Organized Crime

Question 1

How does the bureaucratic/hierarchical model view organized crime

Answer 1

• An important reason why Organized Crime exists is that governments have criminalized certain bad behaviour

Question 2

How does ethnic succession explain organized crime

Answer 2

-lack of legitimate opportunities for ethnic minority groups pushes them towards criminal innovations to achieve the American Dream.
- as time passes they gain legitimate opportunities, leaving for other ethnic groups to take their place.

Question 3

What is Ethnic succession theory

Answer 3

Overrepresentation of ethnic groups in organized crime in North America

Question 4

How does economic theory see organized crime

Answer 4

• see organized crime as economically rational behaviour based on laws of supply and demand

Question 5

How does the state/social policy approach view organized crime

Answer 5

• Due to the government creating demand for illegal goods and services by high tariffs or taxes
• it creates underground market, which is eventually dominated by organized crime.

Question 6

What does research show about the role of ethnicity in organized crime participation today

Answer 6

Ethnicity is no longer the most important criterion
- Today organized crime is represented by wide array of groups

Question 7

Are all hangs involved in organized crime

Answer 7

no it matters in their ultimate goal - financial profit

Question 8

What has scholarship revealed about alien conspiracy theory and its ideas about La Cosa Nostra

Answer 8

it was labelled by the FBI as subverting the values of American society

Alien Conspiracy Theory: is the result of the importation of secret criminal societies rooted in foreign cultures

Question 9

what are the critiques against ethnic succession theory

Answer 9

• many people remained active in organized crime long after these groups were assimilated into mainstream society
• also doesn’t account for “Anglo-Saxon” dominance in organized crime