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.

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