Mafia organized crime
Organized crime, complex of highly centralized enterprises set up for the purpose of engaging in illegal activities. Such organizations engage in offenses such as cargo theft, fraud, robbery, kidnapping for ransom, and the demanding of “protection” payments. The principal source of income for these criminal syndicates is the supply of goods and services that are illegal but for which there is continued public demand, such as drugs, prostitution, loan-sharking (i.e., usury), and gambling.
Although Europe and Asia have historically had their international rings of smugglers, jewel thieves, and drug traffickers and Sicily (see Mafia and Sicilian Mafia) and Japan (see yakuza) have centuries-old criminal organizations, organized criminal activities particularly flourished in the 20th century in the United States, where at times organized crime was compared to a cartel of legitimate business firms.
The tremendous growth in crime in the United States during Prohibition (1920–33) led to the formation of a national organization. After repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment put an end to bootlegging—the practice of illegally manufacturing, selling, or transporting liquor—criminal overlords turned to other activities and became even more highly organized. The usual setup was a hierarchical one, with different “families,” or syndicates, in charge of operations in many of the major cities. At the head of each family was a boss who had the power of life and death over its members.
Wherever organized crime existed, it sought protection from interference by the police and the courts. Accordingly, large sums of money have been expended by syndicate bosses in an attempt to gain political influence on both local and national levels of government. Furthermore, profits from various illegal enterprises have been invested in legitimate businesses.
In addition to the illegal activities—principally gambling and narcotics trafficking—that have been the syndicates’ chief source of income, they may also engage in nominally legitimate enterprises, such as loan companies (in underworld parlance, “the juice racket”) that charge usurious rates of interest and collect from delinquent debtors through threats and violence. They may also engage in labour racketeering, in which control is gained over a union’s leadership so that the union’s dues and other financial resources can be used for illegal enterprises. Real-estate firms, dry-cleaning establishments, waste-disposal firms, and vending-machine operations—all legally constituted businesses—when operated by the syndicate may include in their activities the elimination of competition through coercion, intimidation, and murder. The hijacking of trucks carrying valuable, easily disposable merchandise has been another favoured activity of organized crime.
The ability of organized crime to flourish in the United States has traditionally rested upon several factors. One factor has been the threats, intimidation, and bodily violence (including murder) that a syndicate brings to bear to prevent victims or witnesses (including its own members) from informing on or testifying against its activities. Jury tampering and the bribing of judges have been other tactics used to prevent successful government prosecutions. Bribery and payoffs, sometimes on a systematic and far-reaching scale, are useful tools for ensuring that municipal police forces tolerate organized crime’s activities.
The fact that many Americans believe that most of the rackets and other types of illegal gambling (which provide the economic base for some of the uglier forms of organized crime) are not innately immoral or socially destructive—and therefore deserve a certain grudging tolerance on the part of law-enforcement agencies—has contributed to the prosperity of syndicate operations. Criminal organizations in the United States are best viewed as shifting coalitions, normally local or regional in scope.
The fact that many Americans believe that most of the rackets and other types of illegal gambling (which provide the economic base for some of the uglier forms of organized crime) are not innately immoral or socially destructive—and therefore deserve a certain grudging tolerance on the part of law-enforcement agencies—has contributed to the prosperity of syndicate operations. Criminal organizations in the United States are best viewed as shifting coalitions, normally local or regional in scope.
Criminal syndicates have also prospered outside the United States. For example, in Australia extensive narcotics, cargo theft, and labour racketeering rings have been discovered; in Japan there are gangs specializing in vice and extortion; in Asia organized groups, such as the Chinese Triads, engage in drug trafficking; and in Britain there are syndicates engaging in cargo theft at airports, vice, protection, and pornography. There also are many relatively short-term groups drawn together for specific projects, such as fraud and armed robbery, from a pool of long-term professional criminals.
Apart from the drug trade, the principal form of organized crime in many developing countries is the black market, which involves criminal acts such as smuggling and corruption in the granting of licenses to import goods and to export foreign exchange. Armed robbery has been particularly common because of the widespread availability of arms supplied to nationalist movements by those seeking political destabilization of their own or other countries. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, organized-crime rings flourished in Russia. By the beginning of the 21st century, official Russian crime statistics had identified more than 5,000 organized-crime groups responsible for international money laundering, tax evasion, and the murders of businessmen, journalists, and politicians. One report even argued that Russia was on the “verge of becoming a criminal syndicalist state, dominated by a lethal mix of gangsters, corrupt officials, and dubious businessmen.”
Bushidō
Bushidō, (Japanese: “Way of the Warrior”) the code of conduct of the samurai, or bushi (warrior), class of premodern Japan. In the mid-19th century, however, the precepts of Bushidō were made the basis of ethical training for the whole society, with the emperor replacing the feudal lord, or daimyo, as the focus of loyalty and sacrifice. As such it contributed to the rise of Japanese nationalism following the Meiji Restoration (1868) and to the strengthening of civilian morale during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) and World War II. Instruction in the code was officially abandoned with Japan’s defeat in 1945. Elements of the code remain, however, in the practice of Japanese martial arts and in the sport of sumo wrestling.
