Cressey Mabel A. Elliott David N. Rubinstein Robert Rhodes Patrick J. Ryan Ralph Salerno and John S. Attorney General U. Department of Labor U. House of Representatives u-s-history. References are listed at the bottom of the page.
Positions in the hierarchy and positions involving functional specialization may be assigned on the basis of kinship or friendship, or rationally assigned according to skill. The positions are not dependent on the individuals occupying them at any particular time. Permanency is assumed by the members who strive to keep the enterprise integral and active in pursuit of its goals.
It eschews competition and strives for monopoly on an industry or territorial basis. Membership is restricted, although nonmembers may be involved on a contingency basis. There are explicit rules, oral or written, which are enforced by sanctions that include murder.
Abadinsky, 6 Although there is no generally accepted definition of orgnaized crime - indeed, the federal Organized Crime Control Act of fails to define organized crime Offering these attributes has a practical dimension: the attributes provide a basis for determining if a particular group of criminals constitutes organized crime and, therefore, needs to be approached in a way different from the way one would approach terrorists or groups of conventional criminals.
Organized crime: 1. Has no political goals 2. Is hierarchical 3. Has a limited or exclusive membership 4. Constitutes a unique subculture 5. Perpetuates itself 6. Exhibits a willingness to use illegal violence 7. Is monopolistic 8. Is governed by explicit rules and regulations Abadinsky, 3 Albanese, Jay S. There also appears to be some consensus that organized crime tends to be restricted to those goods and services that are in great public demand, but happen to be illegal. As a result, it appears that a definition of organized crime, based on a consensus of writers of the last 15 years, would read as follows: Organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that rationally works to profit from illicit activities that are in great public demand.
Albanese, Albini, Joseph L. Interaction is a key concept here: a mere aggregation of individuals performing a criminal act in the presence of one another would not, in itself, constitute an organized act. Organization, then, is the basic distinguishing element between organized and other types of crime. Albini, 35 In a very broad sense, then, we can define organized crime as any criminal activity involving two or more individuals, specialized or nonspecialized, encompassing some form of social structure, with some form of leadership, utilizing certain modes of operation, in which the ultimate purpose of the organization is found in the enterprises of the particular group.
This definition permits us to view organized crime on a vast continuum allowing for freedom of analyzing and defining a 38 given particular criminal group as an entity in itself possessing a variety of characteristics, as opposed to a rigid classification based upon certain specific attributes. Viewed from this wide perspective there are many forms which organized crime can take, with variations, of course, to be found within each form. Albini, Rather than developing more complex systems of categorization, we suggest that the description of a criminal group be based upon the nature of a specific criminal act which it has committed at any given time, not on the basis of its possession of certain traits.
Criminal groups are dynamic entities, not static ones. As such, they change with the nature of the criminal acts they commit. Only when this is recognized can we begin to appreciate the basic similarities as well as differences between criminal groups. Albini, 49 American Heritage Dictionary back to index organized crime n. Widespread criminal activities, such as prostitution, interstate theft, or illegal gambling, that occur within centrally controlled formal structure.
The people and the groups involved in such criminal activities. Syndicated crime has developed a structure that makes it possible to provide such goods and services on a regular basis. This structure can best be understood as a variety of criminal syndicates - associations of individuals such as businesspeople, police, politicians, and criminals- formed to conduct specific illegal enterprises for the purpose of making profit.
These enterprises include, for example, illegal drug distribution, illegal prostitution, and such other illegal activities as money laundering and labor racketeering. However, the structure of a syndicate depends on its specific illegal activity.
Thus, although criminal syndicates are highly organized, a syndicate engaged in the distribution of illegal drugs, for example, is structured differently than one engaged in illegal prostitution.
Best and Luckenbill, 58 Block, Alan A. The system is composed of relationships binding professional criminals, politicians, law enforcers, and various entrepreneurs.
