Thinking Allowed - 30/09/2009

Laurie Taylor discusses the language of crime and the codes of criminal communication with Diego Gambetta, mafia scholar and criminal sociologist. He finds out why, in order to survive in the criminal underworld, language requires subtle, coded and sometimes gruesome modes of communication to avoid being found out by rivals or police. Laurie is joined by Dick Hobbs, sociologist from the LSE, to find out why the language of the criminal underworld is often written in code. Also, what makes a scandal? Ari Adut from the University of Texas discusses.