Crime Theory: Organized Crime

Abstract

The term "organized crime" refers to highly structured criminal groups that engage in illegal activities for financial gain. While they can operate on local, regional, and national levels, the greatest challenge for law enforcement organizations is international organized crime. Estimates by the Millennium Project place the costs of organized crime worldwide at $4.7 trillion per year (The Millennium Project, 2023). Technological advancements in communications and global financial deregulation have resulted in a global boom in organized crime, especially in the form of cyber crime. In order to launder money and exert control over various businesses and industries, organized crime has taken over legitimate enterprises through corruption, intimidation, and extortion. Cooperation from political, judicial, and law enforcement officials is gained in the same manner, allowing organized crime to flourish throughout the world. Numerous terrorist groups worldwide utilize organized crime to generate millions of dollars in capital, which they use to acquire weapons and technology.

Keywords Bribery; Extortion; Gross Domestic Product; Mafia; Prohibition; Racketeering; Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organization Act (RICO); Tongs

Deviance & Social Control > Crime Theory: Organized Crime

Overview

The Organized Crime Control Act defines organized crime as "The unlawful activities of…a highly organized and disciplined association," usually for the purposes of financial gain (U.S., 1970). It can and does exist on any scale, whether local, state, national, or international. Organized crime can take the form of traditional criminal enterprise or cybercrime. To thrive, however, organized crime has to have strong ties to legitimate business entities so that money can be moved throughout the economy. Often, the cooperation of respected members of the business community is gained through bribery, extortion, and blackmail. Added protection for criminal endeavors is achieved by bribing judicial and law enforcement officials. Politically motivated organized crime is referred to as terrorism.

The impact of organized crime is difficult to measure since this type of crime is involved in so many legal and illegal enterprises. The think-tank, the Millennium Project, estimates that its illegal annual profits globally total about $4.7 trillion per year (The Millennium Project, 2023). The Millenium Project estimates that this shadow economy nets about 3 to 7 percent of global GDP (gross domestic product) annually (The Millunium Project, 2023). The illegal enterprises organized crime engages in include drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering, gambling, murder for hire, prostitution, bombings, extortion, kidnapping, fraud, political corruption, loan sharking, blackmail, human smuggling, counterfeiting, illegally dumping toxic waste, cybercrime, and terrorism. Not counted in these statistics, however, are the actual and indirect costs and hardships inflicted upon individuals and communities through the violence, intimidation, and corruption used by organized crime to control their criminal enterprises. One trend in organized crime is the increased ability of these organizations to work with one another around the world to achieve their illegal ends. This has increased the need for the FBI to work with its counterparts in other countries in order to disrupt these costly criminal activities.

The Organized Crime Section at the FBI is divided into various geographical units. It also maintains a Sports Bribery Program aimed at ensuring the integrity of American sporting events by educating sports officials and players about the role of organized crime in gambling, corruption, bribery, and drug trafficking. Additionally, the program investigates and prosecutes offenses related to federal gambling and corruption laws in sports.

Within sociological theory, many of the activities engaged in by organized crime come under the concept of white-collar crime. Analysis of white-collar crime focuses on two types: the individual perpetrator having special knowledge or occupational expertise and access that permits him or her to gain illegal financial advantage over others; and, corporate or organizational perpetrators, including organized and governmental crime. Since white-collar crime is intermingled with legitimate business activities and often involves complex and sophisticated technical actions, detection is very difficult. Although white-collar crime is a $426 billion to $1.7 trillion annual harm to our society, few perpetrators are caught, and even fewer receive any sort of punishment (Flynn, 2023).

Technically speaking, when a corporation commits an offense, this is called "corporate crime" or "organizational crime," which is considered one type of white-collar crime. This division of white-collar crime categories into two types, occupational and corporate, was advanced by Clinard and Quinney in the 1960s, and it remains influential to this day (Green, 2006). Another aspect of white-collar crime that can be either individual or organized is governmental or political crime, for instance, lawmakers trading their influence and legislative votes for money and gifts.

