Organizational Formations of Organized Crime in China: perspectives from the state, markets, and networks.

Chinese lawmakers and law-enforcers have viewed the hierarchical structure as the defining feature of organized criminal organizations. Such a flawed framework has hampered China's recent efforts to fight organized crime. Based upon organization theory, this paper argues that by adapting to the changing institutional environment, Chinese criminal forces have chosen a variety of organizational structures ranging from hierarchy to the market and the network. The recently uncovered cases point out that networks have become a more popular organizational form than the traditional hierarchies (such as secret societies) and contractual relationships in illicit markets. By offering a classification of organizational formations of organized crime in today's China, the author suggests network analysis as a new tool to help China's law enforcement effectively respond to surging organized crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]