Woodiwiss, Michael : University of the West of England
Michael Woodiwiss is a senior lecturer in the School of History, Faculty of Humanities, at the University of
the West of England, in Bristol.
Review
"[This] book is fascinating and is effectively presented ... I know of no holistic accounts such as this
and there is a need for this type of thoughtful research."
-- Margaret Beare, Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime, Osgoode Law School, York University.
'The scholarship underlying this [book] is sound and current; [it] adds to our understanding of the phenomenon
of organized crime in the United States, particularly with respect to its historical context."
-- Neil Boyd, Professor of Criminology, Simon Fraser University
University of Toronto Publishing Web Site, September, 2003
Summary
Organized crime, understood in a literal sense as systematic illegal activity for money or power, is as old
as the first systems of law and government and as international as trade. Piracy, banditry, kidnapping, extortion,
forgery, fraud, and trading in stolen or illegal goods and services are all ancient occupations that have often
involved the active participation of landowners, merchants, and government officials. Many people today, however,
follow the lead of the US government and American commentators and understand organized crime as being virtually
synonymous with super-criminal 'Mafia-type' organizations. These are usually seen as separate entities, distinct
from legitimate society but possessing almost unlimited regional, national, and even international power. As background
to this understanding of organized crime there exists a consensus among most commentators that suggests that the
United States has had the most experience and success in dealing with the problem. In Organized Crime and American
Power: A History, Michael Woodiwiss argues that organized criminal activity has never been a serious threat to
established economic and political power structures in the United States but more often a fluid, variable, and
open-ended phenomenon that has, in fact, complemented those structures.
Conventional histories of the problem tend to focus on outlaws in peripheral feudal societies, most commonly Sicily,
for their antecedents. Woodiwiss by contrast finds his antecedents in the systematic criminal activity of the powerful
and respectable in those ancient and early modern societies that we usually understand to be at the centre of 'civilized'
development and continues to emphasize the crimes of the powerful throughout his wide ranging overview. He surveys
the organization of crime in the Southern states after the American Civil War; the organized crimes of American
business interests; the causes and corrupt consequences of the US campaign to prohibit alcohol and other 'vices';
the elaboration of the Mafia conspiracy interpretation of organized crime and the consequent 'dumbing of discourse'
about the problem, not just nationally but internationally.
Emphasizing the importance of collaboration, as much as confrontation, between government and criminals, Woodiwiss
illustrates how crime control policies based on the Mafia paradigm have not only failed to address much organized
criminal behaviour, but have, in many ways, proved counterproductive and damaging to individual rights and social
stability.