In an effort to combat organized crime, in 1970, the federal government passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act (18 U. S. C. A. § 1961 et seq.) In addition to crimes deemed to be white-collar in nature, RICO provides penalties for gambling, extortion, prostitution, narcotics trafficking, loan sharking, and murder. Punishment under RICO can be extremely harsh, including fines and up to twenty years in prison. Additionally, the defendant must forfeit any claims to the money or property obtained from the criminal enterprise or obtained from any criminal enterprise barred under RICO (White-collar, 2008).

Despite decades of corporate criminal offenses, it was not until 2002 that Congress enacted legislation that seriously penalized corporate wrongdoing. The Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, also known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Pub.L. 107-204, 116 Stat. 745), increased penalties for mail and wire fraud to twenty years in prison. Those convicted of committing securities fraud faced up to twenty-five years in prison. Additionally, the act criminalized the falsification of corporate financial reports, with fines of up to $5 million dollars and ten years in prison (White-collar, n.d.). Also contained within the act was the directive that the Federal U.S. Sentencing Commission increase the penalties for other white-collar crimes. In 2008, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act further revolutionized the enforcement of white-collar crimes (Smith, 2023). These new regulations changed the historical landscape of both public and law enforcement attitudes toward white-collar crime.

Critical Criminology

In addition to traditional views on the causes of crime and deviance that focus on an individual's motivation or character, several other theories of crime deserve brief mention in relation to organized crime. "Critical criminology" often has been called the Robin Hood theory of crime in that it argues that deviance is a choice and a political act made in response to the inequities of capitalist societies. Based upon Marxist views of capitalism, Taylor, Walton, and Young argued that oppressed groups, such as the working class, women, and minorities, may take action against the dominant, capitalist culture in order to counteract that culture's social, economic, and political power (1973). The dominant culture then labels these actions as criminal in order to maintain its power. In other words, under critical criminology, what constitutes criminal behavior is contingent upon social and historical context, meaning that the definition of criminal behavior can vary over time in relation to the interests of the dominant group. Critics of critical criminology argue that it romanticizes violent, disruptive, and harmful acts and that it has little interest in the realities of crime.

Left Realism Criminology

Although "left realism criminology" developed out of the theoretical framework of critical criminology, it focuses on realistic approaches to crime. By studying crime victims, left realists focus on the marginalization or powerlessness of both the victims and the perpetrators of crime. Furthermore, relative to most members of society, these individuals are deprived of financial, social, and political resources. Left realists, therefore, advocate crime interventions that create a more egalitarian relationship between the police and the public. One of left realism's contributions to criminology has been the expansion of the basic traditional triangle view of crime as involving an offender, a victim, and the state, by adding the public or a civil society to create the square of crime. Conceptually, public attitudes and policies are brought into crime analysis in addition to law enforcement agencies.

Right Realism Criminology

"Right realism" criminological theory developed out of the rational choice and social control theories of crime. Its focus is less theoretical and more oriented towards the prevention and control of crime from a conservative "law and order" perspective. Basically, right realism advocates believe that crime is a choice and that the solution to crime is to take steps to prevent situations in which criminal conduct can occur. Through educational programs and sign postings, individuals are forewarned that should they choose to engage in criminal conduct, the consequences will be swift, harsh, and long-lasting. Situational crime prevention also advocates for increased police presence, neighborhood watches, improved street lighting, alarm systems, and other measures that make committing a crime and getting away with it more difficult.

Applications

The Mafia

Traditional views of organized crime have long centered on the Italian criminal societies known as the Mafia. Formed in Italy as underground resistance groups that fought against invading and exploiting armies, these secret societies offered vigilante justice to protect their members' families and friends. A member was called a "Man of Honor" because he was able to disrupt the invading forces' efforts, steal their assets, and, if necessary, die before informing on his society. Sicilians, in particular, were the most clannish and developed into the Mafia in the mid-1800s to "unify the Sicilian peasants against their enemies" (FBI, n.d.e, ¶ 12). By the mid-20th century, the Mafia had "infiltrated the social and economic fabric of Italy and began to spread their influence throughout the world (FBI, n.d.e ¶ 1).

