Organized crime and capitalism: a systemic problem

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to posit that it is possible to think the contemporary phenomenon of organized crime as a constitutive form of the current moment of global capital accumulation, and not merely a contingent phenomenon of the mode of production, or a corrupt form or a particularly severe deviation with regional/local or even cultural overtones of it. In order to set the hypothesis, this text advances from the most general and apparent aspects of the 'organized crime' problem to the less obvious moments that aim to shed light on what lies behind 'organized crime', that is, the transformation of social relationships. This research is presented as a collection of fragments. The first section presents the problem and serves as an introduction, the second section explores the term ‘criminalization’, the third analyses the problem of the hegemony of legality and its construction, the fourth explores the relevance of the so-called primitive accumulation and the turn towards the financialization of capital. The text closes with a symptomatological section, that is, a journalistic review that aims to highlight the aspects to which attention is paid in order to hold the present hypothesis.