Anita Lavorgna

The online trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals: new criminal opportunities, trends, and challenges

There is widespread agreement that the Internet is a primary market for counterfeit pharmaceuticals, but this issue has been under-investigated by criminologists. In order to effectively control this dangerous trade, considerably more knowledge about it must be assembled. This study contributes to this domain by looking at how the Internet is used to facilitate the trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Based on interviews and investigative cases analysed through a crime script, this study pinpoints the criminal opportunities made available by the specificities of the Internet, identifies what specific phases of the trafficking activity they facilitate, investigates how such opportunities are exploited, provides updated insights into how actors involved in the online market in counterfeit pharmaceuticals behave, and offers a reflection on the main challenges that have to be met to respond to this criminal phenomenon.

Organised crime goes online: realities and challenges

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide an empirically based description of how the Internet is exploited by different types of organised crime groups (OCGs), ranging from Italian mafia-style groups to looser gangs. Design/methodology/approach – The article relies on a dataset collected from mid-2011 to mid-2013 and, specifically, on semi-structured interviews to law enforcement officials and acknowledged experts in Italy, the UK, the USA and The Netherlands; judicial transcripts; police records; and media news. Findings – This article provides an account of the main scope for which the Internet has been used for various criminal activities traditionally associated with the organised crime rhetoric, first and foremost, cross-border trafficking activities. This study also discusses some current legal and policy approaches to deal with OCGs operating online. Originality/value – This contribution addresses an under-investigated research field and aims to foster a reflection on the opportunity to ...

Organization, operations, and success of environmental organized crime in Italy and India: A comparative analysis:

Despite the devastating short- and long-term consequences of resource-related environmental crimes, rampant illegal soil and sand mining continues worldwide. In countries such as India and Italy, organized crime groups have emerged as prominent illegal suppliers of soil and sand. The proposed study focuses on an understudied research area at the intersection between organized crime and environmental crimes, and offers a trans-comparative study of illegal soil and sand mining conducted by Indian and Italian organized crime groups with two main objectives. First, a comparative analysis of the organizational mechanisms, operational practices, threat management, and supporting cultural, regulatory, and policing factors is conducted. Second, a discussion of how these groups reflect mainstream models and theories of organized crime is offered.

Script analysis of complex criminal activities: investigating the use of the Internet as a facilitator for offline transit crimes

Three years ago, I embarked on a PhD research study to understand what types of criminal opportunities the Internet offers for so-called transit crimes—that is, trafficking activities—and how these opportunities affect their organization. Previous criminological studies had already considered the role of the Internet as a crime facilitator, but they did not linger on these specific aspects. Script analysis—namely, a way to identify the sequence of actions which are carried out for a determinate criminal activity to occur—has been used as a tool in order to organize and analyze data. Data were gathered through media news, investigative and judicial material, and semi-structured interviews. This case study has two main goals: first, it introduces to the reader the basics of script analysis, which is a powerful analytical tool when looking at criminal opportunities, and shows how this tool has been used in an innovative way to answer to specific research questions. Second, it illustrates some practical and methodological problems encountered in carrying out my PhD research, and it presents the solutions found. By providing an account of these challenges, this case study leads to more general considerations on difficulties related to data access and collection in criminological research.

Islamist movements in the Fergana Valley: a new threat assessment approach

Existing threat assessment analyses of crime and terrorism rely on a series of indicators, first and foremost violence. However, these approaches tend to neglect local specificities. In Central Asia and especially in the Fergana Valley, there are radical groups that do not necessarily commit violent behaviour, but yet represent a threat for both their operational areas and the international community. How can the threat of radicalisation be assessed when violence is not a characterising element, and what processes and structures should be taken into consideration to this end? Based on primary data collected during field research, this article challenges conventional threat assessments and the crime–terrorism nexus by looking at how the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizb-ut-Tahrir have infiltrated indigenous social structures. This analysis suggests that the nature of security threats in Central Asia needs to be reconsidered by focusing on the informal institutionalisation of radicalisation, and it proposes the use of alternative threat assessment indicators.

Media representations of complementary and alternative medicine in the Italian press: A criminological perspective

Complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs), here broadly intended as all those healthcare approaches developed outside standard science-based medicine, are increasingly the object of highly polarized public debates. Some CAMs can cause great social harm, with serious repercussions both on the health of people and on their confidence in the medical profession and the scientific method. This notwithstanding, criminologists have so far overlooked this issue. Based on the awareness that people’s perceptions of CAMs often depend on what they learn about them through the media, this exploratory study presents a longitudinal systematic analysis of media representations of CAMs in the Italian press. The results indicate that media have conveyed confused and ambivalent messages on the topic of CAMs, partly because of the lack of preparation of journalists on this subject and partly because of the insubstantial presence of the voices of experts and medical organizations in the press discourse. In addition, the study identifies avenues for further criminological research on this topic.

Caught in a lie: the rise and fall of a respectable deviant

ABSTRACT In this study, we draw on the concept of respectable deviance to understand the journey into deviance – from her rise as an alternative health expert through to her public disgrace – of Belle Gibson, a young Australian blogger, app publisher, and alternative medicine advocate who falsely claimed to have cured cancer without reverting to science-based medicine. Through the rigorous analysis of a series of media and documentary sources where Ms Gibson provided autobiographical accounts of her life experience, the argument is presented that the promotion of one’s self as a health expert and subsequently being outed as a fraudster encourages techniques of neutralization and particular presentations of self to respond and manage negative labeling and the stigma attached.

Ndrangheta Movements in the Centre and North of Italy

This second chapter of Part I investigates how the criminal model of the ‘ndrangheta has moved over the years to a number of regions, replicating peripheral structures but maintaining the direction in Calabria. We will look at Lombardia, Liguria, Piemonte, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, and Veneto as case studies to distinguish between colonisation and delocalisation processes in order to explain the settlement of the clans outside Calabria. Through the analysis of recent investigations, the chapter will focus particularly on transplantation tactics and clans’ structures and activities outside their territory of origin.

Drug Trafficking and Investments

This chapter looks at the main revenue of the ‘ndrangheta—that is, drug trafficking. It describes the main judicial operations that have tracked the presence of ‘ndrangheta members and brokers around the world. After describing the way the clans have entered drug markets since the 1970s, the focus shall be on the most contemporary Antimafia investigations. These investigations are crucial to understand not only the changing structure of the clans, but also their reach. This chapter will argue that the drug trade is profoundly linked to the control of the territory in Calabria and in particular of the port of Gioia Tauro. Finally, this chapter will look at the management of proceeds of crime by the clans, especially focusing on investigations on money laundering.

Poly-crime ‘Ndrangheta

The ‘ndrangheta is a poly-crime mafia. This second chapter of Part II looks at various illicit markets the clans invest in and are protagonist of, presenting some selected and relevant cases to show the versatility and the flexibility of illegal activities of the Calabrian clans today. The first part of the chapter focuses on case studies of criminal activities of the ‘ndrangheta linked to the environment, in Calabria but not only, namely illegal waste disposal, waste trafficking, and investments in renewable energies. The other sections of the chapter will look at the latest investigations in sectors such as the fruit, vegetable and flower markets, gambling, and migrant smuggling.