By the 1920s, thousands of Sicilian organized crime members had immigrated to the United States and formed La Cosa Nostra, or the American Mafia. They found a criminal haven in America at that time due to the passage of the Volstead Act of 1920, otherwise known as Prohibition, which banned the sale of alcohol in the country. Highly organized bootlegging rings moved alcohol throughout the country through loose criminal alliances. Gangland killings and gang wars were common as the various groups fought for influence and territory. Also common was the prosecution of high-ranking political figures, judges, and law enforcement personnel who aided the Mafia in their criminal enterprises (Organized Crime, 2008).

Prohibition was repealed in 1933, and the Mafia turned to labor racketeering, gambling, prostitution, and, rarely, narcotics trafficking. Labor racketeering is "the domination, manipulation, and control of a labor movement in order to affect related businesses and industries" (FBI, n.d.e ¶ 63). In the past, the Mafia engaged in labor racketeering by controlling the major labor unions in the building and service industries around large cities like New York so that companies obtained contracts involving cement, building materials, garbage disposal, construction, highway development, electricity, and plumbing were largely determined by the Mafia, which expected payments for its influence. In order to influence the public bidding processes, Mafia bosses needed highly placed public officials on their payroll to rig the bids toward the Mafia providers. In addition to the increased labor and materials costs of these projects, the Mafia also controlled the billions of dollars in the pension, welfare, and health funds of construction union members. In the twenty-first century, the influence of the Mafia has declined, and the industries in which they remain active shifted.

The FBI estimates that the four Italian Mafia groups active in the twenty-first century in the United States have over 25,000 members and 250,000 associates worldwide (Peter, 2018). Approximately 3,000 members are working throughout the United States in major urban centers like New York, southern New Jersey, and Philadelphia. The FBI estimates that the Italian Mafia's worldwide profits are $100 billion annually (FBI, n.d.e).

By the early 1950s, federal investigations into organized crime revealed that many of the top Mob officials had taken control of legitimate businesses and seemingly distanced themselves from daily criminal operations. With wealth, political influence, and apparent respectability, these Mafia officials gained an even greater hold over American criminal enterprises. In the twenty-first century, they are similar to any other multinational corporate structure, with their illegal commodities and services laundered through legitimate businesses. In addition to traditional criminal activities, crimes include the sale of fake telephone cards, identity fraud, stock swindles, and online extortion.

International Organized Crime

Since the 1990s, organized crime has taken on new significance internationally and within the United States. One factor has been increased mobility, both in physical space and cyberspace (Berry, 2003, p. 1). This has permitted criminal organizations from around the world to infiltrate American business interests and to transfer funds electronically before they are detected. The second factor has to do with the loosening of restrictions on the transfer of money internationally.

Up until the late 1980s, governmental restraints restricted the movement of large sums of money internationally. Corporations lobbied for less regulation, arguing "that they needed to have money around the world faster and in much greater quantities in order to take full advantage of its value as they expanded global operations" (Glenny, 2008, p. 172). In the late 1980s, the governments of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom "lifted the bureaucratic barriers that blocked the free movement of capital" and "established only primitive mechanisms to regulate this massive surge in the movement of capital" (Glenny, 2008, p. 172). With the combination of technology and deregulation, organized crime became a powerful force both internationally and within the United States, though it looked different from decades passed.

