The techniques of neutralization constituted the basis of additional research, and they have been applied to a variety of deviant and criminal activities and illegal markets. Examples of such research are the one from Ditton (1977)⁷ on pilfering bread salesmen, Hayano (1977)⁸ on the professional poker player, Hollinger (1991)⁹ and Dabney (1995)¹⁰ on property theft, Eliason and Dodder (1999)¹¹ and Eliason (2003)¹² on wild animal poachers, Copes (2003)¹³ on auto thieves, Cromwell and Thurman (2003)¹⁴ on shoplifting, Buzzell (2005)¹⁵ on firework users, and Piquero et al. (2005)¹⁶ on corporate crime. Other research has focused on more serious offending such as this by Levi (1981)¹⁷ on the professional ‘hitman’, on rapists¹⁸, human trafficking,¹⁹ and the Holocaust,²⁰ whereas some other on the police officers such as this by Kappeler et al.²¹

Generally, as Maruna and Copes (2005)²² note, the research on neutralization theory has two forms, namely illustrations of how deviants/criminals use the techniques of neutralization and empirical assessments of the theory. Our effort falls within the remit of the first form. The purpose of this article is to provide a descriptive account of how a Kurdish retired cigarette smuggler having operated in Greece neutralizes cigarette smuggling, and whether he rationalizes his behavior within the possible context of Sykes and Matza’s techniques of neutralization. But first, it would be appropriate to look at the social organization of the cigarette smuggling network the participant was involved in since the social organization of the criminal activity provides “neutralizers, which distance its members from the shameful aspects of their career”.²³ In addition, an account of the methodology is provided.

The particular cigarette smuggling network described here is ethnically heterogeneous. Of course, Greeks are also heavily involved in the workings of the network in a variety of ways. The cigarette smuggling network is composed of smaller local smuggling ‘groups’ and/or individuals that operate in cooperation (and sometimes in competition), connect to each other through individuals, and operate on a local/regional level.

There are three levels in the actual cigarette smuggling network that are identified in this study, similar to those identified by von Lampe²⁸: Upper level, middle level, and street-level. There are however, some actors of the network that cannot be categorised in any of the levels primarily because of the nature of their activities, such as, for instance, the corrupt public officials. There is a division of duties within the network; however, it is not uncommon for an actor to have more than one duty. These duties are: 1) Wholesalers, 2) Procurers, 3) Pushers, 4) Street-sellers, 5)Scouters/Look-Outs, 6) “House Guards,” 7) Legitimate shop owners, 8) Thieves/Burglars, 9) Drivers/Captains, 10) “Protectors,” and 11) Corrupt public officials.

There are a number of ways in which the particular smuggling network obtains cigarettes to distribute into the black market. These involve:

a. Stealing cigarettes from warehouses where they are stored to be introduced into the legal market.
b. Importation of contraband cigarettes from Ukraine and Russia by ship.
c. Importation of contraband cigarettes from Bulgaria by truck. The cigarettes may be produced in Bulgaria and then be illegally forwarded to Greece or may be produced in Greece, then bought supposedly for exportation and consumption in Bulgaria. The load is then re-introduced to Greece to be distributed to the black market.

The major brands obtained by the smuggling network are: Greek Assos Filtre, Assos International and Karelia, and Pall Mall, Silk Cut, Winston, and the most popular brand, Marlboro. Large quantities of cigarettes are stored by the network in houses, rooms, or other storing spaces rented by the pushers (or by Greeks linked to the pushers). Medium quantities are also stored in shops owned primarily by Greeks in and around the area of street-selling.

There is an open and a closed cigarette black market. Contrary to some illicit markets that largely take place out of sight of the general public, cigarette smuggling is in some places highly observable. The closed market, which does not take place on the street (or other public space), is basically arranged by the pusher or the street-seller and the customer.

