Assessing the movement of criminal groups: some analytical remarks

The article offers a commentary on the push and pull framework outlined by Morselli, Turcotte and Tenti in the current issue of this journal. It argues that, when assessing the mobility of criminal groups, two key aspects deserve better recognition: first, the nature of the movement, namely whether the common fund and the ‘headquarters’ (including the boss) have been shifted from the old to the new locale; second, whether the group provides some kind of goods and services or is purely predatory. It maintains that both push and pull factors may vary according to those characteristics. Finally, the article empirically examines the movement of a Camorra crime group from Campania (Italy) to Scotland and the Netherlands, and reconstructs the underlying push and pull factors.