Today's world produces criminality, particularly organized crime of the mafia type because of the contradictions between law and reality; between opacity of financial systems and the need for transparency to fight money laundering and other abuses; between capitalist restructuring and developmental politics; and because of the close intertwining of legal and illegal sectors of societies, the economy, and politics. The situation is particularly critical in the ex-socialist countries. Eastern Europe already is a new frontier for organized crime. National and international judicial systems are inadequate to the task of combating this spreading criminality. The author maintains that repressive measures cannot debilitate organized crime because of the contradictions that exist in the world social order. He supports this thesis by reviewing the efforts of the Italian state against the Sicilian Mafia, and he then describes some of the measures being taken by the new European, supranational governmental cooperative agreements. The Italian experience illustrates the general problem of dealing with mafia type criminal organizations, that is, organizations that unite legal and illegal activities, perform important social and economic functions for society, and are well-integrated with legitimate institutions. In such cases, government responses are ineffectual because of the structural conditions. Government responses are primarily symbolic efforts that serve to placate public outrage at specific events, such as assassinations. The infiltration of illegal influences into legitimate institutions largely guarantees that the responses will be weak, ineffectual, and quickly reduced to low priority. The emerging global system of law enforcement must be prepared to cope with similar situations. 27 notes