Eurasian Organized Crime

Another factor that influenced organized crime in the United States was the breakdown of the former Soviet Union around 1991. Called "Eurasian crime" by the FBI, it was initially organized to profit from the Soviet prison system. When the Soviet Union collapsed, crime leaders and corrupt government officials combined to take control of the industries and natural resources that were being privatized. With this huge infusion of wealth and the legitimate means of laundering money, Eurasian crime gained the resources to destabilize emerging political institutions that had access to the former Soviet Union's nuclear weapons caches (FBI, n.d.d). Within the United States, Eurasian organized crime involves healthcare fraud, drug trafficking, auto theft, money laundering, extortion, securities and investment fraud, the interstate transportation of stolen property, and prostitution. Like many of their organized crime counterparts, the Eurasian group is also involved in human trafficking, which pertains to two categories: the "buying and selling of women and children for illegal labor and for the sex trade;" and the "movement of illegal immigrants through or into countries without fulfilling the documentation requirements of those countries" (Berry, 2003, p. 2). Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union remained human trafficking hotspots in the twenty-first century in terms of country of origin.

Asian Organized Crime

Since the early 1990s, Asian organized crime has been active in the United States as well. Early Chinese American immigrants started social groups known as "tongs," which eventually evolved into criminal operations. The FBI states that the most dominant groups have ties to China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, although all of them have extensive international influence. Situated in more than 50 large metropolitan areas across the United States, these Asian criminal enterprises also use local businesses and large corporations to hide their criminal activities. In addition to traditional racketeering activities associated with organized crime, the Asian groups also "smuggle aliens; traffic heroin and methamphetamine; commit financial frauds; steal autos and computer chips; counterfeit computer and clothing products; and launder money" (FBI, n.d.c, ¶ 6).

African Organized Crime

Few organized crime groups have benefited more from communication technology and the globalization of world economies than the African criminal enterprises that have been developing since the 1980s. Moving into the world markets, these formerly local and regional crime groups have flourished in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia. Nigerian criminal enterprises, in particular, have committed massive financial fraud throughout the world and the United States. The cost to the United States alone is estimated at between $1 billion and $2 billion annually. Additionally, "large populations of ethnic Nigerians in India, Pakistan, and Thailand have given these enterprises direct access to 90% of the world's heroin production" (FBI, n.d.a, ¶5). As well as typical organized crime activities, the FBI focuses on "insurance fraud involving auto accidents; healthcare billing schemes; life insurance schemes; bank, check, and credit card fraud; advance-fee schemes known as 4-1-9 letters; and document fraud to develop false identities" (FBI, n.d.a, ¶7). This group of criminals capitalized off the Internet perpetuating infamous email scams that often target lonely and elderly Americans.

Viewpoints

Since organized crime is a global enterprise, the United States government is interested in countries that are hospitable to these enterprises. Berry and her colleagues argued that there were several common characteristics of such governments that provided favorable conditions for the survival and expansion of organized crime, including, "official corruption, incomplete or weak legislation, poor enforcement of existing laws, non-transparent financial institutions, unfavorable economic conditions, lack of respect for the rule of law in society, and poorly guarded national boundaries" (2003, p. 1). In their report, Berry and her colleagues discussed in detail the various countries around the world in relation to organized crime and the policy issues raised by these situations (2003).

Because of their proximity to the United States, two countries cited by Berry and her colleagues are of significant interest: Mexico and Canada (2003). Both were staging points for bringing illegal narcotics and people into American borders. Canada, in particular, was cited as a troublesome source of terrorist entry into the U.S. (p. 143). While Canada was applauded in the report for its efforts to protect human rights, some of these efforts added to the difficulties of policing the border between Canada and the United States. According to the authors, Canada served as a base for terrorist operations and as a transit country because it had a "generous social-welfare system, lax immigration laws, infrequent prosecutions, light sentencing, and long borders and coastlines" (p. 146). After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, however, the Canadian government enacted the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to heighten border security with the United States by increasing immigrant screening, instituting new criminal charges and penalties for suspected terrorists, shortening the appeal process, and increasing police arrest powers (p. 146).