We agree with Copes³⁰ that interviews, and generally qualitative methods suit research on the techniques of neutralisation well due to “the dynamic cognitive nature of neutralisation.” Moreover, we consider an asset of this study that the interviews are a part of an ethnographic study, that accounts are the products of free flowing conversation limiting to a great extent the possibility that an interviewer/interviewee situation is present thus making interviewees defensive of themselves.³¹

According to Sykes and Matza³² the delinquents/criminals view their activities as not being wrong, and as a real victim being absent.Arsalan neutralised his business by denying that cigarette smuggling has an identifiable victim or even antagonistic relationships with the victims that clearly exist in other criminal activities and illegal trades. Given that the illegal market at stake results in large amounts of tax being evaded from the state; therefore, it is “an impersonal institution that has been offended.”³³ This is an extremely easy task. He also repeatedly referred negatively to a Ukrainian fence in a town in North-East England who used to sell stolen articles, including clothes and shoes, electrical appliances, mobile phones, etc. to migrants from Kurdistan and Eastern Europe countries.

“I don’t like people who steal. People who steal are assholes… How can I buy something when I know it is stolen…”

This account may be a result of the general disapproval of theft and other property crime among the Kurdish community both in Greece and Kurdistan, a reaction with deep cultural roots. He also mentioned

“Even if my brother steals I will report him to the police… because I don’t want others to say that us Kurds steal…”

Thus, the techniques of neutralisation may be used at the level of the individual (and perhaps the group); however, as Maruna and Copes³⁴ rightly point out, they reflect what is culturally acceptable and provide more information about a culture than an individual.

“I am not doing anything bad. I am just selling cigarettes… if they don’t buy the cigarettes from me, they will buy them from the kiosk or the shop. What is the difference?... I will give them cheaper… I do good. Now that I am not in Greece people must have been looking for me…”

Arsalan was once asked by a poor acquaintance of his from Iraqi Kurdistan, Salaam, to provide accommodation for some time. One day Arsalan noticed that Salaam wore expensive clothes and golden jewellery, and was thus identified himself as a “player.”³⁹ He asked Salaam where he had found the money to buy the clothes and the jewellery, and Salaam replied that he had been working for an Albanian heroin pusher in Athens. Arsalan evicted him from the house. Interestingly, Arsalan denied injury in his cigarette smuggling business by putting the smuggling of cigarettes in the same group as legitimate and legal occupations and businesses. In relation to this he mentioned:

“Couldn’t he [Salaam] do another job? Sell cigarettes with me, work in a shop with clothes, build houses… there are so many jobs.”

In addition to denying that injury is imposed upon the cigarette black market customers, the relative severity of criminal/illegal activity was also used. Arsalan neutralised his business by comparing cigarette smuggling with other criminal activities and illegal trades and passing the argument that cigarette smuggling is less dangerous than, for example, drug trafficking.

“I don’t sell any drugs. Do you know how many drugs I could sell? But I don’t want to…because a child will die with the drugs whereas with the cigarettes nothing happens. Do you think I am not thinking about that?… One day a police officer came and asked me whether I sell drugs…I told him ‘no my friend I will never sell any drugs. I can do everything else but I will not sell drugs. …I may sell anything else but no drugs’…There are some guys in Iraq that sell drugs and others say ‘he is an asshole’, ‘he is not human’.”

Arsalan also brought up other migrant groups that are involved in drug trafficking in Greece in the argument:

“The Albanians can get you drugs, hashish, cocaine and this is bad… because there are young people, can’t you see them at Omonia.⁴⁰

Another night Arsalan and the first author were watching a Greek film entitled “P20.” In one of the scenes of the film a truck stops in a deserted place and Eastern European women get off. This precipitated a discussion about the trafficking of women for the exploitation of their sexuality, and when Arsalan was asked what he thought about this he quite firmly replied that:

“Whoever is doing this is an asshole, a scum… this is not decent business.”

