Governing the underworld: How organised crime governs other criminals

Abstract

This article explores how organised criminal organisations exercise criminal governance over other individual criminals and gangs using lethal and extra-lethal violence. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, over 250 press reports, and an original database on inter-criminal lethal violence, we demonstrate that while these organisations use violence to build their reputation as actors willing to use force, they also provide benefits to other criminals such as financing and protection from state and competitors. This article contributes to the literature on criminal governance by expanding the understanding of how the criminal world is organised and how OCGs use their political influence to legitimize criminal governance.