As of: March 9, 2024, 7:57 p.m
By: Peter Sieben
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A study shows that more and more women are choosing a career in criminal clans.
This makes it all the more important for security authorities to rethink things, says an expert.
Berlin - There are thousands of pictures on Instagram and Co. under the hashtag #mobwife. The trend behind it: women pose with glittering jewelry, fur coats and giant sunglasses as if they had just stepped out of a mafia film.
A criminal lifestyle is celebrated on social media; there are countless videos, especially on TikTok, that show alleged gangsters with big luxury cars and expensive jewelry.
Criminal networks and clans actively take advantage of this to lure young people in particular.
And more and more women are voluntarily deciding to get involved in mafia structures.
Criminal clans: “So far, women have only been seen as victims”
This is one of the results of a study by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on women in organized crime.
“So far they have only been seen as victims, as partners or mothers of men in criminal groups,” says Mara Garavini Seisselberg, Adviser on Criminal Justice at the OSCE, in an interview with
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
For the first time, the researchers looked at the role of women as actors in organized crime and determined: “Women have roles in all criminal markets and in the entire criminal hierarchy.”
Mara Garavini Seisselberg, Adviser on Criminal Justice at the OSCE.
© Peter Sieben
It is by no means just men of the bouncer type who are in charge of clans or other criminal organizations such as the mafia.
Women are definitely actively involved and also use violence themselves – “much more than you think,” says the expert.
On the one hand, many women end up in criminal structures because of rather precarious socio-economic circumstances or because they have been involved in certain family structures since birth.
On the other hand, there are increasingly uninvolved women from all socio-cultural backgrounds who find a life in organized crime attractive.
“What we perceive: Women are increasingly deciding voluntarily and very consciously to become active in organized crime.”
Criminal lifestyle is celebrated on social media
This is also related to the glorification of the criminal lifestyle on social media.
“It is presented as glamorous, there are false promises of money and status,” says Garavini Seisselberg.
“What is not shown is the absolute lack of freedom, violence, death and prison.
The law of Omertà and unconditional loyalty applies.
If women do not comply, they and their families face retaliation.”
Leaving clan and mafia structures is extremely difficult
Getting out is difficult for people who have fallen into the clutches of clans and mafia structures.
“However, women receive less support when exiting.
Because they remain undetected within organized crime and are invisible to the authorities because they are not perceived as important criminal actors.”
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This makes it all the more important to make women visible.
“Only then can you work preventatively and make contact with women who want to leave.
Because no one can refute the false image of the glamorous lifestyle within organized crime better than the women themselves.”