Finally, he suggested that not only is there not an injury but in fact benefit from cigarette smuggling through the introduction of “criminal proceeds” to benevolent activities. This technique may fit well with what Maruna and Copes⁴¹ have suggested, notably that there are bad techniques of neutralisation, but there are also neutral and benign ones. Arsalan provided numerous cases in which the money obtained by cigarette smuggling was introduced to good causes both in Greece and Iraqi Kurdistan. For example, one of his compatriots, who had no relatives in Greece, was involved in a car accident in Athens. Arsalan took him to the hospital and gave him EURO 1,000 for the first expenses:

“If I had not sold cigarettes, I would [not] have been able to help this guy… And when I was in Greece I helped a lot of people…”

His help is also reflected in the fact that through cigarette smuggling he was in the position to provide food, shelter and other expenses to his destitute compatriots:

“When I have money I pay for everything…And I have paid everything for my family in Kurdistan…”

And the provision of employment opportunities to a number of migrants from a number of primarily Kurdish countries, given the legitimate employment opportunities for these groups, are extremely limited.

“When Kurdish people come to Greece they have no job, they have no money, they have nothing… when I give them some work with cigarettes I help them. It is a big help you know…”

According to Sykes and Matza⁴² the delinquents/criminals suggest that they are victims of circumstances and that they are pulled into certain situations by forces that are beyond their control, something that also brings to mind Robert Merton’s Strain theory. Most of the time the denial of responsibility technique translates to “it was not my fault,” and the offender is not accountable for the crime. Arsalan denied responsibility for his illegal — but “not criminal”—business by arguing that not many legitimate alternatives to employment are available for him, and indeed other migrants due to them being undocumented.

“It is not the most pleasant thing to do…there is a lot of trouble in this business but there is nothing else I can do in Athens…I have no papers, I have no passport, I have nothing…I cannot open a business in my name…”

The opportunities for legitimate employment with benefits for minority ethnic groups are not many. Work in illegal markets in general⁴³ and cigarette market in particular provide some opportunities for employment. Von Lampe (2003)⁴⁴, for instance, informs us that the street-level cigarette smuggling in East Germany was taken over by Vietnamese guest workers, who were unemployed as a result of the huge industrial and economic restructuring that occurred in the early 1990s. Similarly, according to Beare (2003)⁴⁵ some members of the Aboriginal communities in Canada are involved in cigarette smuggling because the opportunities for legitimate employment are limited.

“… police officers are assholes. One night I was at Omonia square, when two police officers came, and they were not talking to me in a good manner. I asked them “why do you talk to me like that? Have I done something bad.” They don’t respect anyone… they searched me and that night I happened to have EURO 2,000 on me… they took the money…”

As it is mentioned elsewhere⁴⁹ because the word police is pronounced the same in Kurdish, the word used by the scouters/look-outs to warn the street-sellers is pakhla, which literally refers to a form of a traditional Kurdish food. This word however, is used in a negative sense by the Kurdish migrants, in the same sense people in the deprived areas in Bourgois’ research use the term ugly cars for patrol cars.⁵⁰ Again this is probably something deeply culturally rooted. The participants in this research are Kurdish, a stateless nation, and are officially citizens of Iraq. The police (and the state in general) not only discriminate against the Kurdish minority in the north of the country but also repeatedly victimised them. In particular, Arsalan had three brothers killed by the Iraqi police and found it extremely difficult to become attached to/identify with the Iraq and the Iraqi state’s conveyors as well as the Iraqi culture.⁵¹ In addition, the deteriorated relationship between the police and migrant community within Greece starts at the time of the migrants’ entering Greece.

Contrary to the other techniques of neutralization that were present in Arsalan’s accounts, the appeal to a higher loyalty within the cigarette smuggling business is absent. This reflects in our opinion the fragmentation of the cigarette smuggling network which he was involved in, that when it comes to its social organisation, it is far from the picture of the cigarette mafia that the media often portray (“The Mafia of the Cigarettes,” “The Cosa Nostra of West Coast”), and have in our opinion a great effect on how the public perceives the phenomenon. However, there was an appeal to a higher loyalty outside the cigarette smuggling business, namely the family and more specifically the father (also exerting great power in other patriarchal societies)⁵² as well as Arsalan’s close social circle back in Kurdistan. This appeal to a higher loyalty, however, was something that it did not “precipitated” his involvement in cigarette smuggling but prevented him from committing other criminal activities and/or getting involved in other illegal trades. When we were talking about drug trafficking, he mentioned

“I am very afraid of bringing shame on my name and on my family. After that [selling drugs] people would talk about me…”

The appeal to a higher loyalty through the notion of Namus, the family honour and its protection is again a feature that signifies that techniques of neutralisation provide information about the culture.

