Karlsruhe Dialogues 2010

Alessandra Dino was born in Palermo/Sicily in 1963. After a Philosophy degree achieved at the University of Perugia/Italy, she received a Postgraduate Diploma in Methods of School Evaluation and a Postgraduate Diploma in Didactics at La Sapienza University in Rome. She became Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Perugia in 1993 and achieved a Postdoctoral Research Scholarship at the University of Palermo. Furthermore, she became Senior Research Fellow in Sociology of cultural and communicative processes at the Faculty of Sciences of Education of the University of Palermo in 1999 and an Associate Professor in Sociology of Law, of Deviance and Social Change at the Faculty of Sciences of Education of the University of Palermo in 2004. There, since 2002, she has been a member of the PhD Committee in Sociology, Territory and Rural Development. She is Tutor of the two research grants "Online consultation and policies. An international comparison" and "The role and the presence of Cosa Nostra in the investigations about slaughter and new-Fascist plots of the post-war period" as well as member of the Scientific Committee of the University Senate of the University of Palermo. Dino is member of national and international research groups dealing with the organizing patterns of mafia-like organizations and their changes, for example the Department of Penal Sciences and Criminology of the University of Palermo. Amongst others, she was the scientific responsible of the research unit of the project "The three Mafias: networks; cultural hybridization and power relationships among Cosa Nostra, ‘Ndrangheta and Camorra". As a scholar of mafia phenomena, Dino analyses the symbolic processes and the internal changes in Sicilian Mafia. Furthermore, she studies the identity forms and the features of female-roles in mafia criminal organisations, dwelling on the analysis of their change. She deepens the understanding of the connections between mafia and religion, looking for historical roots and symbolic dimension, using historical references, judicial documents and interviews to support her arguments. In her most recent researches, she has given great care to the international network of mafia, studying the relationship among Cosa Nostra, the business world and the political one, delving into the connection between mafia organized crime and transnational economic crime. Dino has published more than 110 works on the subjects of her research and has taken part in almost 80 national and international conventions, submitting reports about mafia-like organized crime, social marginality, international terrorism and female condition.

ZAK asked Prof. Dr. Alessandra Dino to answer the following question:

Globalization makes it possible that organized crime expands. What can be done against it at the local level?

The globalisation’s mechanisms – as explained Baumann – go hand in hand with those of the localization. We can thus speak of glocalization or even – in relation to the development of uneven distribution of benefits from global markets – of westernisation. In this context, the fight against transnational crime requires an update of the instruments of knowledge and a greater concrete coordination of opposition instruments, in investigative and legal terms.