Welcome to my webpage! In this space, I post information about my books, academic articles, non-academic pieces I write for newspapers and magazines, and ‘news’, namely interviews I give or significant mentions of my work in newspapers and web articles. Below a little about myself:

I am a Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po, Paris. I have written on the Russian mafia, Soviet criminal history, migration of mafia groups, Somali piracy, cybercrime, the dynamics of altruistic behaviour, and the application of Social Network Analysis to criminology. Until 2027, I am the Principal Investigator in an advanced European Research Council (ERC) Grant (agreement No. 101020598 – CRIMGOV). CRIMGOV is designed to introduce and validate a new framework for the study of organised crime, based on three different types of activities undertaken by OC groups: production, trade and governance. I am the 2025 recipient of the Thorsten Sellin, Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck Award in recognition of my “outstanding contributions to the field of criminology” given by The American Society of Criminology. 

My first book, The Russian Mafia (OUP, 2001), has been translated into Polish and Danish, and was the Co-Recipient of the ED A. HEWETT BOOK PRIZE awarded by The American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.

Mafias on the Move (PUP, 2011) has been translated into Italian, and was the Recipient of The International Association for the Study of Organized Crime 2012 Outstanding Publication Award. 

Mafia Life (Profile and OUP, 2017), has been translated into seven languages and has been optioned for TV. It won the Premio Nicolini for non-fiction.

Russia in Four Criminals was published in 2024 by Einaudi in Italy and Polity Books in the UK.

La Russia che si ribella is a book of interviews with Russian dissidents I co-authored with Maria Chiara Francheschielli and published in Italian in 2024.

In 2025, I co-curated a major exhibition, held at Oxford University Bodleian Library, on the work of my friend and collaborator David Cornwall, who wrote under the pen name of John le Carré. As a companion piece, I have edited a major book on the work and legacy of le Carré, Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carré, and wrote a chapter.

I also edited the four-volume collection Organised Crime (Routledge, 2010). I have published papers in journals such as Nature Cities, European Journal of Criminology, The British Journal of Criminology, Law and Society Review, Archives Européenes de Sociologie, Political Studies, Cahiers du Monde Russe, Rationality & Society, European Sociological Review, Global Crime, and Trends in Organized Crime, among others.

I contribute to The Times Literary Supplement and, in Italy, I have written for La Stampa, La Repubblica, Sole 24 Ore, Il Resto del Carlino, as well as the weekly Internazionale. My work has been featured in Le Monde, The Economist, The BBC News & World Service, ABC, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Monkeycage Blog and Freakonomics blog, among others.

I have testified occasionally as an expert witness for Parliamentary Commissions, such as the Anti-Mafia Commission in Italy and, most recently, the Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU (Australia). My work has been cited by the European Court on Human Rights.

I hold degrees from the University of Bologna (Laurea), the University of Cambridge (M.Phil, King’s College) and the University of Oxford (D.Phil, Nuffield College). From 2006 to 2023, I was Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford and Head of the Sociology Department from 2021 to 2023. I also taught at Yale University and Williams College. Over the years, I have taught a very popular class on “State and Organised Crime” (also called “Sociology of Mafias”). Currently, some 150 students are enrolled in it at Sciences Po, academic year 2026-2027.

In an earlier life, I was a Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and, even earlier, a student at Lester B. Pearson College, BC, Canada.

I have two children. Sasha Varese is affected by a severe form of autism.