Homo Criminalis

How Organised Crime Organises the World

Mark Galeotti (author)

Crime doesn't just pay, it tells. What we choose to ban, penalise or prosecute says something about us; and how far the mobsters and mafias are still able to ply their trades says something about us, too.

Homo Criminalis tells a thrilling tale of the world's changing values, the rise of the state and the emergence of modern society, through the evolution of the underworld and its crimes. From Chinese banditry and eighteenth-century English tea smuggling to today's cocaine submarines and the high-tech crimes of tomorrow, this book aims to shows just how far society has changed - and how crime has changed with us.

Often considered marginal or an aberration, we'll see how the power structures and power struggles of the criminal world have actually worked to drive progress, forming the necessary dark underbelly of humanity's evolution.

Mark Galeotti is one of the world’s leading experts on Russian crime and security (which are often one and the same), which may explain why Moscow banned him in 2022. After a stint with the Foreign Office, he has been a scholar and think-tanker in London, New York, Moscow, Prague and Florence. He now heads the consultancy Mayak Intelligence and is an honorary professor at University College London and a senior fellow with RUSI and the Council on Geostrategy. A prolific author, he frequently acts as consultant to various government, commercial and law-enforcement agencies and has briefed everyone from prime ministers to CEOs.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ebury Press

Publication date ‏ : ‎  Aug. 2026

Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529148244