France: criminal organisations, urban gangs and politics

Abstract

Few studies have been devoted to the analysis of the relationships between the political world and organised crime groups in France. On the one hand, research on organised crime in France focuses on the influence of foreign groups or on drug-dealing gangs in French suburbs; while on the other hand, political scandals usually reflect financial and white-collar offences, without any connection to the underworld. Drawing on rare academic studies, media investigations and institutional reports, this chapter shows the existence of ties between political actors and gangsters in the recent past. These ties may help to understand how political machines work at the local level and how political parties’ security teams becomeinvolved in criminal activities.