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This text examines the growth of fraud and smuggling in African states, the plundering of natural resources, the privatization of state institutions, the development of an economy of plunder and the growth of private armies. It suggests that the state itself is becoming a vehicle for organized criminal activity. The authors propose criteria for gauging the criminalization of African states and present a novel prognosis: they distinguish between the corruption of previous decades and the criminal...

Michael Maisley grew up during the late nineties on the Ivy Bridge Estate in Isleworth, west London. Abandoned by his father and abused by his uncle, scared and wanting to feel as if he belonged, he fell in with a local gang. He started drinking, taking drugs and shoplifting. By the time he was fifteen he was an armed robber. When a poorly planned raid on his local corner shop went wrong, he was sent to the infamous Feltham Young Offenders Institute. Michael's first stint in Feltham left him h...