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The author of this article has been committed for several years to the study of a comparative history which focuses on the presence and influence of illegal networks in the working-class neighbourhoods of twentieth-century cities. From this analysis has emerged the necessity to explore the characteristics of, and the reasons for, the alternation of conflictual and sympathetic behaviours among ‘working-class cultures’ and those expressed by marginal social strata. More specifically, this study is being carried out by comparing the cases of the three cities of Barcelona, Milan and Marseille in the period between the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. Starting from this comparative study, then, this article will suggest a series of readings while showing three important themes in the bibliographical panorama: the “ultimate causes” of criminality; what is and what is not “organised criminality”; the quantitative theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]