Private Security and Armed Conflict: A Case Study of the Scorpions during the Mass Killings in Former Yugoslavia

• NCJ Number: 244945
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2013 Pages: 41-58
• Author(s): Samuel Tanner; Massimiliano Mulone
• Date Published: January 2013
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Case Study
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This article discusses organizated crime in Yugoslavia.

Abstract

Based on a case study on the metamorphosis of a private security company responsible for the protection of oil wells during the Yugoslav Serbo-Croat conflict that became an armed bandthe Scorpionswe show that this type of organization crystallizes mutually beneficial games that play out between a central power and those involved in local crime of low intensity. These organizations constitute the central players in a politicization of civilian crime and a privatization of political crimegenocide and crimes against humanity constituting the extreme forms. The involvement of private actors such as the Scorpions in armed conflict is considered in the fusion of instrumental and normative logica common element in all forms of mercenarism. (Published Abstract)