Double Crossed ─ The Failure of Organized Crime Control

In the United States, the popular symbols of organized crime are still famous Depression-era figures such as Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and John Dillinger—infamous heads of giant, hierarchically organized mafias. In Double Crossed, Michael Woodiwiss challenges this perpetuated myth to reveal a more disturbing reality of organized crime—one in which government officials and the wider establishment are deeply complicit.

Delving into the US government’s past attempts to implement organized crime control policies across the country, Woodiwiss reveals little-known manifestations of organized crime amongst the establishment. A follow up to his 2005 Gangster Capitalism, Woodiwiss brings his argument up to the present day with extensive new research, exploring such issues such as organized crime in Russia, the use of war as a pretext for crime, and the failures and complicity of the UK and European governments. He offers a particularly deep analysis of the financial sector’s corruption that contributed to the 2008 global economic meltdown, the institutionalized corporate fraud following 9/11, and the war on terror in Iraq.

An exploration into the use of organized crime methods within the international establishment, Double Crossed is for anyone with an interest in a revealing—and disturbing—look at a criminal double standard in our world today.

Michael Woodiwiss is a senior lecturer in history at the University of the West of England. He has written extensively on organized, corporate, and state crime, including Organized Crime and American Power and Gangster Capitalism: The United States and the Global Rise of Organized Crime.
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