Mexican organized crime related to drug trafficking continues to plague the border regions of both the United States and Mexico. The crime resulted in a massive increase in homicides since 2007 (Shirk, 2015). In the early 2020s, Mexico was experiencing almost one hundred homicides per day (Resendiz, 2022). Perhaps more than any other type of organized crime, that of Mexican gangs has been the hardest for US authorities to quell and promises to continue for the foreseeable future. In the 2020s, Mexico remained a key point of entry for narcotics into the United States and areas in Mexico remained so dangerous due to criminal activity the US government warned Americans against travel to the country.

Terrorism

Although beyond the scope of this article, it is important to add terrorism to the definition of organized crime. Terrorism is coercion through violence and often is recognized after a given terrorist event when the perpetrators articulate that they committed the act and give their reasons for doing so. Elements of terrorism include violence executed for a political reason with the intent to maximize psychological fear by deliberating targeting non-combatant civilians. Terrorists often disguise themselves as non-combatants in order to escape initial detection and increase the likelihood of harm to civilians. Some of the organized crime discussed throughout this article is conducted to obtain weapons or funding for terrorist efforts. From the perspective of terrorists, their motivations justify their extreme actions. Others would argue that no political, social, economic, or religious motivation is sufficient to excuse these devastating acts of violence.

Terms & Concepts

Bribery: Persuading somebody to do something dishonest or illegal in exchange for money or other incentives.

Extortion: The crime of obtaining something such as money or information from somebody through coercion.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The total market value of all goods and services produced within a country during a specific period of time, usually annually.

Mafia: Term for Sicilian vigilante groups organized during the Middle Ages to combat Spanish occupation of the land.

Prohibition: The Volstead Act of 1920 made the sale of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States until 1933. This period is referred to as the Prohibition Era.

Racketeering: Criminal activity by a structured group.

Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organization Act (RICO): A federal law passed in 1970 that provided stiffer penalties for those convicted of participating in criminal acts as part of an organized crime syndicate.

Bibliography

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Suggested Reading

Abadinsky, H. (2006). Organized crime. Florence, KY: Wadsworth.

Combs, C. (2008). Terrorism in the 21st century. (5th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prenctice-Hall.

Hoffman, B. (2006). Inside terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press.

International Association for the Study of Organized Crime. (n.d.). Retrieved July 30, 2008 from: www.iasoc.net.

Lampe, K. (2012). Transnational organized crime challenges for future research. Crime, Law & Social Change, 58, 179-194. doi:10.1007/s10611-012-9377-y Retrieved October 23, 2013 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text:http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=79340486&site=ehost-live

Lampe, K. (2014). Recent publications on organized crime. Trends in Organized Crime, 17, 342–344. Retrieved December 31, 2014 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=99346237&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Lyman, M., & Potter, G. (2006). Organized crime. (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Martin, G. (2006). Understanding terrorism: Challenges, perspectives, and issues. (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Michigan State University Libraries. Criminal justice resources: Organized crime. www.lib.msu.edu/harris23/crimjust/orgcrime.htm.

Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security. (n.d.). Retrieved July 30, 2008 from: www.yorku.ca/nathanson/default.htm.

Siegel, D., & Nelen, H. (Eds.). (2008). Organized crime: Culture, markets, and policies. New York: Springer Science+Business Media.

Siegel, D., van de Bunt, H., & Zaitch, D. (Eds.). (2003). Global organized crime: Trends and developments. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.

Von Lampe, K. (2015). Organized crime: Analyzing illegal activities, criminal structures, and extra-legal governance. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

White, J. (2008). Terrorism and homeland security: An introduction. (6th ed.). Florence, KY: Wadsworth.

Zabyelina, Y. (2013). The untouchables: transnational organized crime behind diplomatic privileges and immunities. Trends in Organized Crime, 16, 343-357. doi:10.1007/s12117-012-9184-y Retrieved October 23, 2013 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text:http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=89805802&site=ehost-live