Block, vii In the Introduction I suggested that organized crime is part of a social system in which reciprocal services are performed by criminals, their clients and politicians. And I would argue that the Seabury investigations provide ample proof of this system, of these relationships.
At the same time, this definititon, if strictly followed, seems to preclude many of the organized conspiracies uncovered by Seabury and his staff. The definition demands three distinct entities functioning for some illicit purpose. What, then, do we call all those conspiracies composed of politicians and their upper-world patrons and clients? Are they sufficiently different from conspiracies in which all three elements are present?
Part of the problem lies in the need to explain what are clearly organized crimes in which the personnel do not fulfill all the criteria. One way to handle this is to hold that criminal justice agents and politicians involved in criminal conspiracies are in reality professional criminals in which case they hold two roles. But for many reasons that seems to be confusing. Another even less satisfactory way is to hold that the Seabury examples are forms of organizational deviance.
But this only obscures the system of informal power in which these conspiracies are endemic. Much the most economical solution is to treat or term conspiracies lacking one of the three elements as organized criminality. These conspiracies are not only the ones mentioned above, but also those in which one is hard pressed to ind the client.
One example should suffice: the vice racket in the Magistrates' Courts which had as racketeers: lawyers, bondsmen, police, professional informers, Magistrates' and so on. By no stretch of the imagination could the women framed be called clients. They were victims, pure and simple. And that racket was an expression of organized criminality. Block, 57 Block and Chambliss back to index Thus we suggest that organized crime is a term that refers to those illegal activities connected with the management and coordination of racketeering organized extortion and the vices - particularly illegal drugs, illegal gambling, usury, and prostitution.
Block and Chambliss, 12 California Control of Profits of OC Act back to index "Organized Crime" means crime which is of a conspiratorial nature and that is either of an organized nature and which seeks to supply illegal goods and services such as narcotics, prostitution, loan sharking, gambling, and pornography, or that, through planning and coordination of individual efforts, seeks to conduct the illegal activities of arson for profit, hijacking, insurance fraud, smuggling, operating vehicle theft rings, or systematically encumering the assets of a business for the purpose of defrauding creditors.
California Control of Profits of Organized Crime Act , Penal Code Part 1, Title 7, 21; California Commission on Organized Crime back to index The operations of two or more persons who combine to obtain financial advantages or special privileges by such unlawful means as terrorism, fraud, corruption of public officers or by a combination of such methods.
The underlying motive Sometimes the basic business is illegal Sometimes the basic activity is legal and is a racket only because of the violence and corruption with which the business has become permeated. Chow, Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia back to index C riminal activities organized and coordinated on a national scale, often with international connections.
Comptroller General, 10 Conklin, John E. What distinguishes organized crime form other types of structured criminal activity are the durability and complexity of syndicates, which have some of the traits of formal organizations: a division of labor, a hierarchical authority structure, and coordination among various statuses. Conklin, Organized crime is criminal activity by an enduring structure or organization developed and devoted primarily to the pursuit of profits through illegal means.
Organized crime has the characteristics of a formal organization: a division of labor, coordination of activities through rules and codes, and an allocation of tasks in order to achieve certain goals.
The organization tries to preserve itself in the face of external and internal threats. Conklin, 73 Cressey, Donald R. Cressey, 72 The only definition of organized crime really suggested is "continuing criminal activity in concert", and this sounds like two or more homosexuals practicing their trade in Carnegie Hall.
Together, the two criteria apply to members of check-passing rings as well as to Cosa Nostra bosses. Cressey, The prior efforts of social scientists to define categories of crime in nonlegal terms are not very helpful in the task of precisely identifying the division of labor which is organized crime, for two reasons.
First, one who would define organized crime precisely enough to outlaw the category of behavior itself must be concerned with formal and informal structure. It is the necessity for this concern that puts organized crime in the scholarly domain of systems analysts and other organizational specialists. Second, categories such as "white-collar crime" and "crime against property" can be defined without specific reference to the attitudes and values of the criminals involved, even if nice problems of "criminal intent" arise.
