A META-ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZED CRIME: GOVERNMENT VS MAFIA

Abstract

This meta-analysis pioneers a novel approach by leveraging systems, chaos, and complexity theory to evaluate the immense harm inflicted on society and the economy by legal and illegal organized crime, using official and recognized data from OECD, Eurostat, UNODC, and World Bank. Focusing on the USA, Europe (excluding Eastern Europe), and East Asia (primarily China) across three periods (1900-1950, 1950-2000, 2000-2025), it quantifies legal crime-government taxation, regulation, and bureaucratic overreach-as the largest non-consensual theft in history, extracting trillions annually