The name Bushidō was not used until the 16th century, but the idea of the code developed during the Kamakura period (1192–1333), as did the practice of seppuku (ritual disembowelment). At that time the Minamoto family established Japan’s first military government (bakufu), headed by a hereditary leader called the shogun. The precise content of the Bushidō code varied historically as the samurai class came under the influence of Zen Buddhist and Confucian thought, but its one unchanging ideal was martial spirit, including athletic and military skills as well as fearlessness toward the enemy in battle. Frugal living, kindness, honesty, and personal honour were also highly regarded, as was filial piety. However, the supreme obligation of the samurai was to his lord, even if this might cause suffering to his parents.
During the Edo (Tokugawa) period (1603–1867) Bushidō thought was infused with Confucian ethics and made into a comprehensive system that stressed obligation or duty. The samurai was equated with the Confucian “perfect gentleman” and was taught that his essential function was to exemplify virtue to the lower classes. Obedience to authority was stressed, but duty came first even if it entailed violation of statute law. The extent to which duty superseded all else is perhaps best exemplified in the story of the 47 rōnin from the early 18th century. The samurai, who had become masterless (rōnin) after their lord had been treacherously murdered, avenged their lord’s death and afterward were all ordered to commit seppuku.
gang
gang, a group of persons, usually youths, who share a common identity and who generally engage in criminal behaviour. In contrast to the criminal behaviour of other youths, the activities of gangs are characterized by some level of organization and continuity over time. There is no consensus on the exact definition of a gang, however, and scholars have debated whether the definition should expressly include involvement in crime. Some gangs, but not all, have strong leadership, formalized rules, and extensive use of common identifying symbols. Many gangs associate themselves with a particular geographic area or type of crime, and some use graffiti as a form of nonverbal communication.
History
Gang behaviour may be more universal and ancient than is commonly thought. Semiformalized groups of young adults have existed throughout recorded history, and gangs in some ancient societies engaged in very much the same kind of activities as those associated with gangs today. The speeches of the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, for example, contain references to armed bands of young men, led by Publius Clodius and Titus Annius Milo, who engaged in fights and disrupted Roman politics for years. Violent street gangs—which generated the same kind of concern as their modern-day successors—also can be identified in the 17th and 18th centuries; the Mohocks of Georgian England were feared in their time much as the Crips and Bloods of Los Angeles were in the 1990s.
Gangs flourished in colonial America, and the story of the American Revolution cannot be understood without stressing the activism of Boston’s violent street gangs, which were allied with the patriot leadership. This pattern of alliance between criminal and political structures would characterize the history of American gangs well into the 20th century. In the classic model of the political machine, street gangs served to intimidate opponents, mobilize the vote, and recruit future leaders for both politics and the criminal underworld. From the 19th century onward, gangs in the United States were most active in urban centres, such as Philadelphia, which had over 100 street gangs in 1870, and Chicago, which had in excess of 1,000 gangs in the 1920s. Often, gangs operated to defend and assert the interests of ethnic groups new to the local society or region; thus, the most visible and violent gangs in each period had their roots in the latest wave of immigration. For example, Irish gangs were prevalent in the United States in the mid-19th century, followed by Jewish gangs in the early 20th century, and Asian and Latino gangs in the late 20th and early 21st century.
Gangs largely faded from the American landscape during the Great Depression and World War II only to reemerge in the late 1950s. In the 1980s and ’90s, some U.S. law-enforcement officials contended that gangs posed a greater threat to public safety than ever before. Crime statistics in the 1990s suggested that gangs were responsible for a large percentage of homicide cases and for about two-fifths of illegal drug sales in urban areas. By the turn of the 21st century, researchers estimated that there were 750,000 active gang members in the United States participating in roughly 25,000 gangs. Gangs were documented in every state, in large and small cities, and in urban and rural counties, though the highest levels of gang-related crime occurred in urban centres, particularly Los Angeles and Chicago.
Significant gang activity also has taken place in Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, as well as in Russia and the countries of eastern and central Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Across the globe, youth gangs exist wherever there are cities, and they often operate in association with adult organized-crime syndicates. In the late 20th century, gangs appeared in Africa and Latin America. Gangs in Asia—particularly the Tongs, the Chinese Triads, and various secret societies—can be linked to similar groups in the United States. Although some works have compared American and European gangs (e.g., The Eurogang Paradox [2001]), comparatively little research has been done on gangs outside the United States.
Membership
The U.S. government estimated that at the turn of the 21st century nearly half of all gang members in the country were Hispanic, about one-third were African American, about one-eighth were white, and about one-twentieth were Asian. Research has consistently indicated that fewer than one-tenth of gang members are female, though some surveys suggested that females account for more than one-fourth of gang membership. Few gangs, however, are female dominated. About two-fifths of gang members are under the age of 17, and almost nine-tenths are under 25.
