps us see how big changes to the character of organized crime do occur to impact things that matter, like the Amazon.

Organized crime does most harm when it criminalizes states or is taken over by presidents of states. Braithwaite diagnoses data from 6000 interviews and documentary sources from over 50 countries to discern the states where this is happening. Which are the societies where the power of organized crime to do this level of harm has been disassembled?

John Braithwaite is Emeritus Professor and Founder of the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University.