Newcomers in organised crime : a case study of Giuseppe Rogoli's Sacra Corona Unita, 1979-1999

• Main Author: Kingston, Natasha
• Other Authors: Bull, Anna ; Allum, Felia
• Published: University of Bath 2012
• Subjects: 364
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.557807

This thesis focuses on newcomers in organised crime, employing a case study on the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita (SCU) clan. The thesis tackles the following questions: Do newcomers in a crowded national context adopt their organisational structure in response to predominantly structural or agency factors?; Is the adopted organisational configuration stable or subject to change and fluctuations?; Finally, does this organisational configuration impact upon the success or failure of newcomers in the field of organised crime? In order to respond to these questions, the SCU was selected as a representative example of a newcomer in the Italian national context. A historiographical analytical approach was adopted and the thesis is, therefore, divided into three distinct time periods; the preorganised crime era in Apulia and the emergence of the first native organisation (the SCU); the early years of the SCU and emerging weaknesses at the heart of the organisation; and the era of the state counteroffensive and organisational decline. A structure and agency approach has been applied to the case study in order to address the different ages of the organisation visàvis our research questions. Data, in the form of material from the principal trials, have been analysed to produce a narrative history of the organisation, enabling us to draw conclusions about the factors which may account for organisational success or failure. We focus on Italy as the home of European organised crime, but the SCU represents a distinct case due to its status as a newcomer, its relative anonymity, particularly on a global scale, and its complex and often incongruous history. It is in the interests of researchers and policy makers alike to investigate even the smaller, less successful organised crime syndicates if any cohesive and effective approach to combating the phenomenon is ever to be reached.