Samenvatting

Using the script approach, this article analyses the different stages that characterise the infiltration of organised crime groups in the public construction industry. Three different Italian local contexts with a high presence of organised crime groups (Sicily, Calabria and Campania) are considered. The Sicilian case is analysed by detail using the script approach and following the dynamic of organised crime action: preparation, enabling conditions, target selection, the acts (of violence and corruption) or ‘the doing’, and the post-conditions or aftermath. The script approach helps in a micro-analysis of organised crime that draws on general knowledge on the topic deriving from the macro-analysis currently undertaken in the literature. Because to date this analysis has mainly produced crime control remedies, the author hopes that the microapproach may help in developing more concrete situational crime prevention measures.