Criminal pandemic: A critical assessment of the impact of Covid-19 on Italian Organized Crime Groups (OCGs)

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a number of overarching effects on many aspects of our daily lives. The health emergency greatly contributed to the economic, political, and social crises that rocked our entrance in the third decade of the 21st century. In this context of fear, many countries found themselves vulnerable to a long-time, internal enemy: organized crime groups. This is particularly true for what concerns Italy, a nation that, apart from being heavily hit by the virus, boasts a long tradition of mafia presence. The terror was fuelled by media organizations, politicians, and a number of additinoal stakeholders that wished to capitalize on the chaos. Interestingly though, the same views were shared by a number of academic researchers. This study thus set out to identify the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Italian organized crime groups and understand whether they had an actual impact. Taking inspiration from the literature, we employ a mixed-method approach based on a critical, historical analysis of primary and secondary sources from governmental and non-governmental reports and datasets, academic books and studies, and news stories and articles. It was found that, out of 11 variables considered, Italian organized crime groups were actually able to expand and increase their profits in..