Books by Amber Phillips
Organised crime and financial crime are pressing global problems, increasingly recognised as poli... more Organised crime and financial crime are pressing global problems, increasingly recognised as policy priorities both by national governments and international bodies and corporations. This proudly interdisciplinary collection is built on the premise that these topics are too often artificially separated, both in scholarship and the classroom. Bringing together scholars from law, the social sciences, and the humanities, this book showcases a diverse range of perspectives on these complex and compelling global issues, and the criminal justice challenges that they pose.
The themes discussed include legal theory and procedure; regulation and enforcement; prevention and punishment; media representation and perception. Readers are encouraged to think outside traditional disciplinary bounds and form their own connections and conclusions inspired by the juxtaposition of perspectives rarely seen together in the same volume.
Journal Articles by Amber Phillips
Trends in Organized Crime, 2016
New Readings, 2020
Despite being recognised as Italy’s most powerful mafia, Calabria’s ’ndrangheta has long been dwa... more Despite being recognised as Italy’s most powerful mafia, Calabria’s ’ndrangheta has long been dwarfed by its Sicilian and Neapolitan cousins in terms of cultural representations. Such representations, however, though frequently overlooked and ignored outside of their native region, have played a definite role in shaping wider perceptions of the ’ndrangheta. This article examines three novels by Saverio Strati (1924–2014), one of Calabria’s few celebrated authors, published between 1957 and 1977. These realist novels contain rich and detailed depictions of the ’ndrangheta, and encompass a significant phase of change and development within the organization. My reading of the novels considers the nature and pace of this change, with reference to historical debates concerning the “old” and “new” mafia, particularly Pino Arlacchi’s traditional/entrepreneurial dichotomy. I further explore Strati’s portrayal of the ’ndrangheta’s relationship with traditional Calabria, considering the consensus enjoyed by the mafia within its host communities, and argue that this presents a departure from the work of Corrado Alvaro (1895–1956). Finally, I explore the ways in which Strati’s novels have been used and interpreted by ’ndrangheta scholarship and literary criticism. I argue that while contemporary literary critics appear keen to downplay the presence of the ’ndrangheta in the texts, historians and sociologists have frequently cited them as eyewitness historical accounts of the organization, blurring the line between fact and fiction.
The Calabrian mafia, or ‘Ndrangheta, is a hugely powerful international crime syndicate, with ori... more The Calabrian mafia, or ‘Ndrangheta, is a hugely powerful international crime syndicate, with origins that can be traced back to the late nineteenth century. By far the least studied of Italy’s ‘big three’ mafias, socio-historical research on the earlier stage of the organisation’s history has tended to make extensive use of literary and journalistic texts as source material (see Arlacchi (1983); Ciconte (1992); Paoli (2003)). This paper will present a cautionary example of the importance of interrogating literary and journalistic representations of Italian organized crime sensitively and within context, taking an article written by celebrated Calabrian writer Corrado Alvaro as a case study. It argues that academic perceptions of the early ‘Ndrangheta are, through their reliance on cultural products, impacted by the narratives contained within such texts; a phenomenon which merits further investigation. Further, drawing on cultural memory studies, it argues that, while the accuracy of the representations of the ‘Ndrangheta contained within these texts may be called into question, they do, through their ability to both reflect and shape public opinion, have a valuable contribution to make to our understanding of perceptions of Calabrian organized crime in its native region.
Book Chapters by Amber Phillips
A Research Agenda for Financial Crime, 2022
Law enforcement efforts to disrupt financial crime rest on a myriad of crime control policies whi... more Law enforcement efforts to disrupt financial crime rest on a myriad of crime control policies which are designed outside of the interests of enforcement bodies. Neglecting to recognize the lived experiences of frontline officers threatens the effectiveness of policing efforts to tackle financial crime because officers are working with policies which do not reflect the reality of the situation ‘on the ground’. ‘Financial crime’ covers a wide range of offences and the responsibility for its control rests in part on effective policing. This chapter adopts an international approach (in recognition of the complex and transnational nature of much financial crime); but its examination of policing is rooted in the UK, in the interests of facilitating a more focused analysis.
