In the past decade, the attention to the Calabrian mafia, the ‘ndrangheta, has been rekindled everywhere in the world. On the one hand, Italian attention to the phenomenon has increased; on the other hand, the mobility of the Calabrian clans has been the object of scrutiny in view of the clan’s wealth and ability to commit transnational criminal activities. This has also fed the presumption that (alleged) offenders of Calabrian origins around the world must belong to, and replicate the structure of, the ‘ndrangheta clans, also down under. This contribution will be a reflection on the difficulties and the complexities of a journey into researching the ‘ndrangheta in Australia from a criminological–anthropological perspective, in consideration of—but in contrast with—the mythical figures associated with the Calabrian mafia and its illicit global markets. Some of the difficulties, as well as some of the mistakes that I have made in this research, because of the involuntary (and disorganized) nature of the ethnography, directly question the narrative of the illegal global reach of this mafia and provide methodological reflections and lessons for criminological ethnographies.

在过去十年中，对卡拉布里亚黑手党 'ndrangheta 的关注在世界各地重新点燃。一方面，意大利人对这一现象的关注度有所增加；另一方面，鉴于卡拉布里亚氏族的财富和进行跨国犯罪活动的能力，他们的流动性一直是审查的对象。这也助长了这样一种假设，即（据称）来自世界各地的卡拉布里亚血统的罪犯必须属于“ndrangheta 氏族”并复制其结构，同样在其之下。这一贡献将反映从犯罪学-人类学的角度研究澳大利亚 ndrangheta 之旅的困难和复杂性，考虑到（但与此相反）与卡拉布里亚黑手党及其非法全球市场相关的神话人物。由于民族志的非自愿（和杂乱无章）性质，我在这项研究中所犯的一些困难和错误直接质疑了这个黑手党非法全球影响的叙述，并提供了方法论反思和犯罪民族志课程。