Structuring Mr. Nice: Entrepreneurial opportunities and brokerage positioning in the cannabis trade

Crime, Law and Social Change

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 203-244

  Morselli, Carlo ^a  

^a UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035534470     PISSN: 09254994     EISSN: 15730751     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1011272411727     Document Type: Article

References (87)

1. A cartel is "a conspiracy in restraint of trade, an illegal clique of businesses determined to restrict quantity, divide up the market and push up prices": Naylor, R.T., "From Cold War to Crime War: The Search for a New 'National Security' Threat", Transnational Organized Crime 1995 (1:4), 40.
2. Granovetter, M., "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embedded" ness", American Journal of Sociology 1985 (91:3), 481-510; Granovetter, M., Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974); Granovetter, M., "The Strength of Weak Ties", American Journal of Sociology 1973 (78:6), 1360-1380;
3. Granovetter, M., "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embedded" ness", American Journal of Sociology 1985 (91:3), 481-510; Granovetter, M., Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974); Granovetter, M., "The Strength of Weak Ties", American Journal of Sociology 1973 (78:6), 1360-1380;
4. Granovetter, M., "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embedded" ness", American Journal of Sociology 1985 (91:3), 481-510; Granovetter, M., Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974); Granovetter, M., "The Strength of Weak Ties", American Journal of Sociology 1973 (78:6), 1360-1380; Burt, R.S., Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992); Powell, W.W., "Neither Market Nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization", Research in Organizational Behavior 1990 (12), 295-336; and Baker, W.E., "The Network Organization in Theory and Practice", in N. Nohria and R.G. Eccles (eds.), Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992).
5. Granovetter, M., "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embedded" ness", American Journal of Sociology 1985 (91:3), 481-510; Granovetter, M., Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974); Granovetter, M., "The Strength of Weak Ties", American Journal of Sociology 1973 (78:6), 1360-1380; Burt, R.S., Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992); Powell, W.W., "Neither Market Nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization", Research in Organizational Behavior 1990 (12), 295-336; and Baker, W.E., "The Network Organization in Theory and Practice", in N. Nohria and R.G. Eccles (eds.), Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992).
6. Granovetter, M., "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embedded" ness", American Journal of Sociology 1985 (91:3), 481-510; Granovetter, M., Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974); Granovetter, M., "The Strength of Weak Ties", American Journal of Sociology 1973 (78:6), 1360-1380; Burt, R.S., Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992); Powell, W.W., "Neither Market Nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization", Research in Organizational Behavior 1990 (12), 295-336; and Baker, W.E., "The Network Organization in Theory and Practice", in N. Nohria and R.G. Eccles (eds.), Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992).
7. Granovetter, M., "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embedded" ness", American Journal of Sociology 1985 (91:3), 481-510; Granovetter, M., Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974); Granovetter, M., "The Strength of Weak Ties", American Journal of Sociology 1973 (78:6), 1360-1380; Burt, R.S., Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992); Powell, W.W., "Neither Market Nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization", Research in Organizational Behavior 1990 (12), 295-336; and Baker, W.E., "The Network Organization in Theory and Practice", in N. Nohria and R.G. Eccles (eds.), Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992).
8. Granovetter, "Economic Action (… ) Embeddedness", American Journal of Sociology 1985 (91:3), 490.
9. Ibid., p. 487.
10. Powell, W. W., "Neither Market (… ) Organization", Research in Organizational Behavior 1990 (12), 303.
11. Ibid., p. 304.
12. Baker, W.E., "The Network Organization (… ) Practice", Networks and Organizations 1992, 422.
13. Burt, R.S., Structural Holes (1992).
14. Ibid., p. 17.
15. Ibid., p. 18.
16. Ibid., p. 15.