The first issue that we would like to focus upon is related to the participant interviewed and the effect Arsalan’s status as well as the interviewer-interviewee relationship has for our findings in relation to neutralising cigarette smuggling. This is an important issue, which may affect the quality of the data collected. As Maruna and Copes suggest:

“the ubiquity of neutralisations in the qualitative literature might be a product of the circumstances under which these neutralisations are elicited. The nature of the interviewer/interviewee relationship often makes it clear who is the deviant. Respondents may believe that they are forced into a position where they must defend themselves and others like them… This is especially true of interview subjects who are located in prison or some other correctional setting after being convicted of the crime they are asked to account for. These accounts might not be representative of the accounts given in other circumstances.”⁵³

Finally, it is the ethnicity of the interviewer in relation to the ethnicity of the interviewee. The fact that the interviewer is Greek was extremely beneficial when interviewing Kurdish people due to a very important historical reason with societal extensions; the common historical “rival” with Turkey. In addition, the interviewer being non-British (given that the interviews were conducted in Britain) meant that there was no danger from undercover police or immigration officers. Finally, the interviewee was retired at the time of the interview, which means that if he felt particularly pressured to defend himself because of his involvement in cigarette smuggling, he could have easily done so by referring to his retirement from the business.

Moreover, the particular article is based on interviews with a participant who had been largely successful in the business he was involved in. The particular interviewee, although at the time of the interviews removed from the cigarette smuggling business, was not in prison. Therefore these interviews were conducted with offenders as opposed to “captive populations.”⁵⁶ Thus, we believe that the accounts detailed in these interviews can offer exploratory insights into the understanding of involvement and the general processes associated with the trade. The fact that the particular article is part of an ethnographic study also means that the interrelationships between legal and illegal businesses and the role of corruption can be highlighted and that — very importantly — the structural processes that shape human lives,⁵⁷ and particularly the lives of minority ethnic people/migrants can be exposed. Moreover, the interviews present an alternative view than that of the ‘‘alien”who conspires against the “host society.” These accounts are not usually presented by media or official accounts, especially in the geographic context of the particular study, Greece. On the other hand, our study is essentially a case study which greatly contrasts with other illustrative research on the topic that has included a large number of participants such as this by Scully and Marolla (1984).⁵⁸

This study offers support for most of Sykes and Matza’s⁵⁹ techniques of neutralisation, and simultaneously provides evidence in relation to “market-based offences.”⁶⁰ The retired smuggler’s account provided in this article clearly denied the victim since cigarette smuggling, and indeed other forms of market-based offences, involves “the active complicity of otherwise legitimate members of the larger society.”⁶¹ He also denied responsibility, due to the harsh socio-economic conditions facing migrants in Greece, especially those that view Greece primarily as a transit country, and condemned the condemners (in this case only the police). The fact that he did not “condemn” employees of other law enforcement agencies that are more concerned with cigarette smuggling than the police, such as the Coast Guard and Customs, may point to the fragmented nature of the cigarette smuggling network in which Arsalan was involved. Arsalan, although he mentioned Coast Guards and Customs Officers facilitating the smuggling of contraband cigarettes, did not “condemn” them because he was never in confrontation with them when in business.

The retired cigarette smuggler also denied injury. He viewed his business as beneficial to the public, given that a parallel, “legal” (and more expensive) cigarette market exists. Cigarette smuggling is supported not only by the smokers, who buy contraband cigarettes in what they think as the cigarettes’ “real prices,”⁶² but it is also supported “morally” by the smoking population, even those who do not buy and consume smuggled cigarettes. In other words, the “moral status”⁶³ of this black market is high. The cigarette black market in Greece is not “segregated, morally and physically,⁶⁴ from the mainstream of economic society,” to use a phrase by Naylor.⁶⁵

Moreover, very importantly, Arsalan did not appeal to a higher loyalty, and this is something also appearing in accounts on the techniques of neutralisation of other illegal trades.⁶⁶ In our case, this is also due to the fragmented nature of illegal markets in contrast to what it is portrayed in the media and public officials’ discourse.

