You can’t judge a book by its cover. Expounding gangmastering as organizational crime.

After providing an overview of the gangmastering system in Italy, stressing how this is interwoven with migration policies and detailing the relevant legal framework, this chapter presents a recent case study affecting a major book manufacturer. While the judicial case is still ongoing, media have been consistently portraying it as a manifestation of gangmastering, providing consistent descriptive elements. Keeping aside discussions about legal responsibility or accountability (which obviously will have to be ascertained in court), this case study is relevant to show how easily social vulnerability can find its way even in reputable and profitable manufacturing companies, where a combination of a shared socioeconomic horizon and the presence of opportunity structures (can) create a fertile ground for exploitative labour. The discussion section will be informed by an integrated theoretical framework exploring the benefits of bridging together Merton (1957)’s psycho-social contribution, and approaches looking at the justification of deviance and the management of the stigma attached to it (e.g., Sykes and Matza, 1957; Sugiura, 2018), with the aim to reconcile social criticism in our understanding of gangmasterism when it takes the form of a white-collar (organisational) crime.