How Criminal Organisations Work: Some Theoretical Perspectives

Abstract

Organised crime has received increased attention in recent years and criminal organisations are involved in a wide range of crimes (Chawla & Pietschmann, 2005). To fight organised crime, there is a need to understand the organisations behind it and organisational theories may be helpful in this process. The purpose of this article is to apply well-known theories such as agency theory, alliance theory, network theory, resource-based theory and other organisational theories in order to shed light on criminal organisations.