The Camorra: Political Criminality in Italy

Over the last twenty years the Camorra of Naples and the surrounding region has risen to a level of strength which rivals that of the Sicilian mafia.The Camorratraces the Camorra from its origins in Naples in the mid-nineteenth century to its present dominance of both Naples and the Campania region. The Camorraexamines the transformation of small time cigarette smugglers of the 1960s into modern international businessmen, often through the use of trial documents and interviews with some key protagonists. Tom Behan places great emphasis on the fact that all major political parties have been involved with the camorra, along with the police, the judiciary, the business community and administrators. Behan argues that the solution to the problem of the Camorra lies not with these forces but with those ordinary people who suffer the consequences of a political and economic system defined as "political criminality".