Whether a person is properly labeled an "organized criminal" depends in part on whether he exhibits the antilegal attitudes which accompany his adherence to the code of conduct The social category "organized crime" is being used as if it were a legal category, thus hindering both the understanding and control of a serious economic, political, and social problem Cressey, Is is helpful to specify, in a perliminary way, that an organized crime is any crime committed by a person occupying a position in an established division of labor designed for the commission of crime Each has his criminal obligations, duties, and rights specified for him.
Cressey, organized crime "is an established division of labor designated for the commission of crime" helps a little but not much. This definition does not differentiate between the division of labor making up small working groups of criminals, the division of labor making up the structure of small illicit businesses such as policy wheels, and the division of labor characterizing an illicit cartel and confederation like Cosa Nostra. Only the latter is organized crime in the traditional sense of the term, and it is the latter which must be controlled if we are to keep criminals from nullifying the democratic process.
But the deficiency in definition must remain until much more is known about the structures of each of these kinds of criminal systems. The Oyster Bay Conferences have identified a configuration of three positions in the criminal division of labor that might, upon further study, be found to be unique to the criminal organization in question In one publication they named the following as the characteristics of the "most highly developed forms" of organized crime: 1 totalitarian organization; 2 immunity and protection from the law through professional advice or fear or corruption, or all, in order to insure continuance of their activities; 3 permanency and form; 4 activities which are highly profitable, relatively low in risk, and based on human weakness; 5 use of fear against members of the organization, the victims, and, often, members of the public; 6 continued attempt to subvert legitimate gov; 7 insularity of leadership from criminal acts; and 8 rigid discipline in a hierarchy of ranks.
While some small working groups of criminals also possess these positions, such groups can operate without them for long periods of time. The business of bet-taking and selling illicit products and services cannot. The position of corrupter is as essential to an illicit business as the position of negotiator is to a labor union.
Cressey, We believe that only the illicit division of labor customarily called "organized crime" and now called "Cosa Nostra" contains a position to be occupied permanently or temporarily by persons whose duty it is to secure immunity from the law by bribing or otherwise illegally influencing public officials corrupter , a position to be occupied permanently or temporarily by persons whose duty it is to be so influenced corruptee , and a position to be occupied permanently or temporarily by persons whose duty it is to maintain organizational integration by making arrangements for penalizing, maiming, and killing members who do not conform to organizational "law" enforcer.
Cressey, An organized crime is any crime committed by a person occupying, in an established division of labor, a position designed for the commission of crime, providing that such division of labor also includes at least one position for a corrupter, one position for a corruptee, and one position for an enforcer.
Cressey, The efforts to define organized crime in explicit legal terms which would satisfy this requirement have not, as indicated above, been a smashing success. It would appear wise to abandon this approach to the control of organized crime, 'professional crime', and 'dangerous offenders'.
Cressey, 89 Elliott, Mabel A. In particular we are referring to the silent covenants which professional criminals secure with law-enforcing and administrative government officials so as to protect themselves from arrest and punishment.
Elliott, Falcone, David N. Falcone, Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI back to index The FBI defines organized crime as any group having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities. Such groups maintain their position through the use of actual or threatened violence, corrupt public officials, graft, or extortion, and generally have a significant impact on the people in their locales, region, or the country as a whole.
Rather, in this report, the term organized crime refers to the compendium of organized crime groups and individuals whose expertise, infrastructure, influence and capabilities can combine to profitably control one or more illegal economic sectors in one or more jurisdictions. Organized crime is known for its diversity, flexibility and capability to quickly take advantage of new opportunities.
FIA, 6 The groups, individuals and entities that connect, coalesce and co-operate in a structured manner to dominate and profitably control one or more illegal sectors. It is important as a legal definition and for public policy purposes, but it is especially important for research purposes as well.
After all, it is the fruits of the latter research that will inform the former definitions. Related to the general definition, critically important are the distinctions between key concepts such as organized crime and crimes that are organized, between organized crime and mafia, between criminal organizations and other types of criminal groups, and between organized crime and transnational crime.