Gang involvement seems to be related to the gang member’s relationships to the social institutions that are most important to all youths—family, schools, peer groups, and the labour market. Thus, gang members are more likely than other youths to come from broken homes, to perform poorly in school, to have peers who are inclined to engage in criminal behaviour, and to be unemployed or underemployed. The criminal justice system is an important intervening institution for many gang members, but, because it may generate negative attitudes toward the police and legitimate society, its effect is not always positive. Research also has shown that an individual’s criminal activity increases when he joins a gang and decreases to pregang levels when he withdraws from gang activity.
Significant effort and resources have been directed toward decreasing gang membership and activity. Studies have suggested that comprehensive community-based programs are most effective. Successful programs generally have integrated strategies of community mobilization, youth opportunities, social intervention, suppression, and organizational change. Gang outreach programs that involve street workers in conjunction with social opportunities such as jobs and education have proved fairly successful in some American cities. Suppression has generally involved arrest and prosecution and has been shown to have limited utility. Organizational-change and community-mobilization strategies attempt to bring resources to gang problems in a more effective manner by attempting to meet the specific needs of youths and their families.
History
Gang behaviour may be more universal and ancient than is commonly thought. Semiformalized groups of young adults have existed throughout recorded history, and gangs in some ancient societies engaged in very much the same kind of activities as those associated with gangs today. The speeches of the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, for example, contain references to armed bands of young men, led by Publius Clodius and Titus Annius Milo, who engaged in fights and disrupted Roman politics for years. Violent street gangs—which generated the same kind of concern as their modern-day successors—also can be identified in the 17th and 18th centuries; the Mohocks of Georgian England were feared in their time much as the Crips and Bloods of Los Angeles were in the 1990s.
Gangs flourished in colonial America, and the story of the American Revolution cannot be understood without stressing the activism of Boston’s violent street gangs, which were allied with the patriot leadership. This pattern of alliance between criminal and political structures would characterize the history of American gangs well into the 20th century. In the classic model of the political machine, street gangs served to intimidate opponents, mobilize the vote, and recruit future leaders for both politics and the criminal underworld. From the 19th century onward, gangs in the United States were most active in urban centres, such as Philadelphia, which had over 100 street gangs in 1870, and Chicago, which had in excess of 1,000 gangs in the 1920s. Often, gangs operated to defend and assert the interests of ethnic groups new to the local society or region; thus, the most visible and violent gangs in each period had their roots in the latest wave of immigration. For example, Irish gangs were prevalent in the United States in the mid-19th century, followed by Jewish gangs in the early 20th century, and Asian and Latino gangs in the late 20th and early 21st century.
Gangs largely faded from the American landscape during the Great Depression and World War II only to reemerge in the late 1950s. In the 1980s and ’90s, some U.S. law-enforcement officials contended that gangs posed a greater threat to public safety than ever before. Crime statistics in the 1990s suggested that gangs were responsible for a large percentage of homicide cases and for about two-fifths of illegal drug sales in urban areas. By the turn of the 21st century, researchers estimated that there were 750,000 active gang members in the United States participating in roughly 25,000 gangs. Gangs were documented in every state, in large and small cities, and in urban and rural counties, though the highest levels of gang-related crime occurred in urban centres, particularly Los Angeles and Chicago.
Significant gang activity also has taken place in Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, as well as in Russia and the countries of eastern and central Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Across the globe, youth gangs exist wherever there are cities, and they often operate in association with adult organized-crime syndicates. In the late 20th century, gangs appeared in Africa and Latin America. Gangs in Asia—particularly the Tongs, the Chinese Triads, and various secret societies—can be linked to similar groups in the United States. Although some works have compared American and European gangs (e.g., The Eurogang Paradox [2001]), comparatively little research has been done on gangs outside the United States.
Membership
The U.S. government estimated that at the turn of the 21st century nearly half of all gang members in the country were Hispanic, about one-third were African American, about one-eighth were white, and about one-twentieth were Asian. Research has consistently indicated that fewer than one-tenth of gang members are female, though some surveys suggested that females account for more than one-fourth of gang membership. Few gangs, however, are female dominated. About two-fifths of gang members are under the age of 17, and almost nine-tenths are under 25.
Gang involvement seems to be related to the gang member’s relationships to the social institutions that are most important to all youths—family, schools, peer groups, and the labour market. Thus, gang members are more likely than other youths to come from broken homes, to perform poorly in school, to have peers who are inclined to engage in criminal behaviour, and to be unemployed or underemployed. The criminal justice system is an important intervening institution for many gang members, but, because it may generate negative attitudes toward the police and legitimate society, its effect is not always positive. Research also has shown that an individual’s criminal activity increases when he joins a gang and decreases to pregang levels when he withdraws from gang activity.
Significant effort and resources have been directed toward decreasing gang membership and activity. Studies have suggested that comprehensive community-based programs are most effective. Successful programs generally have integrated strategies of community mobilization, youth opportunities, social intervention, suppression, and organizational change. Gang outreach programs that involve street workers in conjunction with social opportunities such as jobs and education have proved fairly successful in some American cities. Suppression has generally involved arrest and prosecution and has been shown to have limited utility. Organizational-change and community-mobilization strategies attempt to bring resources to gang problems in a more effective manner by attempting to meet the specific needs of youths and their families.