Citation

Puttonen R, Romiti F. Stud. Conflict Terrorism 2022; 45(5-6): 331-334.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/1057610X.2019.1678871

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Imagine the following scenario: a group of criminals sets fire to a garment factory, killing 259 people and leaving 50 workers injured. The investigation reveals that the factory was set on fire to threaten the owners and scare them into paying extortion money. While extortion is generally a criminal conduct connected to the realm of organized crime, the intent of the criminals was to intimidate and instill fear in a part of the population, typically a tactic adopted by terrorism organizations. Imagine now that you were responsible to charge those accused of this crime: which charges would you lay against them?

The answer to this question gets us to the core of this Special Issue. This case - which is not as fictional as we might have led the reader to think - resulted in the indictment of 12 people, who are currently facing charges of terrorism, murder and extortion. In other words, the prosecutors considered that this crime could constitute both a form of organized crime and terrorism and should be tried as such. Interestingly enough, this example does not represent an isolated instance. To the contrary, it is one of many that raise fundamental questions for researchers, academics and practitioners alike over the existence and true nature of the linkages between these two criminal conducts...

Language: en