So what is organized crime? Again, I would repeat that the difficulty lies with the word organized. The attributes of the criminal organizations that make the crimes they commit organized crime include criminal sophistication, structure, self-identification, and the authority of reputation, as well as their size and continuity.
These criminal organizations exist largely to profit from providing illicit goods and services in public demand or providing legal goods and services in an illicit manner. But they may also penetrate the legitimate economy, or in the case of the mafia, assume quasi-governmental roles.
However they choose to do it, and whatever they chose to do, their goal remains the same-to make money, as much as they can. Sometimes that can mean seeking political power in order to facilitate their greed, but the bottom line is the same. The members of a criminal organization may comprise a crime family, a gang, a cartel, or a criminal network, but those labels are not important to the definition.
These members may also share certain ethnic or racial identities; but that too is not essential to their being defined as a criminal organization engaged in organized crime.
What is essential to the definition of organized crime is the ability to use, and the reputation for use of violence or the threat of violence to facilitate criminal activities, and in certain instances to gain or maintain monopoly control of particular criminal markets. It is these that are the defining characteristics of organized crime and that best answer the question of just what organized crime is.
Finckenauer, Finckenauer and Voronin back to index Organized crime is crime committed by criminal organizations whose existence has continuity over time and across crimes, and that use systematic violence and corruption to facilitate their criminal activities. These criminal organizations have varying capacities to inflict economic, physical, psychological, and societal harm.
The greater their capacity to harm, the greater the danger they pose to society. Finckenauer and Voronin, 2 Godson, Roy back to index Organized crime refers to individuals and groups with ongoing working relationships who make their living primarily through activities that one or more states deem illegal and criminal.
Organized crime can take a variety of institutional or organizational forms. This includes tight vertical hierarchies with lifelong commitments, as well as looser, more ephemeral, nonhierarchical relationships. Godson, Grennan and Britz back to index Organized crime is a recognizable, monopolistic, self-perpetuating, hierarchical organization willing to use violence and the corruption of public officials to engage in both traditional vice-related activities and complex criminal enterprises, and it ensures its organizational longevity through ritualistic practices, rules and regulations, organizational tithing, and investment in legitimate businesses.
Grennan and Britz, 15 Hagan, Frank E. A more specific criminological definition would refer to groups that 1 utilize violence or threats of violence, 2 provide illicit goods that are in public demand, and 3 assure immunity for their operators through corruption and enforcement. Hess, 87 Homer, Frederic D. Organized crime will be studied from the standpoint of individual and organizational behavior in much the same way a social scientist would study any other organization.
From this orientation comes a definition which highlights organized crime as a system of power and interaction, not as an invincible organization with mystical powers.
Homer, 4 It would be preferable if the definition merely designated organized criminal groups and allowed us to generate our own series of hypotheses. This would permit the testing of hypotheses and the drawing of inferences about these groups and their activities. Instead, the definition draws conclusions as to how organized, monolithic, and distinctive the behavior of organized criminal groups is.
These are researchable questions and analysis of them should not be precluded by the definition of organized crime. Homer, 7 Ianni, Francis A. Thus, any gang or group of criminals organised formally or informally to extort money, shoplift, steal automobiles or rob banks is part of organised crime regardless of its size or of whether it operates locally or nationally.
In recent years, however, governmental commissions and agencies have used a different definition of organised criine, based on the notion of a nationwide conspiracy involving thousands of criminals, mostly Italian-American, organised to gain control over whole sectors of both legitimate and illegitimate enterprise in order to amass huge profits.
In both cases the definitions focus on the criminals themselves and they differ mainly in terms of size and complexity of organisation relatively small local groups as contrasted to a national syn15 dicate and the nature of the crimes involved crimes in which there is a perpetrator and a victim and crimes in which illegal goods and services are supplied to those willing to pay for them. In my own work, I have preferred to focus not on the aggregation of individuals who join together to perform specific criminal acts or on particular types of crime.