17. Marks, H., Mr. Nice: An Autobiography (London: Minerva, 1997).
18. Reuter, P., Disorganized Crime: The Economics of the Visible Hand (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983).
19. Tremblay, P., "Searching for Suitable Co-offenders", in R.V. Clarke and M. Felson's (eds.), Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1993).
20. See, however, Chapter 8 in Finckenauer and Waring's work on Russian criminal networks in the Tri-state area of the United States: Finckenauer, J.O. and E.J. Waring, The Russian Mafia in America: Immigration, Culture, and Crime (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998).
21. Reuter, P. and J. Haaga, The Organization of High-Level Drug Markers: An Exploratory Study (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 1989).
22. Ibid., p. 35.
23. Ibid., p. 54.
24. Ibid., p. 54.
25. Ibid., p. 44; for similar insight, see also Naylor, R.T., "Mafias, Myths, and Markets: On the Theory and Practice of Enterprise Crime", Transnational Organized Crime 1997 (3:3), 1-45.
26. Ibid., p. 44; for similar insight, see also Naylor, R.T., "Mafias, Myths, and Markets: On the Theory and Practice of Enterprise Crime", Transnational Organized Crime 1997 (3:3), 1-45.
27. Reuter, P. and J. Haaga, The Organization of High-Level Drug Markets 1989, 46.
28. Hagan, J. and B. McCarthy, Mean Streets: Youth Crime and Homelessness (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
29. McCarthy, B. and J. Hagan, "Getting into Street Crime: The Structure and Process of Criminal Embeddedness", Social Science Research 1995 (24), 66.
30. McCarthy, B., J. Hagan and L. Cohen, "Uncertainty, Cooperation, and Crime: Understanding the Decision to Co-offend", Social Forces 1998 (77:1), 155-176.
31. Ibid., p. 162.
32. Ibid., p. 163.
33. Sutherland, E.H., The Professional Thief: By a Professional Thief (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937).
34. Black, J., You Can't Win (San Francisco: Nabat/AK Press, 2000 [1926]).
35. Haller, M.H., "Illegal Enterprise: A Theoretical and Historical Interpretation", Criminology 1990 (28:2), 207-235.
36. Ibid., p. 222.
37. Reuter, P. and J. Haaga, The Organization of High-Level Drug Markets 1989, 48.
38. Boissevain, J., Friends of Friends: Networks, Manipulators, and Coalitions (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1974).
39. Block, A., "The Snowman Cometh: Coke in Progressive New York", Criminology 1979 (17:1), 75-99.
40. Adler, P.A., Wheeling and Dealing: An Ethnography of an Upper-Level Drug Dealing and Smuggling Community, Second edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
41. Block, A. and W.J. Chambliss, Organizing Crime (New York: Elsevier, 1981).
42. Ibid., p. 56.
43. Adler, P.A., Wheeling and Dealing (1993).
44. Block, A. and W.J. Chambliss, Organizing Crime 1981, 56.
45. I include the fall among the general phases of the criminal (auto-)biographical account with a respectable level of certainty. While not all criminal participants are expected to experience a career fall, its potential amongst those who have had their stories published, many of them being informants to begin with, is clearly much higher.
46. Contacts "exiting" Marks' working network were determined by the last period during which they were mentioned as participants in a given venture, when they were arrested and imprisoned and no longer alluded to in later accounts, when they were revealed to have become junkies, or simply stated as dead. Although many of these contacts may be assumed to have been continuous network members, they were no longer introduced as participants in any of the subsequent ventures.
47. Adler, P.A., Wheeling and Dealing (1993), p. 65.
48. Marks' web page may be located at www.mrnice.co.uk.
49. "Coordinator" and later "liason" and "representative" concepts are based on Gould and Fernandez's brokerage classification: Gould, R.V. and R.M. Fernandez, "Structures of Mediation: A Formal Approach to Brokerage in Transaction Networks", in C. Clogg's (ed.), Sociological Methodology, 1989 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989).
50. Adler, P.A. and P. Adler, "Shifts and Oscillations in Deviant Careers: The Case of Upper-Level Drug Dealers and Smugglers", Social Problems 1983 (31:2), 198.
51. Reuter, P., Disorganized Crime (1983); and Tremblay, P., M. Cusson and C. Morselli, "Market Offenses and Limits to Growth", Crime, Law, and Social Change 1998.
52. Reuter, P., Disorganized Crime (1983); and Tremblay, P., M. Cusson and C. Morselli, "Market Offenses and Limits to Growth", Crime, Law, and Social Change 1998.
53. Tremblay, P., "Searching for Suitable Co-offenders", in Routine Activity (… ) Choice 1993, 26-27.