What is apparent from the above is that not all techniques of neutralisation are present in all types of criminal activities and illegal trades. Even in research on juveniles, the “original” group which the techniques of neutralisation were applied upon, “some types of neutralisation may be more ‘accessible’ to delinquent youth than others.”⁶⁷ For instance, elsewhere and in relation to the trafficking of women it is suggested that although the four techniques of neutralisation are met by the trafficker, the appeal to the higher loyalty is not met.⁶⁸ This may be indicative that perhaps future researchers need to distinguish between core and peripheral techniques, with core being present at all times irrespectively of the offence type (or illicit market). The denial of injury presupposes that there can be an injury in the case of criminal activity or illegal trade concerned. For instance the trafficker of women suggested that no one is hurt in the “business” with which he is involved, inadvertently suggesting that there may be a case of injury of women in other trafficking groups. In the case of cigarette smuggling, no such case is present because not only does the traffickerdeny injury, he also denies that there may be a case of injury from cigarette smuggling in general. Therefore, the denial of the injury as well as the appeal to a higher loyalty can be characterised as peripheral techniques of neutralisation.

Our research has provided some indication that deviants/criminals do not accept the neutralisation techniques for other types of crime.⁶⁹ Arsalan accepted that there is injury of trafficked women in contrast to the women trafficker whose accounts were presented elsewhere.⁷⁰ The results from the study would appear to continue to contribute to our theoretical understanding of criminal behaviour as the theory provides a useful framework for analyzing, in this case, a cigarette smuggler’s behaviour. With further efforts, we hope that the readily operationalizable measures will lend themselves to standardization and thereby continue to contribute to the study of crime.

1 Georgios A. Antonopoulos is lecturer in criminology at the University of Teesside, UK ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). John A. Winterdyk is professor and Chair of justice studies at Mount Royal College, Calgary, Canada ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). We would like to thank Barbara J. Costello, Nicole Leeper Piquero, Heith Copes and Shadd Maruna for their provision of relevant literature, and Craig Ancrum and Philip Whitehead for their comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. A version of this paper was presented in the 2007 conference of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, 13-17 March, Seattle, Washington, USA

2 G. Sykes and D. Matza, ‘Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency’, 22 American Sociological Review, (1957), pp. 664-670

3 See D. Downes, The Delinquent Solution: A Study in Subcultural Theory. (London, 1966)

4 Sykes and Matza, loc.cit.

5 S.L. Eliason, ‘Illegal Hunting and Angling: The Neutralisation of Wildlife Law Violations’, 11(3) Society & Animals: Journal of Human-Animal Studies, (2003)available online at: http://www.psyeta.org/sa/sa11.3/eliason.shtml, accessed on 1 July 2005; see also M. Lanier and S. Henry, Essential Criminology. 2^nd edition (Colorado, 2004)

6 E. Erez and N. Shalhoub-Kevorkian, ‘Culturalization as a Technique of Neutralisation: Police Officers’ Perspectives on Policing Domestic Violence in the Palestinian Community in Israel’. Paper presented at the 2000 American Society of Criminology, San Francisco, United States, 14-18 November 2000

7 J. Ditton, ‘Alibis and Aliases: Some Notes on Motives of Fiddling Bread Salesmen’, 11 Sociology, (1977), pp.233-255

8 D. Hayano, ‘The Professional Poker Player: Career Identification and the Problem of Respectability’, 24 Social Problems, (1977), pp.556-564

9 R. Hollinger, ‘Neutralising in the Workplace: An Empirical Analysis if Property Theft and Production Deviance’, 12 Deviant Behaviour, (1991), pp.169-202

10 D. Dabney, ‘Neutralisation and Deviance in the Workplace: Theft of Supplies and Medicine by Hospital Nurses’, 16 Deviant Behaviour, (1995), pp.313-331

11 S. Eliason and R. Dodder, ‘Techniques of Neutralisation Used By Deer Poachers in the Western United States: A Research Note’, 20 Deviant Behaviour, (1999), pp.233-252

