How organizational culture shapes criminal organizations’ street-level territorial control capabilities: a study of Los Zetas

Criminologists concur that only a minority of organized crime groups (OCGs) seek to establish physical, uninterrupted control over geographic spaces. Despite the rarity of OCGs that effectively regulate who may enter or leave ‘their’ territory, and under which conditions, they constitute one of the...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pereda, Valentin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
In: Crime, law and social change
Year: 2024, Volume: 81, Issue: 1, Pages: 53-74
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
Illegal governance
Los Zetas
Militarization
Organizational Culture
Organized Crime
Mexico
Description
Summary:Criminologists concur that only a minority of organized crime groups (OCGs) seek to establish physical, uninterrupted control over geographic spaces. Despite the rarity of OCGs that effectively regulate who may enter or leave ‘their’ territory, and under which conditions, they constitute one of the most blatant challenges organized crime poses to the state and its institutions. Using the Mexican OCG, Los Zetas, as a case study, this article explores the putative relationship between OCGs’ street-level territorial control capabilities and their organizational cultures. Drawing primarily on the narratives of forty-three Mexican officials who participated in law enforcement operations against Los Zetas, this article examines how the group’s militarized organizational culture shaped its capacity to physically control territories. While numerous scholars have noted the relevance of Los Zetas’ military background in explaining the OCG’s distinctive features, this article provides the first examination of Los Zetas’ organisational characteristics through the prism of theories on military culture.
ISSN:1573-0751
DOI:10.1007/s10611-023-10107-9