Kate Smith on crime lords

Business is booming, profits are up and staff have never had it so good. The pay is high and there may even be a flash company car thrown in. The only setback is you might end up in concrete slippers at the bottom of the Clyde, or worse, the gaol.

While the rest of the economy may be cruising towards recession, the world of gangsters is on the up, prompting Glasgow University to set up a centre for the study of organised crime, the Institute for the Study of Serious Organised Crime (ISSOC).

Like any good business, criminal gangs, groaning under the riches of drug-running, dealing and money laundering, are now diversifying into new ventures in Scotland such as trafficking and counterfeit goods.

Even the Commonwealth Games in 2014 represents a business opportunity to the shadowy figures who make loads of money on the back of other people's misery. Pickings in Scotland are so rich that our home-grown gangsters are now co-operating and competing with criminals from eastern Europe and Asia.

Over the coming months the Glasgow academics will interview key individuals from organised crime groups, some face to face, others interviewed by phone and email. The information they collate will be anonymised to protect the sources.

Since murderer Jimmy Boyle's book A Sense Of Freedom in the 1970s, a life of crime in Scotland has been glorified, influenced by Hollywood's gangster epics such as The Godfather and Scarface, which mythologise the hard-man images and machismo of a life on the wrong side of the law. There is also a long tradition of Glasgow's most notorious crime lords such as Paul Ferris, Arthur Thompson and Thomas McGraw fraternising with the tabloid press.

Which explains the question: why these key individuals from crime organisations may agree to speak to researchers from ISSOC. It is this egoism and glamorisation that the Glasgow academics will be playing to in order to get the local criminals to open up to them. From the American Mafia of Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel to the Great Train Robbers Ronnie Biggs and Buster Edwards, the big problem for them has always been: why go to all that effort if you can't show off a bit?

Some observers say the Glasgow crime culture is nothing more than the razor gangs of the 1960s. There are no dons, no command and no international links. Renowned defence lawyer Joe Beltrami pooh-poohed the idea of international organised crime in Robert Jeffrey's book Blood On The Streets. Beltrami said the type of men he defended, men such as McGraw and Thompson were "no Don Corleones".

But the authorities do not believe they are chasing shadows. The Home Office estimates there are 400 organised crime bosses in the UK enjoying a shared wealth of £440 million. But the social and economic costs of their activities to the country are estimated at up £40 billion, more than the defence budget.

Shining a bright light into these shadowy places is Professor Neil McKeganey, who says the initial research into the scale and structure of the problem in Scotland has already been carried out and a briefing document will shortly be submitted to the Scottish government's organised crime taskforce.

Former director-general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, honorary professor Graeme Pearson will head up ISSOC. He, along with this brave band of academics, will analyse the crime groups, from command structures and logistics to the nature of their communications. It will investigate their activities, from people trafficking to cannabis factories and straightforward racketeering.

Understanding how they organise themselves and operate will enable the law enforcement agencies to disrupt and destroy them. Parallels are being drawn with the FBI's Behavioural Sciences Unit, itself glorified in Robert Harris's The Silence Of The Lambs, where its profiling supplements law enforcement.

This research is much more significant than just "Mafia studies". At the moment this world is secret. By carrying out this research the Glasgow academics can work out future trends and forecast threats. Two such identified threats are the Commonwealth Games, for counterfeit goods, and credit-card scams with links to fundraising for international terrorist activity, which is on the rise in Scotland. To this end, ISSOC will also be working with counter-terrorist units.

With its currency of fear, violence and force, organised crime presents a real and serious threat to the people of Scotland. In the 1960s US president Lyndon B Johnson said "organised crime constitutes nothing less than a guerrilla war against society", and it is clear that Scotland can no longer be complacent in its belief that organised crime will not cross the border.

It might be a great movie, but the problem with Mario Puzo's The Godfather is once we get beyond the narrative and iconic moments such as the horse's head in the bed, the scale of Mafia Inc, the international corporation, becomes clear.

Puzo was horrified at the glorification of Don Corleone and felt his aim of portraying how the voracious evil of organised crime consumed good people and ruined society was lost.

Organised crime thrives on terror and extortion and breeds violence, creating a brutal society. It is a corrosive cancer. The work of this institute will remind us not to be seduced by the allure of criminals who do so much damage. At last we have some wise guys to fight the "wise guys".