Chapter 25: Organized Crime

Question 1

What are some example of organized crime?

Answer 1

“the mob”, “mafia”, and “cartels”

Question 2

What is organized crime?

Answer 2

large-scale organizations that operate like legitimate businesses/organizations except for the fact that the goods/services they provide and the means by which they conduct business are illegal

Question 3

What is the primary method of doing business in organized crime?

Answer 3

the use or threat of force

Question 4

What are the different types of illegal activities that organized crime partakes in?

Answer 4

(1) the supply/distribution of illegal drugs
(2) gambling
(3) racketeering
(4) prostitution
(5) loan sharking
(6) fencing and organized theft
(7) Money laundering

Question 5

What is racketeering?

Answer 5

extorting a fee from an unwilling victim through intimidation, duress, and/or physical force

Question 6

What is loan sharking?

Answer 6

loaning money at extremely high rates by putting up your property/body for collateral

Question 7

What is fencing and organized theft?

Answer 7

the theft and sale of stolen goods through national and international markets

Question 8

What is money laundering?

Answer 8

the taking of illegal profits and distributing them through legal businesses at reduced costs

Question 9

Which industries have been illegally infiltrated by crime syndicates?

Answer 9

(1) Trucking
(2) Air Freight
(3) Water Front‐Cargo
(4) Restaurant Food Distribution
(5) Construction
(6) Entertainment
(7) Jewelry
(8) Garment
(9) Garbage/Waste Disposal
(10) Funeral Homes
(11) Real Estate
(12) Liquor
(13) Vending Machines
(14) Moving and Storage

Question 10

What is the structure of organized crime composed of?

Answer 10

(1) hierarchal

(2) operations continue past the lifetime of its individual members
(3) “turfs”

(4) dependence upon the use of force and violence to maintain internal discipline and restrain competition
(5) maintenance of permanent immunity from law enforcement and other governmental agencies

Question 11

What is the history of organized crime in the U.S.?

Answer 11

(1) Irish immigrants in the mid 1800s
(2) Italian immigrants gangs in the 1890s modeled after the Mafia
(3) the major turning point was prohibition by the passage of the Volstead Act in 1919

Question 12

What is a “speakeasy”?

Answer 12

illegal drinking establishments

Question 13

What are the key activities in the emergence of organized crime syndicates that took place during this Prohibition era?

Answer 13

(1) Johnny Torrio became leader of the Union Sicilian group
(2) “Gang” leaders across the country met in Cleveland in 1925 and Atlantic City in 1929 for mediating their differences non-violently
(3) meeting in New York City in 1934
(4) after prohibition organized crime moved into legitimate businesses

Question 14

What is the “new” mafia?

Answer 14

a period of wider ethnic/racial diversity in organized crime syndicates

Question 15

Which ethnic/racial groups and geographical regions have established their own crime syndicates?

Answer 15

Russian Mafia
Mexican Mafia
Dixie Mafia
Japanese Yakusa
Columbian Cartels (Medellin, Cali)
Jamaican Posse

Question 16

Most of the ethnic/racial mix in organized crime has occurred at the lower-level “______” activities

Answer 16

street

Question 17

In order to have the same control as La Cosa Nostra, what does the “new” mafia require?

Answer 17

(1) an organizing principle which serves an equivalent role as family or kinship bonds
(2) better access to political power and the ability to corrupt it

Question 18

Why have their been failures to control organized crime?

Answer 18

(1) a fragmented criminal justice system and the diffusion of responsibility for dealing with the problem
(2) inadequate intelligence on organized crime activities
(3) political interference and corruption
(4) a general lack of concern to eliminate this activity

Question 19

Why is there a general lack of concern to eliminate organized crime?

Answer 19

stems from the public’s willingness to purchase illegal goods/services

Question 20

What does RICO stand for?

Answer 20

Racketeering
Influenced
Corrupt
Organizations

Question 21

What was the result of RICO?

Answer 21

lead to the conviction of members of organized crime syndicates

Question 22

Does RICO work?

Answer 22

doesn’t work in stopping organized crime

Question 23

Why does organized crime in part exist?

Answer 23

the criminalization of particular activities

Question 24

How will legalization solve organized crime

Answer 24

eliminates illegal market

Question 25

What is the problem with legalization?

Answer 25

simply will drive activities underground again

actively encourage these activities