Module 11: Organized Crime Flashcards
Transnational Organized Crime
Criminal groups that have a presence in different countries, or criminal activities that are coordinated and conducted across national borders.
Puppet Club
A motorcycle club that is subsidiary to a more dominant outlaw motorcycle gang and that is often expected to carry out the dirty work of the latter.
Loan Sharking
Lending money at very high-interest rates, often enforced through the use of physical force.
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 purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of forced labour.
Vory v zakone
“Thief in law”
high-ranking, well-respected organized crime figure in the old Soviet underworld and the new Republic of Russia. Rejection in government authority and traditional social norms.
La Cosa Nostra
Italian American organized crime.
“This thing of ours.”
Organized Crime
Broadly defined by how crimes are carried out and by the ultimate goal of the criminal activity.
Perpetuated by a group of people who conspire together on a continuing and secretive basis with the goal of obtaining a financial or other material benefits.
Dominant Organized Crime in Canada
Italian, Chinese/Asian, outlaw motorcycle gangs, Russian/Eastern European, and Indigenous.
Alien Conspiracy Theory
Organized crime in North America is the result of the importation of secret criminal societies rooted in foreign cultures.
Ethic Succession Theory
Conditions indigenous to North America have contributed to the growth of organized criminality on this continent.
Economic Theories
Criminal organizations and black markets step in to provide goods and services that the state has made illegal. Fulfill commercial functions.
Theories involving the State, Public Policy, and Organized Crime
Similar to economic, but focus on the State.
Making products illegal and high taxation.
Weak State presence.
