Organized crime and ethnic reputation manipulation

Criminologists often use culture and ethnicity to explain crime. In this tradition, organized crime is presented with an exotic flavor and the list of transnational criminal organizations reads like an inventory of ethnic minorities and foreign groups. But the relation between ethnicity and organized crime is problematic to say the least. In the course of our research on several groups active in the Netherlands (Turkish and Kurdish heroin dealers, Yugoslav and Russian-speaking mafiosi, Colombian cocaine dealers and Nigerian prostitutes), we have learned to reverse the assumed causal relationship. Ethnic reputation manipulation is essential to committing crime. This article argues that criminal groups and individuals exploit and construct ethnicity in various ways as they engage in criminal activities. Either concealing or emphasizing specific ethnic reputations, they are able to address any number of audiences (insiders, outsiders, the law).