Preliminary Programme

In the Interior Review during the 1980’s numerous prosecutors and police inverstigators carefully brought up the possible existence of organized crime in Hungary. The police interpreted organized crime as a network of offenders and perpetrators committing crimes against private or state property. At the end of the communist regime organized crime appeared as an unwanted phenomenon of modernization rather than a symptom of the crisis of the capitalist society as it was interpreted by experts in previous decades. This research seeks to show that during the Kádár era, from the 1960s onwards the majority of the crimes were crimes committed against state property. However, in the 1970s crimes against private property increased due to the measures of the economic reform..
From the 1980s organized crime gangs were held responsible by the police for most of the priority crimes against property. But how did they create a sustainable criminal structure independent from state power? In my opinion examining the relation between organized crime and corruption within the state structure could provide possible answers. The division of labor made organized criminal networks in many aspects were very similar to state farms and cooperatives.. The tipsters, the bailiffs, the touts, the receivers worked together and all of them were part of the criminal structure. According to researchers and police investigators a large proportion of touts and receivers worked in the private sector during this period.
Illegaly gained valuables by organized criminal groups became investable into the private sector thus corporate crime became linked to organized crime. Therefore it was possible not only to gain wealth through the illegal selling of valuables but also to invest on the legal market. Due to their better economic conditions the criminal networks could establish different kind of private ventures, for example restaurants, pubs or tobacco shops. At the time different police investigations were dealing with illegal investments that served as funds for several businesses in catering industry. All in all, the research proved that organized crime during the socialist era could exist ”thanks” to the measures of the economic reform.
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In the late eighteenth century, London was one of the world’s busiest ports, and as such, subject to crime. Theft was endemic, and included thefts committed by those involved with seafaring trade - including lumpers and rat-catchers. Thousands of pounds worth of goods were being stolen from shipping companies, in particular from the East India Company.
Witnessing this crime, two English magistrates came together to form the West India Merchant and Planters Marine Police Institute in 1798. The brainchild of Essex JP John Harriot, and Patrick Colquhoun, author of A Treatise On The Police Of The Metropolis, this new police force was established at 259 Wapping High Street, employed 200 constables within two years of being established, and was seen to successfully prevent crime.
This paper studies the work of the Thames Water Police prior to its incorporation into the Metropolitan Police in 1839, using original archival material from the Thames Water Police Museum and the Museum of London Docklands, together with contemporary newspaper reports, to look how and why the marine police was established, its effect on port-based crime, and how it was perceived by government, press and public. It also looks at the other duties of the early water police officers - which included involvement in the notorious 1811 Ratcliff Highway murders.
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In 1821 the Sovereign of Belfast Thomas Verner described pawn-broking as ‘essential to relieve the temporary exigencies of the necessitous’. Throughout the century documents reveal that the Irish poor relied on pawn-shops on a fairly regular basis as part of the ‘economy of makeshifts’, operating in the shadow of the workhouse which they were attempting to avoid. However, the pawnshop was a double-edged sword for the authorities, as it ‘render[ed] facility and secrecy, in the disposal of stolen articles’. The relationship between poverty, crime and pawnshops has been explored by scholars such as Alannah Tomkins for England, but little work has been done on the geography of pawnshops, or its operation in Ireland. In 1844 over 11 million pledge tickets were issued throughout the country, with almost 60% of those issued in the five largest cities. Between 1841 and 1893 the number of pawnshops in Belfast more than doubled, keeping pace with the acceleration in the city’s population. By 1893 there were twice as many pawnshops in Belfast than in Dublin, despite the relatively small differences in their populations (Belfast had approximately 10,000 more people than Dublin in 1891). The relationship between local economic conditions and the use of pawnshops will provide a general context for this paper before we move into the more specific relationship between pawnshops and crime detection, specifically the crime of larceny and ‘receiving stolen goods’. Were rates of detection and conviction for such offences higher in areas where there were larger numbers of pawnshops? What relationship, if any, did local police have with local pawnbrokers? And how did the trade in second-hand goods impact the local economy?
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During the interwar period, 1918-1939, illegal liquor trade became a lucrative business in the Baltic Sea region. The aim of this paper is to discuss the organization of this trade, thereby adding new knowledge to the field of transnational criminality. The main questions are; who participated in this trade?; how was social bonds and trust established between actors from different social strata and different local and national settings? and; to what extent did modern communications technologies play a crucial part in the organization of the trade? The presentation will be based on preliminary findings in an ongoing research project.

The paper and project is inspired by research focused on the effects of transnational processes on local communities and cultural practices. Using network analysis and a historical perspective enables the project to contribute to the growing field of international research on transnational criminality.

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