On ‘Organized Crime’ in the illicit antiquities trade: moving beyond the definitional debate

Dietzler, J. (2013) On ‘Organized Crime’ in the illicit antiquities trade: moving beyond the definitional debate. Trends in Organized Crime, 16(3), pp. 329-342. (doi: 10.1007/s12117-012-9182-0)

Abstract

The extent to which ‘organized crime’ is involved in illicit antiquities trafficking is unknown and frequently debated. This paper explores the significance and scale of the illicit antiquities trade as a unique transnational criminal phenomenon that is often said to be perpetrated by and exhibit traits of so-called ‘organized crime.’ The definitional debate behind the term ‘organized crime’ is considered as a potential problem impeding our understanding of its existence or extent in illicit antiquities trafficking, and a basic progression-based model is then suggested as a new tool to move beyond the definitional debate for future research that may help to elucidate the actors, processes and criminal dynamics taking place within the illicit antiquities trade from source to market. The paper concludes that researchers should focus not on the question of whether organized criminals- particularly in a traditionally conceived, mafia-type stereotypical sense- are involved in the illicit antiquities trade, but instead on the structure and progression of antiquities trafficking itself that embody both organized and criminal dynamics.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: UNSPECIFIED
• Authors: Dietzler, J.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Research Group: SCCJR
• Journal Name: Trends in Organized Crime
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 1084-4791
• ISSN (Online): 1936-4830
• Published Online: 16 January 2013
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2013 The Author
• First Published: First published in Trends in Organized Crime, online publication date 16 January 2013
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher