Many authors have explained the concept of organized crime through various characteristics. After reviewing how organized crime became established in the United States, this article describes the similarities and differences between two general types of organized crime groups in the United States: traditional Sicilian organized crime groups (referred to as “The Mafia” or La Cosa Nostra) and newly emerging groups. The entry concludes with remarks about the projected futures of these general types of organized crime groups operating in the United States.
Establishment of Organized Crime in the United States
To many people, the term organized crime conjures an image fostered by Hollywood as a gang of Italian mobsters dealing in the illegal alcohol of Prohibition, prostitution, gambling, and drugs. While the Sicilian gangs may have been the l argest, most prominent, and well-structured ethnically based gangs in the history of U.S. organized crime, they were not the only gangs established on culture and nationality to enter the underworld nor were they even the first. Irish, German, and Jewish gangs had already left their marks when the Volstead Act (the National Prohibition Act) was passed in 1919 to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcohol, providing a new illegal product for gangs to serve to the buying public.
As World War II and the Cold War ended, U.S. society became more diverse with new ethnic groups from the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia as well as countries of Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa arriving in the pursuit of the American Dream. Their reasons for immigrating to the United States were many and included a desire to escape the ravages of war and its aftermath, to escape various forms of religious and political oppression and persecution, to escape the limits of opportunity associated with the more caste-like societies of their homelands, and to partake of the American Dream of upward mobility through the fruits of their own independence and hard work. However, a very small percentage of the members of these groups chose to follow the model built by the traditional Sicilian mobsters who had arrived in the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century seeking their fortunes in less conventional methods.
The usual pattern featured the small criminal element perpetrating extortion on fellow immigrants. This extortion was usually rationalized as protection. In many instances, the new immigrants did not know the language or customs of their new country and did not go to the police because they often came from lands where law enforcement agents were feared and not to be trusted. In short, they assumed that the illegal acts of a very small number were to be dismissed as business as usual. Once these gangs became established and organized, they were free to expand into other illegal activities as the criminal market would dictate.
Characteristics of Organized Crime Groups
This section explores the characteristics that authors have used to describe organized crime groups. These defining characteristics are based on the similarities and differences between traditional Sicilian organized crime groups and newly emerging groups.
Absence of Political Goals
Organized crime activities are motivated solely on the basis of obtaining money and power and not by social doctrine, political beliefs, or ideological concerns. In most instances, organized crime groups do not want to change the existing political structure. To do so may remove their raison d’être or “reason for existence”—that is, to provide goods and services that are inherently illegal or too expensive to possess legitimately.
However, because organized crime groups have generally not adhered to any moral or ethical constraints on the activities pursued to obtain the money and power being sought, the cash flow of many of their business interests from the sale of raw materials for illegal drugs, human trafficking, and extortion has often been intertwined with stolen military equipment, including weapons and ammunition, by terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The members of both traditional and newly emerging groups justify their behavior as just business.
Hierarchical Structure
Traditional organized crime groups follow a vertical power structure with at least three permanent levels, while newly emerging groups tend to have a smaller and flatter organization chart. This structural difference is most likely due to the fact that new groups tend to focus only on one activity, usually drug trafficking. However, as the more established Sicilian groups matured after the era of Prohibition, they diversified into other areas of illegal businesses merely to survive. In some cases, they went back to their usual sources of revenue such as gambling, prostitution, and stolen merchandise but with expanded operations. They also ventured into new areas such as loan sharking and union infiltration. Importantly, they recognized the importance of money laundering to avoid the allegations of tax evasion. As a result, additional layers and compartments were needed to supervise and coordinate the activities more effectively and efficiently.
Limited or Exclusive Membership
With extremely rare exceptions such as Russian Meyer Lansky being associated with Sicilian Lucky Luciano’s gang, organized crime groups limit membership to the gang on the basis of nationality and ethnicity. This characteristic is practiced by both traditional and newly emerging groups. It does not imply that all members of any particular ethnic group are criminal or that they even support organized criminal activity. Instead, what is meant is that the members of any organized criminal enterprise will not accept anyone from outside the ethnic group for full membership. In some cases, an organized crime group may be so selective that prospective members must come from a specific town or province within the parent country before any offer of membership is extended. For security reasons, members of a gang may be required to converse among themselves in their native tongue and dialect when discussing business.
