The Invisible Camorra - by Felia Allum (Hardcover)

About the Book

Felia Allum has been researching the Camorra for twenty years, and in The Invisible Camorra she reveals a surprising alteration in Camorra behavior when operatives live outside the Neapolitan base.

Book Synopsis

The organized crime group that dominates much of the socioeconomic life of contemporary Naples, the Camorra, is organized by kin and geography, and it is notoriously the most violent, fractious, and disorganized mafia in Italy. The Camorra controls local extortion rackets, the drug and counterfeit trades, and other legal and illicit activities as well as wielding substantial political influence throughout Naples and its environs. Felia Allum has been researching the Camorra for twenty years, and in The Invisible Camorra she reveals a surprising alteration in Camorra behavior when operatives live outside the Neapolitan base. When gang members move away from Naples, having been forced out by intense policing and gang competition, they are attracted by business opportunities that, on the whole, fit in with their usual activities. When they move to other parts of Western Europe and are therefore no longer criminals simply by virtue of "mafia association" as they are in Italy, they become largely invisible. Gang members avoid the spectacular deployment of violence, they merge quietly into local life, they keep themselves to themselves, and, when necessary, use legitimate local actors such as lawyers and accountants to further their economic well-being. Allum has constructed a meticulous description and analysis of Camorra activities abroad. To build accounts of the Camorra in Germany and the Netherlands, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, she has interviewed investigating magistrates, police officers, and confessed criminals; done substantial mining of Italian and European police data; and made extensive use of judicial investigations, court records and transcripts as well as of journalistic accounts. The result is the first systematic analysis of the overseas activities of this major criminal organization.

Review Quotes

Felia Allum's book skilfully provides a systematic and meticulous account of Camorra's familiar organisations and activities abroad, showing how clans evolved from being unsophisticated and independent groups of offenders to the powerful criminal force that the Camorra is today.... Overall, the book is undoubtedly an important contribution to the organised crime literature. It proficiently and with very accessible writing guides the reader on a travel through space and time to understand the globalism of Camorra.... Allum explicitly locates her book in the realm of political sociology. However, it should be of great interest for scholars in history, Italian studies, policing, and mafia studies. It should be a useful read for journalists and senior policy makers as well.

Suggests a number of important questions: where do women fit into migrations patterns? Does migration loosen ties around gender roles amongst Camorra? No one is better-placed to start to answer these questions. The Invisible Camorra won the 2017 book award from the International Division of the American Society of Criminology. It is a worthy winner. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in organised crime. Police officers, scholars and students will all find something here that informs their work or scholarship.

About the Author

Felia Allum is a lecturer in the department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath, UK, and cofounder of the ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime. She is the author of Camorristi, Politicians, and Businessmen: The Transformation of Organized Crime in Post-war Naples.