Organized Crime in the United States

Organized Crime in the United States

Introduction

Organized crime may be defined as a group of people who work together to help each other out in criminal activities. Such organizations have thrived during the prohibition era and have become a part of the Western society. Moreover, the urbanization of major cities have provided the environment in, which organized crime could thrive (Finkle, 2010). The considerable population within the major cities have yielded a dangerous mass of criminals, customers, and thus, victims and so the facilitation of the development of profitable markets in prohibited goods and services.

Even through laws like the 'Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO)' has been in place to help to prevent the illegal activities of such organizations, the technological advances have modernized the organized crimes methods and have created international problems. The modern organized organizations approaches have cross control and most function internationally. Within the United States, the first efforts to control organized crime began to come into view in the 1960's (Finkle, 2010). There were commissions formed that studied organized crime to help form methods that could control such activities effectively. These committees or commissions reflected the growing concern of organized crime in the United States, greatly explored the inspiration of organizing such structures.

Organized crime may involve individuals coming together that can collectively perform illegal businesses like drug trafficking, or to gain access to legal businesses (LeFrancois, 2011). Lawmakers have passed multiple legislations in an effort to control organized criminal activities which has in effect started to reduce the threat from the American society.

Discussion

History of Organized Crime Units

In the past and still today the word of crime on occasion is greater than law enforcement, politicians, and governmental officials. These major players of these organized crimes could run a city however they choose to through criminal activity and manipulation. In the 1800s a secret society formed to unite Sicilian natives against invasion by France and Arabs. Fleeing from the hills of Italy to avoid attack Italians called the “Mafia” migrated to the United States in the 1920s. The Mafia's migration to New York City and other large cities in America to continue criminal activities were seen in the early 1920s. For example, one particular group called the La Cosa Nostra, LCN, mob, or the Mafia inhabited New York City's metropolitan area, one of the central cities of the United States (Tyler, 1962).

The LCN consists of a collection of Italian-American families of organized crime (Finckenauer, 2007). The La Cosa Nostra entails five families with its main headquarters in Italy. With each family's organization resembling the structure of a hierarchy. Its hierarchical structure of organization provides protection along with its social structure protected by corrupt politicians and governmental officials. The LCN was considered for the longest time as the most influential criminal syndicate in the United States for the better part of nearly a century, beginning at the time of the "Prohibition," and extending well into the 1990s (Finckenauer, ...