Laboratory: Organized Crime and Research Methodology.

The course aims to provide students with specific notions and skills to carry out research activities concerning criminal organizations. Having discussed the preliminary definitions of methodology of 'social research' and 'organized crime' (about 'organized crime' there is a wide disciplinary and methodological debate, both nationally and internationally), the course offers a discussion about the main techniques and sources for doing research focused on organized crime, intertwining theory with literature. Another central theme is represented by the methodological difficulties of research on these issues: access to the field, orientation between sources, the divergence between judicial truth and historical truth, the partial representation provided by statistical indicators. In the second part of the course, the focus will be on the main elements of the qualitative research: the interview, observation, documentary analysis.

- Knowledge of the main definitions of 'organized crime'
- Ability to 'manage' the different techniques and sources of social research (interview, documentary analysis, interpretation of quantitative elements, elements of network analysis) related to a research work specifically oriented to the object of organized crime
- Critical analysis of the sources, both qualitative both quantitative
- Knowledge of the differences between the phases of the criminal procedure
- Useful elements for the elaboration of research reports, papers, degree theses