White collar and Organized crime Today
How the decades of organized crime have impacted the world of white-collar and organized crime today.
Organized Crime
Organized crime in the U.S. did not become high profile until the 1920s when the organizations became incredibly wealthy supplying illegal liquor during Prohibition (1920–33). Prior to that time, their money came mostly from sex trafficking, gambling, and racketeering. In essence, Prohibition created an illegal market unlike any that had existed before. While prohibition was the key to large scale organized crime, Alphonse Capone’s rise to power and control throughout the city of Chicago set a new standard for what organized crime would become. Capone’s network in the political world as well as in labor unions, and various banks, provided him and his men with all the connections, power, and financial stability he would need to succeed.
Today, people struggle to admit that organized crime still exists, yet it is important for them to understand what organized crime truly is. It involves an ongoing criminal conspiracy, ordered around market relationships that involve victims, offenders, customers, and corrupt officials among others. The experience with alcohol prohibition in the United States (as well as with current drug policies) has convinced many that when laws are designed to regulate illicit markets, organized crime is an inevitability. In the late 1990s, for instance, it was claimed that organized crime groups owned or controlled several New York brokerage firms. It has been estimated that over $750 billion in illicit funds have been laundered worldwide annually. Of this, $300 billion is laundered through the United States.
As the title of the introductory Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) webpage on organized crime trumpets, "It's not just the Mafia anymore." According to the FBI, those criminals who are now gathered under the label of organized crime in America include: "Russian mobsters who fled to the U.S. in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse; groups from African countries like Nigeria that engage in drug trafficking and financial scams; Chinese tongs, Japanese Boryokudan, and other Asian crime rings; and enterprises based in Eastern European nations like Hungary and Romania." While some organized crime groups continue to practice violence and murder, many have also been associated with the practice of loan-sharking, which is the provision of loans at illegally high interest rates accompanied by the illegal use of force to collect on past due payments. Gambling, loan-sharking, and the growth industry of narcotics distribution have became important sources of criminal revenue as repeal of Prohibition threatened the proceeds from the illegal sale of alcohol.
Organized crime in the U.S. did not become high profile until the 1920s when the organizations became incredibly wealthy supplying illegal liquor during Prohibition (1920–33). Prior to that time, their money came mostly from sex trafficking, gambling, and racketeering. In essence, Prohibition created an illegal market unlike any that had existed before. While prohibition was the key to large scale organized crime, Alphonse Capone’s rise to power and control throughout the city of Chicago set a new standard for what organized crime would become. Capone’s network in the political world as well as in labor unions, and various banks, provided him and his men with all the connections, power, and financial stability he would need to succeed.
Today, people struggle to admit that organized crime still exists, yet it is important for them to understand what organized crime truly is. It involves an ongoing criminal conspiracy, ordered around market relationships that involve victims, offenders, customers, and corrupt officials among others. The experience with alcohol prohibition in the United States (as well as with current drug policies) has convinced many that when laws are designed to regulate illicit markets, organized crime is an inevitability. In the late 1990s, for instance, it was claimed that organized crime groups owned or controlled several New York brokerage firms. It has been estimated that over $750 billion in illicit funds have been laundered worldwide annually. Of this, $300 billion is laundered through the United States.
As the title of the introductory Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) webpage on organized crime trumpets, "It's not just the Mafia anymore." According to the FBI, those criminals who are now gathered under the label of organized crime in America include: "Russian mobsters who fled to the U.S. in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse; groups from African countries like Nigeria that engage in drug trafficking and financial scams; Chinese tongs, Japanese Boryokudan, and other Asian crime rings; and enterprises based in Eastern European nations like Hungary and Romania." While some organized crime groups continue to practice violence and murder, many have also been associated with the practice of loan-sharking, which is the provision of loans at illegally high interest rates accompanied by the illegal use of force to collect on past due payments. Gambling, loan-sharking, and the growth industry of narcotics distribution have became important sources of criminal revenue as repeal of Prohibition threatened the proceeds from the illegal sale of alcohol.
Estimates of the economic impact of transnational crime run as high as several hundred billion dollars annually.
White-Collar Crime & RICO
On October 15, 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in hopes of eradicating, or least reducing some of the activity that was destroying American businesses. Racketeering is the act of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses. It refers to the variety of means by which organized crime groups, through the use of violence (actual or implied), gain control of labor unions or legitimate businesses. It has become the centerpiece of the Organized Crime in our country today, and has played a very significant role is the destruction of organized criminal activity.
Racketeering offences include: extortion, fraud, money laundering, federal drug offenses, murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery bribery, dealing in obscene matter, counterfeiting, embezzlement, obstruction of justice, obstruction of law enforcement, tampering with witnesses, filing of a false statement to obtain a passport, passport forgery and false use or misuse of a passport, peonage, slavery, unlawful receipt of welfare funds, interstate transport of stolen property, sexual exploitation of children, trafficking in counterfeit labels for audio and visual works, criminal infringement of copyrights, trafficking in contraband cigarettes, white slavery, violation of payment and loan restrictions to labor unions, and harboring, aiding, assisting, or transporting illegal aliens.
While exact numbers for the United States are not available, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that transnational organized crime costs the global economy $870 billion, which does even include the impact of cybercrime on regional and global economies. Although Italian dominance in organized crime declined in the 1970s and 1980s, the process of ethnic succession has continued. African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Russians, and others, have each in turn replaced their predecessors as changes in the legitimate structures of opportunity have accommodated—often grudgingly—groups who previously played significant roles in organized crime. They have turned to all types of scheming, fraud, and extortion, as authorities estimate that organized crime generates $1 trillion per year in illegal profits. While organized crime was generating income, by the end of the twentieth century white-collar crime was costing U.S. businesses some $400 billion a year, or about 6 percent of total revenue in the nation.
On October 15, 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in hopes of eradicating, or least reducing some of the activity that was destroying American businesses. Racketeering is the act of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses. It refers to the variety of means by which organized crime groups, through the use of violence (actual or implied), gain control of labor unions or legitimate businesses. It has become the centerpiece of the Organized Crime in our country today, and has played a very significant role is the destruction of organized criminal activity.
Racketeering offences include: extortion, fraud, money laundering, federal drug offenses, murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery bribery, dealing in obscene matter, counterfeiting, embezzlement, obstruction of justice, obstruction of law enforcement, tampering with witnesses, filing of a false statement to obtain a passport, passport forgery and false use or misuse of a passport, peonage, slavery, unlawful receipt of welfare funds, interstate transport of stolen property, sexual exploitation of children, trafficking in counterfeit labels for audio and visual works, criminal infringement of copyrights, trafficking in contraband cigarettes, white slavery, violation of payment and loan restrictions to labor unions, and harboring, aiding, assisting, or transporting illegal aliens.
While exact numbers for the United States are not available, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that transnational organized crime costs the global economy $870 billion, which does even include the impact of cybercrime on regional and global economies. Although Italian dominance in organized crime declined in the 1970s and 1980s, the process of ethnic succession has continued. African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Russians, and others, have each in turn replaced their predecessors as changes in the legitimate structures of opportunity have accommodated—often grudgingly—groups who previously played significant roles in organized crime. They have turned to all types of scheming, fraud, and extortion, as authorities estimate that organized crime generates $1 trillion per year in illegal profits. While organized crime was generating income, by the end of the twentieth century white-collar crime was costing U.S. businesses some $400 billion a year, or about 6 percent of total revenue in the nation.