CHAPTER 16 (test #3) Flashcards
What are the 4 core categories of organized crime?
- Structural/Organizational
- Institutional
- Commercial
- Behavioural
How can we define organized crime?
Criminal Intelligence Service Canada- defines organized crime as a crime committed by any group of at least three people that involves the commission of a serious offence in pursuit of profit
- the legal definition of a criminal organization remains broad and offers little help in understanding the complexity of organized crime
Organized crime can be distinguished by how crimes are carried out –> ultimate goal is financial profit
- criminal activity is “organized” if it is perpetrated by a group of ppl who conspire together on a continuing and secretive basis toward a financial or other material benefit
- scale is also a factor in determining the extent to which criminal activity is organized –> the broader the scope of the criminal activities, the greater the need for organization
What are some attributes that the Criminal code of Canada uses to define organized crime
- involves 3 or more persons inside or outside canada
- has as a main activity, one or more serious criminal offences
- this activity results in a material benefit
- excludes a group that forms randomly to commit a single offence
Explain the characteristics of Structural/Organizational organized crime
Core trait is the involvement of multiple individuals who conspire to commit serious, revenue-generating criminal offences
- two or more ppl involved (the larger the number, the more likely it is organize)
- a systematic pattern to the relationships of the offenders –> may be based on kinship, friendship, shared ethnicity, etc.
- limited or exclusive membership –> ethnicity and nationality have been major binding ties for members –> a significant change has happened recently with criminal networks that have abandoned all traditional restrictions on membership like ethnicity
- assigned tasks/specialization/division of labour
- multi-jurisdictional (presence in more than one province) /transnational (different countries)
Explain the characteristics of Institutional organized crime
Continuity/Continuing Enterprise
- OC groups are designed to last longer than current membership and leadership
Career Criminals
- OC offenders are usually chronic offenders
- In some crime groups, a criminal record is a prerequisite for “official” membership
Protection against Enforcement and Prosecution
- the hierarchical organization or code of secrecy provides buffers for higher levels and helps protect the group
Sophistication
- OC undertakes diverse and complex illegal activities and uses sophisticated technology
- has the ability to commit complex frauds, counterfeiting, money laundering, cybercrime, etc.
Recruitment:
- Inducting new members and socializing them is institutionalized –> Modern groups require specialized skills or resources
What is cybercrime
illegal acts in which a computer and a network are central to committing a crime and are also the targets of the crime
What is meant by Multiple Enterprises
A common characteristic of many organized crime syndicates is that they carry out more than one profit-oriented activity (both legal and criminal)
- cigarettes and liquor are legal products but they are also distributed through black markets
- legal businesses help generate revenue, legitimize the offender, and launder money
Explain the characteristics of Commercial organized crime
Profit-oriented crime
- the business of organized crime revolves around making money
- drug trafficking is the biggest moneymaker for most OC groups
Consensual and predatory crimes
- consensual (victimless) crimes like providing goods through the black market
- predatory crimes include extortion and human trafficking
Serious criminal Offences
Multiple Enterprises (legal and criminal)
Goods and Services
- illegal goods like drugs, weapons, stolen goods, human and animal organs, etc.
- illegal consensual services like gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, migrant smuggling, etc.
Monopolistic tendencies
- groups often seek monopoly over the sale of a good or service through violence and corruption
Tactics to support commercial activities: corruption of public officials, violence, money laundering
What is extortion
what is human trafficking
Extortion: an offender unlawfully obtains money, property, or services from an individual or entity through coercion and intimidation
Human trafficking: the illegal trade of people for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of forced labour
What is loansharking?
lending money at very high interest rates, often enforced through the use of physical force
What is money laundering?
Used to legitimate illegally earned revenue
Organized criminals must devise creative methods for converting large amounts of cash into less suspicious assets while concealing the criminal source of funds
Explain the characteristics of Behavioural organized crime
Rationality
- OC tries to maximize profits in response to supply and demand of illegal products and services just like legitimate businesses do
Subcultural Values/Contempt for Civil Society
- serious and chronic offenders adhere to values and norms at odds with the dominant culture
- they learn these values through their immersion in a deviant subculture
Non-Ideological Motivation
- OC groups are not motivated by political ideology, religious dogma, or a desire to change society - their goal is to accumulate financial and other material benefits (differentiates them from terrorist organizations)
Rules and Regulations
- rules are made to be followed and may be implicit or explicit
- key ones call for secrecy and loyalty
Discipline
- To ensure that rules and regulations are obeyed, most criminal groups have strict forms of discipline based on loyalty, a code of honour, and fear of reprisal (death)
Who is Vory v zakone?
a high-ranking, well-respected figure in the old Soviet underworld and the new Republic of Russia.