12 Eliason, S. L. (2003), loc. cit.

13 H. Copes, ‘Societal Attachments, Offending Frequency, and Techniques of Neutralisation’, 24 Deviant Behaviour, (2003), pp.101-127

14 P. Cromwell and Q. Thurman, ‘The Devil Made Me Do It: Use of Neutralisations by Shoplifters’, 24Deviant Behaviour, (2003), pp. 535-550

15 T. Buzzell, ‘Holiday Revelry and Legal Control of Fireworks: A Study of Neutralisation in Two Normative Contexts’, 6(1) Western Criminology Review, (2005), pp. 30-42

16 N.L. Piquero, S.G. Tibbets and M.B. Blankenship, ‘Examining the Role of Differential Association and Techniques of Neutralisation in Explaining Corporate Crime’, 26 Deviant Behaviour, (2005), pp.159-188

17 K. Levi, ‘Becoming a Hit Man: Neutralisation in a Very Deviant Career’, 10 Urban Life, (1981). pp. 47-63

18 H.N. Pontell, Social Deviance: Readings in Theory and Research. 4^th edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2004)

19 G.A. Antonopoulos and J.A.Winterdyk, ‘Techniques of Neutralising the Trafficking of Women: A Case Study of an Active Trafficker in Greece’, 13(2) European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, (2005), pp.136-147

20 M. Hazani, ‘The Universal Applicability of the Theory of Neutralisation: German Youth Coming to Terms With the Holocaust – An Empirical Study With Theoretical Implications’, 15 Crime, Law & Social Change,(1991), pp.135-149

21 V.E. Kappeler, R.D. Sludder and G.P. Alpert, Forces of Deviance: Understanding the Dark Side of Policing. 2^nd edition (Prospect Heights, Il., 1998)

22 S. Maruna and H. Copes, ‘Excuses, Excuses: What Have We Learned from Five Decades of Neutralization Research?’, 32 Crime and Justice, (2005), pp.221-320

23 Levi (1982) loc. cit., p.48

24 European Communities & WHO, Highlights on Health in Greece. (Copenhagen, 1998)

25 Z. Onder, The Economics of Tobacco in Turkey: New Evidence and Demand Estimates. (Washington, D.C., 2002)

26 G. Hondroyiannis and E. Papapetrou, ‘Cigarette Consumption in Greece: Empirical Evidence from Cointegration Analysis’, 4(9) Applied Economic Letters, (1997), pp.571-574

27 The Economist, ‘Economic Indicators’, The Economist, 3 February 2001, p.136

28 K. von Lampe, ‘The Illegal Cigarette Market in Germany: A Case Study of Organised Crime’. Paper presented at the 1^st annual meeting of the European Society of Criminology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 6 September 2001

29 Arsalan is not the participant’s real name.

30 Copes (2003) loc. cit., p. 106

31 Maruna and Copes (2005) loc. cit.

32 Sykes and Matza (1957) loc.cit.

33 J. A. Landsheer, H. ’T Hart and W. Kox, ‘Delinquent Values and Victim Damage: Exploring the Limits of Neutralisation Theory’, 34(1) British Journal of Criminology, (1994), 44-53, 45

34 Maruna and Copes (2005), loc. cit.

35 Sykes and Matza (1957), loc. cit.

36 Landsheer et al., loc. cit.

37 See B. A. Jacobs, Robbing Drug Dealers: Violence beyond the Law. (New York, 2000)

38 R.T. Naylor, ‘Towards a General Theory of Profit-Driven Crimes’, 43 British Journal of Criminology, (2003), pp.81-101, p.85

39 B. A. Jacobs, V. Topalli and R. Wright, ‘Managing Retaliation: Drug Robbery and Informal Sanction Threats’, 38(1) Criminology, (2000), pp.171-197

40 A public square at central Athens.

41 Maruna and Copes (2005) loc. cit.

42 Sykes and Matza (1957) loc. cit.

43 See, for example, P. Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. (New York: Cambridge, 1995); P. Bourgois, ‘Workaday World, Crack Economy’, The Nation, 4^th December 1995, pp.706-711

