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14 Trends Org. Crime 1 (2011)

handle is hein.journals/trndorgc14 and id is 1 raw text is: Trends Organ Crim (2011) 14:1-29
DOI 10.1007/s12117-010-9115-8
Organized criminal involvement in the illicit
antiquities trade
Blythe Bowman Proulx
Published online: 23 October 2010
O Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract From the glocal perspective of a large sample of archaeologists conducting
fieldwork throughout the world and working on the very sites of interest to looters, this
paper explores the question whether and to what extent organized crime is involved in
the theft and illicit export of archaeological resources. Two major findings are presented:
first, archaeologists tend almost unanimously to consider that organized crime operates
within the 'global' antiquities market, but when asked about their own personal
experiences with looting on the sites where they work, many fewer report observations
of organized crime; second, however, it is apparent that respondents' conceptions of
organized crime involve media-driven, stereotypical representations of mafia-style
structures. Therefore, although in their reporting of observed local activities they do not
provide substantial survey evidence of the presence of organized crime so defined, they
do report appreciable organization among those who have looted their sites-which,
again, they have almost unanimously experienced. This paper considers the implications
of such findings for both the definitional debate on organized crime and the academic
analysis of the trade in looted antiquities.
Keywords Archaeological theft - Organized crime . Antiquities trafficking
Introduction
What is the involvement of organized crime in archaeological site looting and the
illicit antiquities trade? This is one of the top questions with which researchers in
the small field of art and antiquities crime are regularly presented. The question
has been a challenge to answer definitively for several reasons. First, there is a
paucity of comprehensive and reliable data on crimes involving art and antiquities to
B. B. Proulx (E)
Criminal Justice, Virginia Commonwealth University,
Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs, 923 W. Franklin St, PO Box 842028, Richmond,
VA 23284-2028, USA
e-mail: bbproulx@vcu.edu

4L Springer

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