This comparative research has examined two political insurgency cases: paramilitary groups in the Northern Ireland conflict and the Red Brigades in Italy; and two organised crime groups in Italy. By comparing illegal violent political groups and criminals this project has first shown the many variables affecting recruitment under the primary conditions dictated by violence and illegality when the size, the military strategy and the goal of the groups are substantially different. Second this research shows how despite those many differences common patterns of how organisations screen their recruits and how potential members signal their “fitness” to join can be identified. Primary and secondary data have been gathered from in-depth qualitative interviews, judicial reports, newspaper articles and published biographies. This dataset contains only the data for Bari, Italy with 740 male records and 161 female records. The aim of this project was to analyse recruitment into illegal organisations that use violence for political or criminal goals. While these groups differ in their aims, structures and constraints — and these differences must of course affect the way they recruit — they all share the need to find trustworthy, loyal and competent members. Moreover, the crude reality of life in the underworld, where there is little evidence of "loyalty amongst thieves" makes the need for a selection process more immediate and therefore clearer to observe. This project investigated recruitment from both `supply' and 'demand' perspective by addressing two core questions: what are the features of those who volunteer to join an illegal organisation and how recruiters and volunteers assess each other's trustworthiness This comparative research has examined two political insurgency cases: paramilitary groups in the Northern Ireland conflict and the Red Brigades in Italy; and two organised crime groups in Italy. By comparing illegal violent political groups and criminals this project has first shown the many variables affecting recruitment under the primary conditions dictated by violence and illegality when the size, the military strategy and the goal of the groups are substantially different. Second this research shows how despite those many differences common patterns of how organisations screen their recruits and how potential members signal their "fitness" to join can be identified.

Four case studies were selected: (1) Catholic and Protestant paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland: the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Army (UDA); (2) Italian Red Brigades; (3) Sicilian mafia (Cosa Nostra); (4) Organized crime groups in Apulia, southern Italy. These groups vary in their aims, structures, size and local constraints but they all share the need to find trustworthy, loyal and competent members under the key conditions of illegality, asymmetrical information, the use of violence, varying risks of infiltration and the high cost of error. Furthermore these groups have outlasted their rivals suggesting that they have relatively good solutions to the recruitment problems they face. They also share key similarities regarding their memberships: they maintain a key distinction between members and non-members; there is a formal initiation or ritual entry apart from the Red Brigades where membership was marked by the disclosure of the identity of other underground members; members have exclusive knowledge about the organisation; members are subject to a code of behaviour and they receive the protection of the organisation. Due to a lack of existing data this research has requited the large-scale collection, coding and analysis of primary and secondary data gathered from in-depth qualitative interviews, judicial reports, newspaper articles and published biographies. The following data have been collected: Northern Ireland: 40 qualitative interviews with IRA, UVF and UDA members; 10 interviews with the police and intelligence services; also data from biographies, newspaper and judicial reports. (150 individual cases). Red Brigades: Court papers of 17 RB trials (1980-1984); 32 qualitative interviews of former violent radical left wing militants from the Istituto Carlo Cattaneo DOTE archive in Bologna; 7 interviews released from secondary sources; 10 biographies of former RB members; additional data from biographies, newspaper and judicial reports. (470 individual cases). Organised Crime Groups: 13 qualitative interviews with social workers, judiciary and law and order officials; 51 state witness statements of former members of Cosa Nostra; 16 state witness statement of former members of an organized crime group in Apulia; Court papers of 25 major organized crime trials in Palermo and Bari 1984-2006; DIA annual reports 1998-2009; additional data from newspaper reports and the Commissione Parlamentare sul Fenomeno della mafia. (1738 individual cases) A total number of 3056 cases have been coded and entered into SPSS and Excel data sets to be deposited with ESDS. The qualitative interviews and digitalized judicial papers have been coded and analysed with the support of MAXQDA. Ethical Issues Interviews were anonymised and data held securely, the purpose of the research was made transparent to all interviewees and verbal rather than written consent was sought lest their association with the research questions could have left them vulnerable to the police or other security agencies. The British Sociological Association and University of Oxford ethical guidelines were conformed to throughout.