Albanians leaders don't have "Godfathers".

My decade-long research project indicates that there is no single, ethnically homogeneous Albanian or Balkan “mafia,” structured hierarchically like the traditional LCN or the Sicilian mafia. Contrary to common belief, no strict hierarchy exists within ethnic Albanian criminal groups, and there are no “Kanun-based” godfathers. Rather, Albanian organized crime groups, for practical reasons of language and culture, are organized around ethnic groups and friendship ties. Often, family ties play a role, but the membership of a group is rarely exclusively Albanian. Although organized crime figures maintain ties to the Balkan region and their countries of origin, this does not mean that groups in the Balkan region control Albanian criminal organizations abroad. The Balkan region remains a safe haven for some of these groups, but one should bear in mind that some Albanian groups established themselves abroad after escaping justice in Albania or Kosovo. There is little evidence that Albanian organized crime is a strategically transplanted entity or a rational bureaucracy that has been able to move its “business” successfully to foreign territories. It does not appear that these criminal groups resemble multinational corporations, or that there is a nationwide Albanian mafia. On the contrary, the mobility of the groups seems to be functional and project-based, and there is no “one size fits all” explanation of criminal mobility. In general this book is skeptical both of theories that deny the importance of structural constraints on individual decisions, and of structural theories that deny agency to individuals and families. In fact, it proposes its own multi-level theory of organized crime offender decision-making.

Jana Arsovska is Assistant Professor of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.