International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | Page 48

Criminology, a Precursor to Criminal Law
of the tower blocks, intended to act as a fallback in case of police intervention.
Very young members of the gang, placed on these floors, were paid around three
hundred euro per night to keep watch and prevent a possible police intervention.
Some of them were also stationed outside.
As for the rest of the inhabitants of the housing estate, they had to pay ten
euro each time they wanted to use an elevator, or had to part with some of their
shopping to be allowed back into their home.
And, while violence and intimidation were dominant, all of those who could
be of use were bought, starting with the tower blocks’ employees.
For this case, the state prosecutor used the phrase “a system of terror” to
describe the lives of inhabitants. He described an area “where threats and violence
were carried out on a daily basis.”
He did not mention the trafficking that generated a “revenue” of around
thirty thousand euro per day, almost 12 million euro per year, over many years.
How can certain individuals say that it was not organized crime, when all
the elements of a criminal organization were present here: trafficking, intimidation,
violence, and corruption!
Beyond the criminal organization, we find ourselves in a micro-state logic,
mentioned earlier on: a logic involving territory, population, and organization of
power. These are the ingredients that one finds everywhere where these forms of
organized criminality hold sway, and which we mistakenly call “lawless zones.”
Because, unfortunately, there is a “law” that is imposed on communities
living within territories claimed by criminal gangs, but it is not that of the Republic.
It is the law induced by the “system of terror” described by the prosecutor in the
Shitland case. It is an established system of coercive measures that allows a fully
developed illegal economy to function. These territories are indeed micro-states
outside the control of the legitimate authorities.
We are told over and over again that with gangs, it is a matter of “groups
that are not organized,” that are “spontaneous and volatile.” But the number of
homicides—“the settling of scores” according to the media—, a visible sign of territorial
struggles and savage competition, is increasing, testifying therefore to the
structured and diversified nature of these entities and to the sophistication of their
activities.
To justify their ignorance of this microculture, we frequently hear deniers
of the phenomenon say that these criminal gangs are not organized “like in the
United States.” This is a falsehood: the organization of these criminal groups is
very similar everywhere, in both form and substructure. 8 Their organization is
8 Although in the United States, particularly in Chicago, some criminal groups operate without a
clearly defined leadership, and it is possible that this logic may become widespread. It seems this
may be a direct consequence of what has been called cyberbanging, a virtual form of criminality
based on the use of social networks. It is too soon to know whether or not this will become a generalized
phenomenon. But, if this is the case, it is likely that France will take this up too, based on
a well-known tendency to imitate ... See Heinzmann, David, “Leaderless Chicago street gangs vex
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