Doing It for Themselves or Standing in for Their Men? Women in the Neapolitan Camorra (1950–2003)

Abstract

In today’s globalized world, “local” variables no longer seem relevant when analyzing different social, economic, and political phenomena. Transnational characteristics seem more appropriate. The same applies to the specific study of organized crime. Generic and interchangeable terms such as “transnational organized crime” or “mafias” are now used to describe and analyze different criminal groups such as Colombian cartels, Chinese triads, and Italian organized crime groups, suggesting that local differences among gangs are no longer fundamental since, in order to survive in the global economy, they have all adopted similar economic methods and therefore have come to resemble each other.