44 K. von Lampe, ‘Organising the Nicotine Racket: Patterns of Cooperation in the Cigarette Black Market in Germany’. In P. van Duyne, K. von Lampe and J. L. Newell (eds.) Criminal Finances and Organising Crime in Europe. (pp.41-66) (Nijmegen, 2003)

45 M.E. Beare, ‘Organised Corporate Criminality: Corporate Complicity in Tobacco Smuggling’. In M. E. Beare (ed.) Critical Reflection on Transnational Organised Crime, Money Laundering, and Corruption. (pp.183-206) (Toronto, 2003)

46 L. McCorkle and R. Korn, ‘Resocialisation Within Walls’, 293 The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences,(1954), pp.88-98

47 Sykes and Matza (1957) loc. cit., p.668

48 R.T. Naylor, From Underworld to Underground: Enterprise Crime, ‘Informal Sector’ Business, and the Public Policy Response’, 24 Crime, Law and Social Change, (1996), pp.79-150, p.88

49 G.A. Antonopoulos, ‘Cigarette Smuggling: A Case Study of a Smuggling Network in Greece’, 13(4) European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, (2006), pp.239-255

50 P. Bourgois, ‘Just Another Night in a Shooting Gallery’, 15(2) Theory, Culture and Society, (1998), pp.37-66

51 It is interesting to note that during the ethnographic research the first author listened to songs in Greek, Turkish, Iranian and English but not a single song in Arabic.

52 See, for example, R. King, T. Iosifides and L. Myrivili, 'A Migrant's Story: From Albania to Athens', 24(1) Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, (1998), pp.159-175

53 Maruna and Copes (2006) loc. cit., pp.260-261

54 Stanley and Wise, 1993 cited in S. Shah, ‘Sharing the World: The Researcher and the Researched’, 6(2) Qualitative Research, (2006), pp.207-220, p.210

55 M. Stein, ‘Your Place or Mine: The Geography of Social Research’. In D. Hobbs & R. Wright (eds) The Sage Handbook of Fieldwork. (pp.59-75) (London, 2006), p.61

56 R. Gigengack & P. van Gelder, (2000) ‘Contemporary Street Ethnography: Different Experiences, Perspectives and Methods’, 36 Focaal, (2000), pp.7-14, p.11

57 Bourgois (1995) loc. cit. see also J. Katz and T.J. Csordas, ‘Phenomenological Ethnography in Sociology and Anthropology’, 4(3) Ethnography, (2003), pp.275-288

58 D. Scully and J. Marolla, ‘Convicted Rapists’ Vocabulary of Motive: Excuses and Justifications’, 31 Social Problems, (1984), pp.530-544

59 Sykes and Matza (1957) loc. cit.

60 R.T. Naylor (2003), loc.cit., p.85

61 R.T. Naylor (1996) loc. cit., p.80

62 H. Hess, ‘The Other Prohibition: The Cigarette Crisis in Post-War Germany’, 25 Crime, Law and Social Change, (1996), pp.43-61, p.47

63 P. Tremblay, M. Cusson and C. Morselli, ‘Market Offences and Limits to Growth’, 29 Crime, Law and Social Change, (1998), pp.311-330, p.311; see also S. Wiltshire, A. Bancroft, A. Amos and O. Parry, ‘They’re Doing People a Service’-Qualitative Study of Smoking, Smuggling, and Social Deprivation’, 323 British Medical Journal, (2001), pp.203-207

64 Indeed a large part of the (open) black market supported by Arsalan’s network was concentrated in Athens central business district

65 R.T. Naylor (1996) loc. cit. p.80

66 See Hazani (1991) loc. cit.; Antonopoulos and Winterdyk (2005) loc. cit.

67 B. J. Costello, ‘Techniques of Neutralisation and Self-Esteem: A Critical Test of Social Control and Neutralisation Theory’, 21 Deviant Behaviour, (2000), pp.307-329, p.324

68 Antonopoulos and Winterdyk (2005) loc. cit.

69 See Maruna and Copes (2005) loc. cit.

70 Antonopoulos and Winterdyk (2005) loc cit.