Organized crime: structure, operations, and societal impact

Organized Crime

The Role of the Police in Combating Organized Crime

Organized crime is systematically unlawful activity for profit on a citywide, interstate, and international scale. ("Organized Crime, U.S. History, 2005) Because organized crime often involves interstate criminal activity, it might be inaccurately assumed that the local police do not have a critical role in combating the spread of such criminal activities. The most useful legal tool in combating organized crime is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), passed by Congress in 1970, that prohibits interstate criminal activity and holds the organizer of the activity accountable, even if the so-called kingpin merely ordered and did not commit the crime. ("Organized Crime, U.S. History, 2005)

However, by vigilant community enforcing of such crimes as illicit drug dealing and use, prostitution, and illegal gambling that are often the result of organized criminal activity, every police officer in America serves a vital role in containing organized crime and making such crimes less profitable. Although the role of society in the commission of crime is frequently debated, a criminal organization depends in part on support from the society in which it exists, and by destabilizing such support and limiting vice crimes, local police officers fulfill a vital role.

Police officers must do all they can to destabilize such a relationship between criminal groups and communities. Criminal organizations usually arise in closely knit immigrant groups that do not trust the local police and other authorities, thus the lower the level of trust between police and law-abiding residents, the more apt illegal organizations may form and even attempt to assume the policing role in a community. The Italian-American Mafia is one such example. ("Organized Crime, U.S. History, 2005)