The history of organized crime in the United States

¶ … Organized Crime Groups Operating in the United States

4A brief history of organized crime in the United States

Impact of organized crime in the society

In this paper we research and offer a holistic personal perspective on organized crime, issues surrounding it and its effect on society as a whole. Our main focus is however the history of organized crime in the United States

Organized crime is noted by Finklea (2010, p.1) to be a threat to multiple facets of the United States. The most threatened areas being national as well as economy. These threats are the ones that made the Organized Crime Council to be reconvened for the very first in over 15 years in order to address the ever increasing level of threats. In this paper we research and offer a holistic personal perspective on organized crime, issues surrounding it and its effect on society as a whole. Our main focus is however the history of organized crime in the United States.

Definition of organized definition of the term organized crime.

At the moment, there is not generally accepted statutory definition of organized crime. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 however defined the term as the unlawful activities of various members of a rather highly organized and yet disciplined associates who are engaged in the supply of illegal products and services that include and not limited to prostitution, gambling, loan sharking, labor, narcotics as well as engagement of in various unlawful activities by the members of these organizations (Finklea,2010).It is worth noting that this definition describes the concept of organized crime in terms of the constituents of a criminal organization. This definition was however repealed in the 1979 Justice System Improvement Act thereby leaving the U.S. with no statutory definition of the term 'organized crime'.

The Organized Crime Groups Operating in the United States

A review of literature indicates that there are various organized crime groups operating within the borders of the United States. In popular culture however, organized crime is often associated with the dreaded Italian mafia. Most forms of organized crime in the U.S. falls under the category of criminal organizations. According to the FBI, organized crime groups falls into three main categories;

1. La Cosa Nostra

2. Italian organized crime as well as racketeering

3. Middle Eastern/Eurasian organized crime

4. Asian and

5. African organized crime (Finklea,2010; Bjelopera & Finklea,2012;Kranacher, Riley & Wells,2010).

The top organized criminal gangs in the U.S. are shown below;

Figure 1: Organized crime gangs in the United States (Finklea, 2010).

A brief history of organized crime in the United States

The history of organized crime in the U.S. can be traced to Italian mafia which has its roots in the 1800 Italy. In the 1800's the Italian mafia was born as a group of highly trained resistance fighters. The power of this group grew and evolved over time into the concept of organized crime that we see today. The Italian mafia as it still works in Italy is extremely powerful (Summerfield,2005). As late as in the 1990's they were very active in the killing of law enforcement officers with terroristic bombing techniques. The Italian mafia is noted to have found its way into the United States in the early 1900's when the banned IOC figures came to the country illegally (Porter & Lyman, 2006). Most of these were members of the Sicilian Mafiosi. It is most of these who in the 1920s aided in the establishment of the La Cosa Nostra (American Mafia). The other organized crime groups that are recognized by the FBI thereafter came into being.

The traditional organized criminal groups in the U.S. preyed on the ignorance as well as vulnerability of the people in the U.S. The immigrants are noted to have been the common victims of these organized criminal organizations. Their vulnerability was attributed to the fact that they neither spoke English nor comprehended the American law. These immigrants were fleeing from their native countries where they were mainly terrorized by their own governments while living in fear of the government officials like the police. They were therefore very unlikely to seek any help from the U.S. law enforcement officers. Summerfield (2005) for instance provided an example of Chicago where traditional organized crime operated.