Organised Crime, Financial Crime, and Criminal Justice: Theoretical Concepts and Challenges, 2023
In Italy the term ‘mafia’ is used to refer to a number of different criminal organisations, inclu... more In Italy the term ‘mafia’ is used to refer to a number of different criminal organisations, including (but not limited to): Sicily’s cosa nostra; the camorra (from the region of Campania); the Calabrian ’ndrangheta; and Puglia’s Sacra Corona Unita, as well as a number of foreign mafias operating on Italian territory. While these groups differ in terms of their structure and organisation, they share certain key characteristics: they are all secret criminal organisations seeking to control territory and accumulate economic resources for the benefit of their members, operating across illegal and legal markets at national and international level. Financial and social prestige are two key sources of mafia power, and the economic impact of mafia activities is substantial, persisting in the economic and social fabric and negatively impacting free competition long after individual offenders have served their time. Recognising the distinct nature of mafia criminality, Italy has developed a specific regulatory framework in response to this economic threat.
Organised Crime, Financial Crime, and Criminal Justice: Theoretical Concepts and Challenges, 2023
It is generally agreed that public perceptions of organised crime are profoundly impacted by the ... more It is generally agreed that public perceptions of organised crime are profoundly impacted by the mass media and popular culture, and that cultural representations play a major role in constructing dominant narratives. Furthermore, many scholars have observed that fictional representations of organised crime have helped shape the policies of governments and law enforcement agencies. Woodiwiss, for example, points to the impact of the ‘mythology’ of the Italian-American mafia on organised crime control policy in the United States and internationally. The Italian-American mafia has certainly cast a long shadow in this regard; Smith notes the implicit racism of many media representations of organised crime, highlighting their frequent recourse to ethnic descriptors in the portrayal of a dangerous ‘other’. This reflects the so-called ‘alien conspiracy’ myth, the nefarious and lingering perception that organised crime is ‘not a part of society and shaped by society itself, but is instead a problem of ‘outsiders’ that threaten society’. The Italian-American mafia is the archetype for this myth; in the 1950s, televised senate hearings helped to propagate the idea that organised crime in the US was in the grip of a foreign criminal conspiracy originating in Sicily. The dominance of the alien conspiracy narrative in the US began to recede in the 1980s, but the tendency to categorise organised crime through ethnicity and to concentrate the blame on ‘outsider’ groups rather than confront wider social causes has proved enduring.
Conference Presentations by Amber Phillips
Paper presented at: Due process or due proceeds? The future of confiscation, University of Queensland, Australia, 2023
Italy’s pioneering anti-mafia legislation allows confiscated assets to be handed over to civil so... more Italy’s pioneering anti-mafia legislation allows confiscated assets to be handed over to civil society groups. In the context of increasing global interest in the social reuse of assets, this paper outlines Italian legislation facilitating the reuse of confiscated real estate, examining a range of case studies from the Calabria region.
ASMI Postgraduate Summer School, University of Bristol 2016
Societal Dimentions of Organised Crime Conference, Rome, September 2015
Conference of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies, Sorrento, 2016
Book Reviews by Amber Phillips
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Books by Amber Phillips
The themes discussed include legal theory and procedure; regulation and enforcement; prevention and punishment; media representation and perception. Readers are encouraged to think outside traditional disciplinary bounds and form their own connections and conclusions inspired by the juxtaposition of perspectives rarely seen together in the same volume.
Journal Articles by Amber Phillips
Book Chapters by Amber Phillips
Conference Presentations by Amber Phillips
Book Reviews by Amber Phillips
The themes discussed include legal theory and procedure; regulation and enforcement; prevention and punishment; media representation and perception. Readers are encouraged to think outside traditional disciplinary bounds and form their own connections and conclusions inspired by the juxtaposition of perspectives rarely seen together in the same volume.