Rather, I have defined organised crime as an integral part of the American social system that brings together a public that demands certain goods and services that are defined as illegal, an organisation of individuals who produce or supply those goods and services, and corrupt public officials who protect such individuals for their own profit or gain. It was towards the end of the Lupollo study that I became convinced that organised crime was a functional part of the American social system and should be viewed as one end of a continuum of business enterprises with legitimate business at the other end.
But if this is so, why then is organised crime so universally condemned while it is so widespread and so patently tolerated by the public and protected by the authorities? It seemed obvious that this contradiction is a structural means of resolving some of the conflicts, inconsistencies and ambiguities that plague us because our desires and our morals are so often in opposition. Organised crime, then, could be more than just a way of life ; it could be a viable and persistent institution within American society with its own symbols, its own beliefs, its own logic and its own means of transmitting these attributes systematically from one generation to the next.
Ianni, Institute for Intergovernmental Research IIR back to index "Organized crime" is defined as any organized group that has its leadership insulated from direct involvement in criminal acts and ensures organizational integrity in the event of a loss of leadership. Institute for Intergovernmental Research, 33 Internal Revenue Service back to index Organized Crime refers to those self-perpetuating, structured, and disciplined associations of individuals, or groups, combined together for the purpose of obtaining monetary or commercial gains or profits, wholly or in part by illegal means, while protecting their activities through a pattern of graft and corruption.
Internal Revenue Service Manual 9. Its power for evil is infinitely greater. The unit of organized crime used to be an individual gang consisting of a number of hoodlums, whose activities were obviously predatory in character. Individual gangs tended to specialize in specific types of criminal activity such as payroll, or bank robbery, loft, or safe burglary, pocket picking, etc.
These gangs normally confined their activities to particular areas of the country or particular communities. Occasionally their activities were aided and abetted by law-enforcemnt officials.
The crooked sheriff who aids the outlaws is as much of a stock character as the fearless 'law man' who makes justice triumph. New types of criminal gangs have emerged during prohibition.
The huge profits earned in that era together with the development of twentieth century transportation and communication, made possible larger and much more powerful gangs, covering much greater territory. Organized crime in the last 30 years has taken on new characteristics. The most dangerous criminal gangs today are not specialists in one type of predatory crime, but engage in many and varied forms of criminality. Criminal groups today are multipurpose in character engaging in any racket wherever there is money to be made.
The modern gang, moreover, does not rely for its primary source of income on frankly predatory forms of crime such as robbery, burglary, or larceny. Instead the more dangerous criminal elements draw most of their revenues from various forms of gambling, the sale and distribution of narcotics, prostitution, various forms of business and labor racketeering, black-market practices, bootlegging into dry areas, etc.
The key to successful gang operation is monopoly of illicit enterprises or illegal operations, for monopoly guarantees huge profits. In cities that gangland has organized very well, the syndicate or the combination in control of the rackets decides which mobsters are to have what rackets.
In cities which have not been well organized, the attempt by one mobster to take over the territory or racket from another mobster inevitably breeds trouble, for modern gangs and criminal syndicates relay on 'muscle' and murder to a far greater degree than formerly to eliminate competitors, compel cooperation from reluctant victims, silence informers, and to enforce gangland edicts.
Modern crime syndicates and criminal gangs have copied some of the organizational methods found in modern business. They seek to expand their activities in many different fields and in many different geographic areas, wherever profits may be made.
Senate, Kelly, Robert J. Do we adopt an operational definition of organized crime in which the meaning of the concept would always be closely associated with the procedures employed in investigating the phenomenon, and in which controversies over meanings would thereby be avoided and research progress accordingly enhanced?
Or, on the contrary, is it more advantageous to allow a definition to emerge as one of the results and consequences of inquiry? Perhaps a clear and accurate definition of organized crime can neither be given nor constructed at the beginning of research; that in scientific procedures it is not always desirable to have exact definitions because they have a dampening effect on research by closing off other lines of inquiry.
