Organized Crime Popular Culture Portrayals of Organized

Organized Crime

Popular culture portrayals of organized crime are sordidly romantic. Like medieval royalty, mob families appear tyrannical and noble at the same time. The kingpins are usually kind if ruthless. They love their families and protect them at any cost. Like kings, mob bosses reign over a specific territory and usually respect their competitors and their boundaries. Like medieval nobility, organized crime has hereditary lineage, and sons inherit a title from their fathers as in the Corleones of The Godfather. Stories of organized crime include titillating themes of betrayal, backstabbing, murder, and intrigue. Organized crime also depicts the triumph of the underdog: the would-be poor immigrant growing rich in spite of being hounded by the big bad cops. These themes are especially appealing to Americans, who have consistently been fascinated with underdog winners and anti-establishment ethos.

Movies like Goodfellas and television shows like The Sopranos are perfect examples of how organized crime is romanticized in pop culture. The bad guys don't seem so bad because they have families, friends, and a code of ethics. Even if their code of ethics is warped, audiences root for the gangsters because they earned our trust and sympathy. Based on pop culture definitions alone, I could define organized crime as a collective response to political, social, and economic injustice. Most television and film mob families are working class minority or immigrant groups. Their criminal activities help them achieve the American dream. They might break the law, but also help pour money back into their communities. In fact, organized crime syndicates take the law into their own hands when the establishment falls short. Cops in mafia movies are usually as corrupt as the gangsters.

Gangsters only kill out of self-preservation and hot-headedness is not tolerated as a rule. Joe Pesci's character in Goodfellas is one example of how the mafia cleans up after itself, preventing outright chaos. They often work closely with law enforcement to ensure maximum public safety. Economically motivated, organized crime bosses are no different from corporate managers. The only difference is that instead of selling widget they sell drugs.

Organized crime comes in many shapes and forms. The syndicates might be primarily concerned with economic power, but politics also motivate organized crime. In that sense they seem no different from any other lobbying group except for the fact that their business interests aren't as "legitimate" as mainstream ones.

However compelling the popular culture stories of organized crime may be, they seem silly when compared with reality. Portrayals of organized crime in fiction are decidedly exaggerated and often outright false. Organized crime in reality is not much different from terrorism. Using the threat of bodily harm and bodily harm to whole families, gangsters maintain control of their crime syndicates like terrorists do theirs. The ways that crime networks can infiltrate communities, corrupting cops and controlling the outcomes of elections amounts to nefarious social control. Because the gangsters involved in organized crime set their own rules, they have no reliable system of checks and balances. They create community anarchy and social instability. The FBI debunks the myth of organized crime, noting how syndicates can "manipulate and monopolize financial markets." Human trafficking and other despicable activities are ones guarded by organized crime syndicates but these situations are rarely portrayed on shows like The Sopranos.

My perception of organized crime combines the fantasy elements included in pop culture dramas with realism. I have been seduced by the myth of organized crime as just a "family business." Yet while mob dramas are certainly entertaining it is important to keep in mind how organized crime can undermine democracy and human rights. Moreover, organized crime is just that: crime. Mob syndicates eat away at taxpayer resources because law enforcement officials at state, local, national, and international levels must devote excessive resources to busting up organized crime. The syndicates usually extend across national boundaries; organized crime operates outside of the law and thus also outside of the political boundaries that define modern nation-states. A subversive subculture, organized crime is a multi-faceted sociological phenomenon. Organized crime proves powerfully seductive to disenfranchised youth, who see opportunities for upward social mobility. Thus, organized crime is in part a response to political, social, and economic inequality. Viewing organized crime as a response to social injustice or class conflict is one way of examining its root causes.