Discours mafieux, culture mafieuse

Il existe depuis toujours une sorte de mélange entre le crime (plus ou moins) organisé et ses représentations. Cet amalgame, qui créé une sorte d'écran fantasmatique sur lequel on peut projeter ses anxiétés, a gagné en vigueur et consistance à partir des années 1830 lorsque dans la presse ont commencé à apparaître des colonnes consacrées aux faits-divers, mais aussi des feuilletons et de véritables chroniques judiciaires. La fondation en 1825 du quotidien La Gazette des Tribunaux, journal de ..

What's in a Name? Shifting Identities of Traditional Organized Crime in Canada in the Transnational Fight against the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta

The Italian antimafia authorities have warned Canadian law enforcement about the risks and the growing concerns for the infiltration of clans of the Calabrian mafia, known as ‘ndrangheta, in Eastern Canada. The alarm linked to the rise of the ‘ndrangheta challenges the paradigms of traditional organized crime in Canada, because the ‘ndrangheta is presented as traditional but also innovative and more pervasive than other mafia-type groups. Through access to confidential investigations and interviews to key specialist law enforcement teams in Toronto and Montreal, this article investigates today's institutional perception of mafia – the ‘ndrangheta in particular – in Canada when compared to Italian conceptualizations. I will argue that the changes in narratives in Canada can be read in relation to changes in the Italian identity in the country, moving towards regionalization and specialist knowledge of ethnic differences