Organised and White-Collar Crime
Organised crime involves groups or operations run by criminals. Organised crime is commonly motivated by a desire to generate money, and includes activities such as drugs-trafficking, trafficking in people, extortion and kidnapping for profit. The term also refers to highly organised groups involved in activities motivated by political rather than monetary gain, such as terrorism. White-collar crime is "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Sutherland, E., 1949,White Collar Crime). Our work on this topic includes working on intervention strategies to prevent organised crime and we are currently working closely with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) on organised crime prevention.
Related News
Donna Yates awarded €1.5m European Research Council Starting Grant
31st July 2018
We are delighted to share the news that Dr Donna Yates has been awarded a large European Research Council Starting Grant to explore the role that objects play within transnational criminal...
Donna Yates joins culture summit debate
24th August 2016
Dr Donna Yates joined an expert panel for a radio discussion about cultural heritage to coincide with Edinburgh International Culture Summit. Dr Yates, an expert in the field of art crime and antiquities trafficking, took part in a Newshour debate titled What’s The Cost of Preserving the Past? You can listen to the discussion here. She was joined by Dr Maamoun Abdulkarim, Director...
Trafficking Culture researchers join landmark UNESCO round table in Paris
4th April 2016
Researchers from the Trafficking Culture team have participated in a UNESCO round table event in Paris on the illicit trafficking of cultural property. Dr Donna Yates, Dr Neil Brodie and Dr Christos Tsirogiannis joined the discussion about what can be done to restrict the movement of stolen cultural items now and in the immediate future. After the round table Dr Yates spoke to Janie...
Donna Yates talks to the media about major museum thefts
1st March 2016
Dr Donna Yates was interviewed for Radio 4’s Today programme and STV news after 14 members of organised crime gangs were convicted of stealing artefacts from museums worth nearly £60m. She told John Humphrys it was clear there was a large market in China for illicit antiquities – specifically, rhinoceros horn and small but very valuable Chinese antiquities – and that those...
Donna Yates talks Trafficking Culture in post-earthquake Nepal
8th July 2015
Picture: Donna Yates Dr Donna Yates will present an overview of the work of the Trafficking Culture team in Nepal next week, during a 10-day visit to observe heritage site security measures following the country’s April earthquake. Dr Yates will speak on ‘Stolen Gods: Criminological Approaches to the Illicit Trade in Antiquities from the Trafficking Culture Project’ at...
Trafficking Culture in the News
30th April 2015
The work of SCCJR Research Assistant Christos Tsirogiannis has received extensive press coverage after The Scotsman reported on auction house Christie’s withdrawing auction lots for sales amid...
Watch video clip about counterfeiting and intellectual propery crime research
15th July 2010
SCCJR’s Simon Mackenzie talks about his work in this research soundbite, click here to watch. In it he discusses that corporate negative externalities occur when corporations place some of the costs of their profit-seeking activity onto society. The research he discusses suggests that the current global problem of intellectual property crime is such an externality, and that it has not...
SCCJRs Simon Mackenzie to speak at UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders
15th March 2010
Simon Mackenzie has been invited by the International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council of the UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme to speak at a workshop at the 12th UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Brazil in April 2010. The workshop is called ‘Protecting cultural property: the state of the art’ and Simon...
Related People
Jennifer Hoolachan
Jennifer Hoolachan is a Lecturer in Sociology at Cardiff University and former SCCJR Research Assistant at the University of Stirling. Jenny’s research interests lie across several social science disciplines including sociology, social work, policy, human geography and criminology. In particular her research interests include: drug and alcohol use and its socio-spatial contexts;
Kelly Giles
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Christos Tsirogiannis
Christos Tsirogiannis is former Research Assistant for the Scottish Centre for Criminal Justice Research at the University of Glasgow and member of the Trafficking Culture team. Dr Tsirogiannis, a Greek forensic archaeologist, studied archaeology and history of art in the University of Athens. He worked for the Greek Ministries of Culture and Justice from 1994 to 2008, excavating throughout...
Adam Aitken
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Annemiek Rhebergen
Working Title of PhD: Illicit antiquities trade in Argentina: the appropriateness of governmental policy to local socio-cultural contexts of looting Year commenced PhD study: 2013 (Full Time) University of Glasgow Funding source: ESRC studentship (2014-2016) College of Social Sciences stipend (2014-2016) Prince Bernhard Culture fund scholarship (2013-2014) Dr Hendrik Muller fund scholarship...
Dr Yarin Eski
Yarin completed his PhD – ‘The Port Securityscape: an Ethnocriminology’ – in 2015. His project researched, interdisciplinarily, everyday lives of port policing and security personnel who construct security in the transnational spaces of Nort Western European seaports. He analysed social realms of port security to shed light on how workers control and eliminate transnational...
Prof Jon Bannister
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Dr Neil Brodie
Neil Brodie is a former Senior Research Fellow at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, investigating the international traffic in cultural objects. Neil is an archaeologist by training, and has held positions at the British School at Athens, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, where he was Research Director of the Illicit Antiquities...
Dr Baris Cayli
Baylis studied Politics and Public Administration and was trained at Bilkent University, University of Amsterdam and the University of Twente before moving to Italy to get his PhD degree in Social Sciences on Work and Legality. His doctoral dissertation has sought to advance the fight against the Mafia by analyzing anti-Mafia movement in the country. He received his doctoral degree from the...
Tess Davis
For the past decade, Tess has devoted herself to fighting the pillage of ancient sites and trafficking of artifacts, particularly in Southeast Asia. She’s conducted extensive research on the illicit trade in Cambodian antiquities. She also conceptualized and implemented a number of exciting projects in the country, including an exhibition at Angkor Wat about threats facing the temple, a hotline...
Dr Niall Hamilton-Smith
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Prof Simon Mackenzie
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Dr Suzie Thomas
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Dr Donna Yates
Donna Yates is a Lecturer in Antiquities Trafficking and Art Crime in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow. Donna has recently been awarded a €1.5 million European Research Council starting grant to study how objects influence criminal networks, with a particular focus on objects such as antiquities, fossils, and rare and collectible wildlife.