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PL30548: Italian national option IT9: organised crime & democracy in Italy

[Page last updated: 25 April 2025]

Academic Year: 2025/26
Owning Department/School: Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies
Credits: 6 [equivalent to 12 CATS credits]
Notional Study Hours: 120
Level: Honours (FHEQ level 6)
Period:
Semester 1
Assessment Summary: CW 33%, ES 67%
Assessment Detail:
  • Coursework (CW 33%)
  • Essay (ES 67%)
Supplementary Assessment:
Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations)
Requisites:
Learning Outcomes: The unit intended learning outcomes are: 1. Have in-depth knowledge of the phenomenon of organised crime gangs in Italy, including a detailed understanding of their political, economic, and social features as well as their relationships with politicians and businessmen. 2. Be familiar with theories of organised crime and its political significance. 3. Be familiar with the major debates about organised crime in Italy and about Italian mafias in the world. 4. Be able to respond in an informed manner to questions about the existence and persistence of organised crime in Italy and the threat which it poses to Italian democracy. 5. Design and write a case study on an aspect of organised crime in Italy which demonstrates the empirical and theoretical knowledge detailed above.


Content: Take a journey into the heart of Italian mafias and build your knowledge of organised crime in this context. You will gain an understanding of how mafias have developed and expanded in Italy and abroad. This unit unpacks organised crime in Italy in order to allow students to see how organised crime develops specifically parallel to the State. Topics such as development of Italian mafias, mafia values, mafia economics, crime-politics nexus, foreign mafias in Italy, Eco-mafias, gender and organised crime, fighting organised crime.

Skills: Skills in critical analysis, conceptual thinking, precision in the use of written and spoken language, exercise of independent judgement, reasoned argument, teamwork and the planning/conduct/reporting of non-quantitative research are developed and assessed in this unit.

Aims: Defining Italian organised crime; theoretical approaches to organised crime and democracy in Italy; criminal and civic culture; modernisation of criminal business and white collar crime; politics, clientelism and organised crime; La Mafia, Camorra, Ndrnagheta e Corona Sacra unita; the Alfieri Confederation - a case study; foreign criminal groups in Italy; the trials of Giulio Andreotti and Antonio Gava; Italy's fight against organised crime; challenges to Italian democracy.

Course availability:

PL30548 is Optional on the following courses:

Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies
  • UHPL-AYB34 : BA(Hons) Modern Languages (French and ab initio Italian) with Year Abroad (Year 4)
  • UHPL-AYB38 : BA(Hons) Modern Languages (German and ab initio Italian) with Year Abroad (Year 4)
  • UHPL-AYB41 : BA(Hons) Modern Languages (Spanish and ab initio Italian) with Year Abroad (Year 4)

Notes:

  • This unit catalogue is applicable for the 2025/26 academic year only. Students continuing their studies into 2026/27 and beyond should not assume that this unit will be available in future years in the format displayed here for 2025/26.
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