ORGANIZED CRIME

By: Donny Mackay

WHAT IS ORGANIZED CRIME??

There is no generally accepted definition of organized crime and the Federal Organized Crime Control act of 1970 fails to define organized crime but a number of attributes have been identified by law enforcement agencies. Organized criminal groups have no political goals, its hierarchical and it has very limited or exclusive membership, it is governed by explicit rules and regulations and exhibits a willingness to use illegal violence if nessecary.

AL CAPONE
Al-Capone was an American Gangster who led a very large, Prohibition based, Crime Organization. Best known for the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre which resulted in the murder of 7 of Al-Capones enemies. Capone had men stationed across the street from a warehouse where a rival to capone was holding a part of his organization. Capone had several men disguised as police officers raid the warehouse and line up the men and shoot them all.

PROHIBITION..
Prohibition was one of the biggest times in the United States for organized crime groups along with being one of the best ways to make a large sum of money. Prohibition focused on the sale and manufacturing of any type of alcoholic beverage. Drinking alcohol wasnt a crime in itself but having any in your possession would be considered a serious crime. Organized crime groups took great advantage of the era of prohibition because it was a great way to make a large amount of money in a short amount of time. Al-Capone and his organization were making around 60 million dollars each year because of the production and selling of alcohol.

POST-PROHIBITION
After one of the biggest organized criminal group times in the history of the united states, the groups of organized crime had been at an all time high. After prohibition was over, new ways of making money came into play. Narcotic sales, Gambling, Loan Sharking along with much more, became a big part of the way organized crime groups operated. The income of narcotics alone would make any gangster back in that time a very wealthy person. Racketeering was another main source of income for many organized crime groups because they could take a modest, legitimate business and turn it into a corrupt business in benefit of only the group that controls it.

TYPES OF ORGANIZED CRIME..

Worldwide there are multiple types of organized crime that vary in many different ways. Organized crime can be as small as 3 or 4 people or as large as 10s of thousands of people. Crime groups are all over the world use the structure of their crime group to intimidate people that they want to obtain something from. The actions of organized crime groups can result in the harm of a lot people, for example 9/11/01. The September 11 th attacks were performed by the group known as Al-Quida, which is considered by many to be the most dangerous organized crime group of this time.

TYPICAL ACTIVITIES OF ORGANIZED CRIME..

Organized crime contains a lot of different types of violent crimes against people which include Assault, Murder, Ideological Crimes, which are crimes that are attempted to create awareness and attempt to result in the acceptance that that particular organized crime group exists. Along with arms trafficking, arson, extortion, coercion, protection racketeering, and sexual assault.

Protection Racketeering is a main source of income to many of the organized crime families. People will pay an organized crime group to make sure that their family, business and themselves are all protected from any harm that may come there way. This can result in thousands of dollars each month being paid to groups.

FINANCIAL CRIME..
Organized Crime Groups spend a large amount of their day in committing crimes of sexual violence, drug trafficking, and financial crime. All of the money that is obtained through these illegal activities is useless unless the organized crime group can take that money and turn it into legal money invested in legitimate enterprises or something of that sort. This is commonly known as money laundering. This is the process of taking dirty money and turning it into clean money. Organized Crime Groups will most of the time have someone within the group that knows how to money launder, but if they didnt have one in the group, they would know where to find one.

STRUCTURE OF GROUPS..

SOURCES
SACCO, V. F. (2002, March 24). Organized crime . Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/organized Lampe, K. V. (2012, October 23). Organized crime research . Retrieved from http://www.organized-crime.de/ Bradsley, M. (2012, November 27). Made in america - al capone. Retrieved from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/capone/index_1.html