1. POLITICS OF ORGANIZED CRIME 1
Nina Westall ninawestall@gmail.com
ITESO Verano 2014
Politics of Organized Crime
Azul Aguiar, Guillermo Valle Salvatore Sberna

2. Organized Crime is a phenomena that impacts every society either directly or
indirectly, the main problem is not its existence but that society does not concern itself as a
whole to end it we rather endure it. Federico Varese defines organized crime as “an
organized group that attempts to regulate and control the production and distribution of
commodity or service unlawfully”. (Varese 2010)
Human beings seek certainty or protection for our daily lives; we need to be assured
that someone has got out backs. In any given country the state is in charge of providing
their citizens with the protection they deserve, human rights, social rights, labor rights,
child rights, basically every act or legislature that sees for the greater good of a society.
What happens when the state fails to do so? In this essay I will attempt to ask and explain
why mafia groups produce and sell protection, what is protection and most importantly how
is the protection offered by mafias different from the protection states are supposed to
ensure.
According to Stergios Skaperdas “the defining economic activity of organized crime
is the provision of protection” An economic analysis of organized crime needs to focus on
the issue of protection, protection is not an ordinary economic service, it is supposed to
make the ownership of the other goods and services safe from theft and make the
contractual exchange enforceable.” (Stergios Skaperdas 2001). In easier words mafias
produce something that they call protection and it can not be given or made by anyone or
anything other that mafias themselves. Protection is a transaction in which people pay for
safety, it can be any kind of security, personal, business, or any kind of activity. Protection
is a good or service that can be demanded in times where citizens don’t believe that the
state can provide it for them anymore, like what we said in class “mafia starts where and
when the state can not provide for the people” but I don’t believe this accurate, it may be in
some cases but in others people are forced to pay for their protection because if they don’t
organized crime groups will be the ones that harm them or there businesses. One close
example is Michoacán, Michoacán is well known for their production of avocados and it is
one of their primary activities, almost every family lives out of the production, packing and
export of this good. Its well known that the organized group that resides in this territory

3. POLITICS OF ORGANIZED CRIME 3
makes the families and owners pay a certain amount of money that is consider large
depending on their profits or the amount of land they own, in case they are to refuse paying
this monthly amount of money they are threatened, packing houses have been burned,
people have been kidnapped, packing houses have closed and family members have died
due to this “protection fee”.
Why is protection from the state any different from the protection mafia has to
offer. There are to sides, just like anything the answers I believe resides tin the
consciousness of the one seeking this protection. It is fact that the Mexican state fails to
provide justice promptly. But this does not by any reason mean that one should turn to
mafias to find the justice and certainty that they want. I’m not sure if I’m making myself
clear with this last example so I’m going to quote Azul Aguiar directly “ In case of rape,
someone raped and killed your youngest daughter, the state can’t to much but investigate
prosecute and determinate a sentence. Mafias on the other hand could make the rapist pay
literally for what they’ve done.”
This summer course helped me a lot to understand and question the reality of mafia
and organized groups, it made clear some facts that I did not have straight or ideas that I
had that were based on stereotypes. It also helped me become more conscious of what is
happening out there and the direct harm it causes my well being. It made me ask myself
questions I had never thought before and realize that this too could harm me, not because
I’m not close to the source or have lost someone to organized crime does not mean I’m not
a victim also. I believe this is one of the key factors to understand this problem that we are
living, and if you think about its like anything else, we must understand it before we act
upon it. I think education and public policies should focus right now on helping society
become more conscious about the depth of the problem, make us understand that organized
groups are not good because they built a church in our town, and start to create a cultural
and social change in the eyes of this awakening. Just like the social movements in Italy we

4. went through in class the last week where everyone involved demanded the government to
act on the “pizzo” extortion.
We as a society must realize that we can not continue living under fear of organized
crime and that we must do something about it, because we can not leave all the work to the
state if first don’t have a change of mind. We don’t have to endure this but rather make a
small contribution everyday to end it.

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References
F.Varese 2010 General Introduction What is Organized Crime Routledge recuperado de
http://cursos.iteso.mx/course/view.php?id=5972
Stergios Skaperdas 2001 The Political Economy of Organized Crime: Providing Protection
when the State does not. Springer Verlarg pg 174-175. Recuperado de
http://cursos.iteso.mx/mod/folder/view.php?id=389766