Emphasizes a rejection of government authority and traditional social norms
List some of the dominant organized crime groups in Canada
Italian
Chinese/Asian
Russian/Eastern European
Aboriginal
outlaw motorcycle gangs
What is the Italian-based mafia
‘Ndrangheta, Sicilian mafia, and Canadian arm of American La Cosa Nostra (LCN)
- has been in North American since the lat 19th century - secret societies began extorting fellow migrants
- has a formal network covering much of North American - still inks with Italy, particularly Sicily
- still powerful, but now has many other competitors so is less powerful than it once was (and has had strong law enforcement crackdowns)
What are the 6 categories of Chinese/Asian OC in Canada
- local street gangs comprised of both youth and adults
- Chinese triads - evolved from Toronto gangs to transnational sophisticated criminals
- non-triad Chinese criminal networks - specialize in one criminal activity
- a loose network of criminals from mainland China (most dominant)
- Vietnamese crime groups - specialize in marijuana production
- Indo-Canadian crime groups in BC
*Today, Chinese criminal networks constitute the most widespread, diverse, and sophisticated organized crime threats in Canada today
Describe the outlaw motorcycle gangs in canada (OMGs)
OMGs emerged in the US after the second world war
- Originally formed for camaraderie and excitement, they gradually moved into for-profit criminal activities
- main revenues from drug trafficking
Hell’s Angels - dominant OMG in Canada (1976):
- have a chapter or puppet club in almost every province
- more members per capita than anywhere else
- convenient for the police bc they wear their name in public and hangout in clubhouses - but they still thrive
Describe Russian/Eastern European OC groups in Canada
OC exploded in Eastern Europe with the fall of communism
In Toronto in the 1970s and 1980s, Eastern European criminals were involved in extortion, gambling, loansharking, and drug trafficking
Financial fraud, particularly debit card fraud schemes, are major activities for these groups
Other activities include human trafficking by Hungarian groups and distraction theft by Romanian groups in Canada
Explain the 2 categories of Indigenous OC groups in Canada
Central Canada:
- mostly involved in smuggling and contraband cigarette production
- Akwesasne reserve straddles five jurisdictions, creating the ideal conditions for smuggling
Prairie provinces:
- gangs engaged in low-level, disorganized street crime: street dealing of drugs, prostitution, and theft
- they often work for OMGs
How has modern OC changed?
ethnicity is no longer the most important criteria for who participates
*today, OC is represented by wide array of groups
- modern OC is characterized by fluid networks of many autonomous criminal entrepreneurs
What are etiological theories?
Several theories that have attempted to explain the existence of organized crime in North America –> some are exclusive to organized crime, while some are general criminological theories
- alien conspiracy theory
- ethnic succession theory
- economic theories
- the state, public, policy, and organized crime
What is the Alien Conspiracy theory of OC
What are the critiques of it?
Says that OC is the result of the importation of secret criminal societies rooted in foreign cultures
(Originally developed to explain the emergence of Italian organized crime groups in the United States, but now applies to numerous other groups)
- not developed by scholars but promoted by a US Senate committee about an OC group from Sicily (LCN)
Critiques:
- seen as xenophobic and racist
- pillars of the theory have been refuted –> LCN is a largely North American creation and little evidence of a nationwide conspiracy with centralized control
- the theory didn’t resonate with Canadians –> Canadians have denied for a long time that Mafia existed in Canada
What is the Ethnic Succession Theory of OC
What are the critiques of this theory?
- theorists noted the overrepresentation of ethnic groups in OC in North America
- Strain theory forms the basis of ethnic succession theory and posits that many immigrant ethnic groups are disproportionately involved in organized crime in the United States because of the barriers they encounter in pursuit of the American dream
- as time passes, the ethnic group gains access to legitimate opportunities and moves into mainstream society
Critiques:
- many ppl of Italian or Chinese heritage remained active in OC long after their groups were assimilated into mainstream society
- the theory does not explain the involvement of middle-class individuals in organized crime (or for Anglo-Saxon involvement in Hells Angels)
What is the Economic theory of OC
What are the critiques of it?
