Economia e criminalità in Italia. Un’introduzione

The study of criminal behaviour from the point of view of economics is mostly brought back to the canon of rationality. In this introduction to the special issue on crime and economy, we explain why it can be appropriate to move away from the extremely widespread vision that leads criminal actions to the microeconomic approach and, in particular, to the logic of business choices, to assume the point of view of those who choose to study crime as a governance structure. In particular, it is important to recognise that the activities of criminal organisations which have the main economic and political repercussions always take on an international dimension. This is an extremely important issue for economic policy in Europe. The study of criminal behaviour from the point of view of economics is mostly brought back to the canon of rationality. In this introduction to the special issue on crime and economy, we explain why it can be appropriate to move away from the extremely widespread vision that leads criminal actions to the microeconomic approach and, in particular, to the logic of business choices, to assume the point of view of those who choose to study crime as a governance structure. In particular, it is important to recognise that the activities of criminal organisations which have the main economic and political repercussions always take on an international dimension. This is an extremely important issue for economic policy in Europe. JEL codes: A10, K14, P50, Y20 Keywords: illegal economy, crime organizations, Italy