Unique Subculture
Members of organized crime groups view themselves as different from conventional society and thus exempt from its rules. While the two general categories of organized crime groups— traditional and newly emerging groups—view themselves as different from conventional society, members of established traditional groups at least make an effort to appear legitimate and respectable. In many cases, the businesses obtained for money laundering not only provide the appearance of legitimacy but also provide a base of operations for further criminal activity. During the
1950s, the Cantalupo Realty Company in New York City was such a company. Other traditional mobsters, most of whom came to power long after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, participate in normal societal activities through churches and civic groups. For example, Frank Costello, who controlled the Luciano crime family after Lucky Luciano was imprisoned in 1936, was often seen displaying his flowers at various horticultural shows in New York. Today, many traditional organized crime gangs are staffed and led by the grandsons of the original bosses. They have taken great pains to avoid publicity and to blend in with normal society. In contrast, new groups have not yet learned to diversify beyond the illegal drug and at least appear to merge with mainstream society.
Self-Perpetuating
Members of an organized crime group operate under the assumption that the organization will continue beyond the human lives of the constituents. The first and second generations of traditional groups have also recognized the importance of cultivating successors from within their own biological families. They have sent their children to leading colleges and universities to learn how to run the criminal organizations as legitimate businesses. However, newly emerging groups appear to be concerned more with immediate results and to have not yet matured into a realization that for an organization to prosper in the long term, its leadership must cultivate trusted and loyal successors.
Willingness to Use Illegal Violence
For organized crime groups, the use of force, up to and including homicide, is not viewed in moral or legal terms but solely as a practical means to eliminate competition, settle territorial disputes, provide an object lesson for witnesses or victims, or instill discipline within the ranks of the organization. Rival Sicilian gangs of the 1930s recognized after the repeal of Prohibition that to be most effective and to avoid public disapproval, any use of violence must be kept to a minimum and away from the public view. Above all, violence cannot turn innocent bystanders into victims. As long as the gang members quietly killed only each other and in a manner that did not draw attention, the public appeared to be tolerant.
Newly emerging groups, especially from the Russian mob and Latin American drug cartels, are far from discrete in their use of violence. Intended deaths of spouses, children, and neighbors of rival gangs are common. At the least, they are regarded as collateral damage, and at the worst, they are meant to be object lessons for the competition. Even completely innocent bystanders who happen to be at the scene of a gangland murder are considered to be unwanted nuisances and potential witnesses.
Monopolistic
While competition is usually viewed as the motivation for improving quality and efficiency in capitalist society, it is avoided in organized crime. Among traditional organized crime groups, a monopoly is generally achieved by the subtle corruption of politicians and police personnel who can eliminate or control any competing groups. Newly emerging groups prefer to use force and intimidation as their methods of directly obtaining and maintaining their territorial monopolies.
Governed by Rules and Regulations
Like any other business, an organized crime group expects its members to adhere to a set of rules and regulations. Unlike a legitimate establishment whereby a violation of rules can result in demotion or termination of employment, violation of the criminal gang’s rules and regulations often involves the death of the violator. Traditional organized crime groups follow strict rules for everything from etiquette during meals to the manners displayed in front of the children and spouses of rivals. Newly emerging groups do not recognize such rules.
Future of Organized Crime Groups
Newly emerging organized crime groups may share many similarities with traditional groups, but the differences are more numerous. These differences tend to produce a perspective by the public that the new groups are more violent, more odious to society, and more malevolent in the goods and services that they provide. Consequently, society is thought to be less indulgent and forgiving than it was toward traditional gangs. The new gangs are not more criminal than their predecessors nor are they more intrinsically malicious or immoral. They simply do not stay absent from the public eye. As far as the public regards traditional organized crime groups, the adage that out of sight, out of mind rings true. As newly emerging organized crime groups go through a maturation process, their activities will continue, but they will likely gradually become less obvious.
Organized crime is a consumer-driven phenomenon. Whether the product is the illegal alcohol of Prohibition, stolen goods, dangerous drugs, gambling, or any of the other myriad ways that the groups have seen a potential for profit, it is the customer who generates the demand. Even when a product is entirely legal but unattainable through limited supply or an excessive price, it is the organized crime groups that can satisfy the demand. Prohibition did not stem the desire to consume alcohol by making the production, distribution, and sale illegal. Knowing the dangers and consequences had little effect on the public’s appetite. Prohibition merely slowed the flow at best; at worst, it resulted in disregard and contempt within the public for the criminal justice system.
Finally, the lure of pursuing the American Dream has attracted many people to the United States. The overwhelming majority of new arrivals has conformed to the legitimate model of hard work in the classroom and workplace, patience, perseverance, honesty, and ethical behavior in the free market. However, a small percentage has still desired the goals of upward mobility, financial independence, and freedom of choice but has elected to find alternative means to achieve these ambitious ends.
Regardless of the ethnicity of an organized crime group developing from the attraction of these goals, after establishing itself with various forms of extortion rackets that victimize its own fellow immigrants, the group will then conduct its own form of a market survey to determine what illegal goods and services will be most profitable for its continued operations.
References:
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