Economic theories view OC as economically rational behaviour based on laws of supply and demand
- OC serves a commercial function for the society, creating a symbiotic relationship between criminal organizations and segments of society
Critiques:
- oversimplifies how OC operates
- only focuses on consensual crime, and ignores predatory crime
Explain the State, Public Poly, and Organized Crime Theory
- Generally, the state/government criminalizes or restricts products and services that it views as immoral and as personally and/or socially harmful
- When a government outlaws a product or service wanted by the public, it will drive supply to the underground market. This creates an opportunity for criminal entrepreneurs to monopolize the product or service
- The proliferation of organized crime has also been attributed to weak state governments in particular regions and locales
What are the 4 predominant relationship structures in the theories of the structure of organized criminal conspiricies
- the bureaucratic/hierarchical model
- the kinship model
- the patron-client model
- the network model
What is the Bureaucratic/Hierarchical model?
Critiques of it?
Views OC structures as a bureaucracy:
- highly structured, hierarchical, and tightly controlled
- rational arrangement of roles and positions
- division of labour
Critiques:
- attempts to explain OC in terms familiar to the public; it helped support government theory that the Mafia was a national conspiracy, however, many aspects of a bureaucracy do not apply to Mafia families
What is the kinship model?
Says that the Mafia runs like a family, not a corporation:
- activities are based on personalities, not positions
- individuals have no clearly delineated duties
- some members are indispensable
- family standing and tradition affect who attain leadership roles
This model is based on Ianni & Reuss-Ianni’s study of an Italian American mafia family –> argues the family was organized around kinship relations patterned by culture and blood, marriage, and shared ethnicity
What is the patron-client model?
- OC involves a loose system of power and business relationships
- a middleman is required to provide contacts and influence
- this person becomes a patron who dominates a network of people in a given area
- the patron or capo ensures the welfare and security of his people and associates and receives a monetary tribute from his clients
What is the Network Model?
- OC is a loose-knit, fluid network of independent criminals, none of whom has any long-term authority over others
- consists of symmetrical business partnerships based on complementary areas of specialization
- OC is a combination of the bureaucratic/hierarchical model and the patron-client model
- this model is very applicable to international drug production, smuggling, wholesaling, and retailing
- decentralized organizational structure rendered the group less vulnerable to law enforcement
Why has Canada served as such a major branch plant for transnational crime groups and as a transit point for the international movement of illegal drugs?
Drug traffickers take advantage of Canada’s proximity to the United States, less stringent criminal penalties as compared to the United States, and the constant flow of good across the U.S.-Canada border
Geopolitics factors - enormous land mass and airspace; three ocean coastlines that are impossible to adequately monitor and protect; the longest, unguarded border in the world; and a relatively small tax base for funding law enforcement
Other explanations for the presence of organized crime in Canada include the ethnic succession theory and the symbiotic relationship between crime groups and the Canadian public
Globalization is also generating opportunities for criminal groups in Canada
What are some general characteristics of organized crime (from class slides)
- illegal activities are conspiratorial
- they commit or threaten acts of violence
- conduct activities in a methodical, systematic, secret fashion
- intricate organizational structure insulates their leadership
- attempt to gain influence through corruption and graft
- economic gain is primary goal –> is a huge business which has been estimated to take up 15% of global economy
What is the crime tariff?
There is demand by the ‘law-abiding’ citizen for illegal goods and services –> because they are illegal and demand is strong, a very high price can be charged
What are some reasons for ethnic involvement in OC?
- many OC groups are ethnically based
- some ethnic groups are denied access to legitimate ways of earning a living, so they may turn to illegitimate means
- ethnic groups use their family and local ties in several different countries to expand their business
- many of the groups are imported from the home country
- interpersonal ties make it difficult for outsiders to infiltrate the organization
- racial and language differences also make infiltration difficult
Explain how OC developed to be so big in Russia
Change from socialism to capitalism led to severe social disorganization (Durkheim)
Existing social institutions were weakened or destroyed and a new social order began developing
Police and other parts of the justice system were particularly weakened
Criminal gans were quick to fill the vacuum left by the fall of the old order - now have tremendous power and have extensive involvement in legitimate business
The Russian Mafia have great political power
What are 3 ways of controlling organized crime?
- Legalization of illicit goods and services (legalizing alcohol and gambling reduced involvement of OC)
- Police investigation (difficult because of secrecy of OC)
- International Cooperation
