About the Book
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the illegal extraction of metals and minerals from the perspectives of organized crime theory, green criminology, anti-corruption studies, and victimology. It includes contributions that focus on organized crime-related offences, such as drug trafficking and trafficking in persons, extortion, corruption and money laundering and sheds light on the serious environmental harms caused by illegal mining. Based on a wide range of case studies from the Amazon rainforest through the Ukrainian flatlands to the desert-like savanna of Central African Republic and Australia’s elevated plateaus, this book offers a unique insight into the illegal mining business and the complex relationship between organized crime, corruption, and ecocide. This is the first book-length publication on illegal extraction, trafficking in mined commodities, and ecocide associated with mining. It will appeal to scholars working on organized crime and green crime, including criminologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and legal scholars. Practitioners and the general public may welcome this comprehensive and timely publication to contemplate on resource-scarcity, security, and crime in a rapidly changing world.
Table of Contents:
1. The New Eldorado: Organized Crime, Informal Mining, and the Global Scarcity of Metals and Minerals, Yuliya Zabyelina and Daan van Uhm.- 2. Why Organized Crime Seeks New Criminal Marnests, Jay S. Albanese.- 3. The Queer Ladder of Social Mobility: Illegal Enterprise in the Anthracite Mining Region of Pennsylvania in the Interwar Decades (1917–1945), Robert Schmidt.- 4. Links Between Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining and Organized Crime in Latin America and Africa, Livia Wagner and Marcena Hunter.- 5. The Diversification of Organized Crime into Gold Mining: Domination, Crime Convergence, and Ecocide in Darién, Colombia, Daan van Uhm.- 6. Where the Metal Meets the Flesh: Organized Crime, Violence, and the Illicit Iron Ore Economy in Mexico’s Michoacán State, Fausto Carbajal-Glass.- 7. Diamond Mining, Organized Crime and Corruption, Dina Siegel.- 8. Warlords and Their Black Holes: The Plunder of Mining Regions in Afghanistan and the Central African Republicby Organized Crime, Kimberley L. Thachuk.- 9. Shadow Deals in the “Sunny Stone”: Organized Crime and Informality in the Illicit Extraction and Trade of Amber in Ukraine, Yuliya Zabyelina and Nicole Kalczynski.- 10. Between Informality and Organized Crime: Criminalization of Small-Scale Mining in the Peruvian Rainforest, Eva Bernet Kempers.- 11. When Gold Speaks, Every Tongue is Silent: The Thin Line between Legal, Illegal, and Informal in Peru’s Gold Supply Chain, Naomi van der Valk, Lieselot Bisschop and René van Swaaningen.- 12. Migrant Workers, Artisanal Gold Mining, and “More-Than-Human” Sousveillance in South Africa’s Closed Gold Mines, Matthew Nesvet.- 13. Digging into the Mining Subculture: The Dynamics of Trafficking in Persons in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining of Peru’s Madre de Dios, Dolores Cortés-McPherson.- 14. Crude Oil’s Ugly Sister: The Political-Criminal Nexus and Corruption inside Nigeria’s Solid Minerals and Mining Sector, Sheelagh Brady.- 15.Min(d)ing Corruption in International Investment Arbitration, Vasilka Sancin and Domen Turšic.- 16. All That Glitters: Money Laundering Through Precious Metals and Minerals, Yuliya Zabyelina and Lilla Heins.- 17. Prevention of Green Crimes in Informal Gold Mining in Peru: Challenges of Translation of Laws into Practice, Johanna Espin.- 18. Mining as Ecocide: The Case of Adani and the Carmichael Mine in Australia, Olivia Hasler.- 19. Environment Does Count: Legal Action against Destructive Mining in Australia, Rob White.
About the Author :
Yuliya Zabyelina is Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, USA.
Daan van Uhm is Assistant Professor in Criminology at the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, the Netherlands.
Review :
“In Illegal Mining the editors thoughtfully constellate a variety of scholarship together to produce this timely and important book … . this thought-provoking book is fundamental for empowering future decision-makers to do a better job than we and those before us were able to do … . Illegal Mining, and the research and scholarship therein, is a must-read book promoting a ‘gold’ standard for how academia should consider the twin, braided perils of OCGs and illegal mining.” (James Gacek, International Criminology, Vol. 1, 2021)