It is unrealistic, therefore, to insist that the term, "organized crime", be clear and precise at the beginning of the research process. A definition that is increasingly accurate and concrete will flow out of research through successive approximations and empirical confirmations.
Kelly , 28 Fn. This definition says nothing about the other characteristics of organized criminal groups, nor does it say anything about the use ofviolence or corruption. Also essential is that organized crime employs corruption of public officials to assure immunity for its operations. These factors define organized crime and it is that phenomenon we will focus on in the remainder of our book.
Who Has Rights in this Situation? What about the Men? Understanding the Concept of Victims of Crime 2. Impact of Crime, including Trauma 3. Right of Victims to Adequate Response to their Needs 4. Collecting Victim Data 5. Victims and their Participation in Criminal Justice Process 6. Outlook on Current Developments Regarding Victims 8. The Many Forms of Violence against Children 2. The Impact of Violence on Children 3. Improving the Prevention of Violence against Children 5. The Role of the Justice System 2.
Justice for Children 4. Justice for Children in Conflict with the Law 5. Institutional and Functional Role of Prosecutors 2c. Share this page Toggle Dropdown. Add selection. Create your own course:. E4J University Module Series: Organized Crime Module 1: Definitions of Organized Crime Introduction and learning outcomes Key issues Defining organized crime Definition in the Organized Crime Convention Similarities and differences between organized crime and other forms of crime Activities, organization and composition of organized criminal groups Summary References Exercises Case studies Thinking critically through fiction Excerpts of legislation Possible class structure Core reading Advanced reading Student assessment Review and assessment questions Quiz 1 Research and independent study questions Additional teaching tools Published in April Regional Perspective: Eastern and Southern Africa - added in April This module is a resource for lecturers Defining organized crime The most obvious distinction between organized crime and other forms of criminal conduct is that it is "organized.
For the purposes of these Modules, a general definition of organized crime could read as follows: Definition of organized crime for the purpose of these Modules Organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that rationally works to profit from illicit activities that are often in great public demand. Supported by the State of Qatar. The portal contains legislation, case law and other relevant information regarding the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
The definitions make clear that the size of an organized criminal group can be quite small although some organized criminal groups can be large , and it does not have to exist for a long period of time although some do. Significantly, the seriousness of the crimes committed by these groups, and their profit-driven nature, are defining elements.
The Convention covers only transnational crimes, which are planned, executed, or have effects across national borders.
This broad definition of transnationality acknowledges the complexity of the issue and sets the stage for broad international cooperation. It is important to note that, while the Convention covers only transnational crimes, in article 34 2 , it also specifies that the transnational element and the involvement of an organized criminal group are not to be considered elements of those offences in domestic legislation for criminalization purposes.
This provision is to avoid loopholes in domestic legislation. The Convention requires the criminalization of four specific offences: many organized criminal groups utilize money laundering, corruption and obstruction of justice to protect their operations from law enforcement. Therefore, that modus operandi has to be criminalized in all jurisdictions. The Convention also requires the criminalization of participation in an organized criminal group, which is discussed in Module 2.
Three protocols to the Convention relate to specific types of transnational crime: trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants and trafficking in firearms. These will be discussed in other Guides as examples of transnational organized crime that often involve multiple countries of origin, transit and destination, and strongly require concerted actions of these countries to respond or prevent these crimes effectively.
Doha Declaration. Education for Justice. What is Good Governance? Contemporary issues relating to conditions conducive both to the spread of terrorism and the rule of law Topic 2. Contemporary issues relating to the right to life Topic 3. Contemporary issues relating to foreign terrorist fighters Topic 4. Definition of Crime Prevention 2.
Key Crime Prevention Typologies 2. Crime Problem-Solving Approaches 4. Identifying the Need for Legal Aid 3. Models for Delivering Legal Aid Services 7.
Roles and Responsibilities of Legal Aid Providers 8. Legal Framework 3.
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