54. Granovetter, M., Getting a Job (1974); "The Strength of Weak Ties" , Am. Journal of Sociology 1973.
55. Granovetter, M., Getting a Job (1974); "The Strength of Weak Ties" , Am. Journal of Sociology 1973.
56. Cloward, Richard A. and Lloyd E. Ohlin, Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent Gangs (New York: Free Press, 1960).
57. All excerpts appearing in italics throughout the article are extracted from Marks's autobiography: Mr. Nice: An Autobiography, 1997).
58. Adler, P.A. and P. Adler, "Shifts and Oscillations in Deviant Careers", Social Problems 1983 (31), 198.
59. Burt, R.S., Structural Holes (1992).
60. Granovetter, M., Getting a Job (1974); "The Strength of Weak Ties", Am. Journal of Sociology 1973.
61. Granovetter, M., Getting a Job (1974); "The Strength of Weak Ties", Am. Journal of Sociology 1973.
62. Erickson, B.H., "Secret Societies and Social Structure", Social Forces 1981 (60:1), 188-210.
63. Baker, W.E. and R.R. Faulkner, "The Social Organization of Conspiracy: Illegal Networks in the Heavy Electrical Equipment Industry", American Sociological Review 1993 (58), 837-860.
64. Adler, P.A., Wheeling and Dealing (1993).
65. Naylor, R.T., "Mafias, Myths, and Markets ", Transnational Organized Crime (1997); Haller, M.H., "Illegal Enterprise", Criminology (1990); Block, A. and W.J. Chambliss, Organizing Crime (1981).
66. Naylor, R.T., "Mafias, Myths, and Markets ", Transnational Organized Crime (1997); Haller, M.H., "Illegal Enterprise", Criminology (1990); Block, A. and W.J. Chambliss, Organizing Crime (1981).
67. Naylor, R.T., "Mafias, Myths, and Markets ", Transnational Organized Crime (1997); Haller, M.H., "Illegal Enterprise", Criminology (1990); Block, A. and W.J. Chambliss, Organizing Crime (1981).
68. Baker, W.E. and R.R. Faulkner, "The Social Organization of Conspiracy", American Sociological Review 1993 (58), 845.
69. Adler, P.A., Wheeling and Dealing (1993).
70. Ibid., p. 54.
71. Ekland-Olson, S., J. Lien and L. Zurcher, "The Paradoxical Impact of Criminal Sanctions: Some Microstructural Findings", Law and Society Review 1984, (18:2), 171.
72. Ibid.
73. Burt, R.S., Structural Holes (1992).
74. UCINET 5.0 was used in calculating the network results: Borgatti, S.P., M.G. Everett and L.C. Freeman, UCINET 5.0 Version 1.00. Natick: Analytic Technologies (1999).
75. Burt, R.S., Structural Holes (1992).
76. Van Duyne, P.C., "The Phantom and Threat of Organized Crime", Crime, Law, and Social Change 1996 (24), 373.
77. Padgett, J.F. and C.K. Ansell, "Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434", American Journal of Sociology 1993 (98:6), 1259-1319.
78. Dorn, N., L. Oette and S. White, "Drugs Importation and the Bifurcation of Risk: Capitalization Cut Outs and Organized Crime" British Journal of Sociology 1998 (38:4), 537-560; Adler, P.A., Wheeling and Dealing (1993); and Reuter, P. and J. Haaga, The Organization of High-Level Drug Markets (1989).
79. Dorn, N., L. Oette and S. White, "Drugs Importation and the Bifurcation of Risk: Capitalization Cut Outs and Organized Crime" British Journal of Sociology 1998 (38:4), 537-560; Adler, P.A., Wheeling and Dealing (1993); and Reuter, P. and J. Haaga, The Organization of High-Level Drug Markets (1989).
80. Dorn, N., L. Oette and S. White, "Drugs Importation and the Bifurcation of Risk: Capitalization Cut Outs and Organized Crime" British Journal of Sociology 1998 (38:4), 537-560; Adler, P.A., Wheeling and Dealing (1993); and Reuter, P. and J. Haaga, The Organization of High-Level Drug Markets (1989).
81. Blok, A., The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860-1960: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1974).
82. Reuter, P., Disorganized Crime (1983).
83. Gambetta, D., The Sicilian Mafia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993).
84. Arlacchi, P., Droga e grande criminalità in Italia e nel mondo (Caltanissetta-Rome: Salvatore Sciascia Editore, 1988).
85. Ibid., p. 40.
86. Effective Size = n - 2t / n; where t = the number of ties between ego's alters (not including ties to ego).
87. All matrices are indicated by the venture (from top axis in Figure A-2) and consignment number within that venture (V-1, for example, presents the network matrix for the first consignment in venture 1). All are presented in the order in which they took place. Extreme left columns and top rows for each matrix indicate the node designations for Marks' contacts in Figure A-1 that participated in each consignment. Connected and unconnected participants in a given consignment were respectively coded 1 and 0.