Organized Crime Flashcards
4 categories of Organized Crime
Structural/organizational, Institutional, Commercial and Behavioural.
3 Categories of Italian-Based mafia
The Sicillian Mafia, The ‘ndrangheta, and the Canadian arm of Italian-American crime families often referred to as La cosa Nostra
2 categories of the Theories of Organized Crime
Those that try to identify and analyze the causes of organized crime: Etiological theories, and those that attempt to understand the structure of criminal conspiracies: Structural theories.
Etiological theories
Alien Conspiracy Theory, Ethnic Succession Theory, Economic Theories
Structural Theories
The Bureaucratic/Hierarchical model, Kinship Model, Patron-Client model, Network Model
Characteristics of Organized Crime
- illegal activities are conspiratorial
- they commit or threaten acts of violence
- conduct activities in a methodical, systematic, secret fashion
- intricate organizational structures insulate their leadership
- attempt to gain influence through corruption and graft
- economic gain is primary goal: legitimate and illegitimate businesses
Vory v zakone
Thieve in the law, high ranking well respected organized crime figure in Old World Soviet underworld
Structural/Organizational Organized Crime
2+ involved
Conspire together to commit serious illegal acts
Systemic pattern to the relationship of offenders
Assigned tasks/specializations or division of labour
Insulation against law enforcement and prosecution
Specialized channels and modes of communicating
Multi-jurisdictional/transnational in scope
Institutional Organized Crime
Continuing enterprise
Sophistication- importation, manufacture, fraud etc…
Not motivated by politics, religion or desire to change society
Career criminals
Limited or exclusive membership
Recruitment
Secrecy
Commercial organized crime
Illegal activities for other material benefit
Consensual and predatory crimes
Legal commercial activities - disguise money laundering
Goods and services - drugs, contraband, counterfeit, gambling etc…
Tactics to support commercial activities
Multiple enterprises
Constant demand for goods and services
Behavioural organized crime
Rationality of offenders
Contempt for civil society
Rules, regulations and codes
Discipline based on loyalty and honour codes
Define: Criminal Organization
- composed of 3 or more persons in our outside Canada
- has one its main activities as the facilitation or commission of one or more serious offences that, if committed, would result in financial benefit
11 fundamental traits of a criminal organization according to EUROPOL
1: collaboration of 2 or more people
2: each with own appointed tasks
3: for a prolonged or indefinite period of time
4: using some form of discipline or control
5: suspected of the commission of a serious criminal offence
6: operating at an international level
7: using violence or other means of intimidation
8: using commercial or business like structures
9: engaged in money laundering
10: exerting influence on politics, media, public administration, judicial authorities or economy
11: determined by pursuit of profit and or power
Consensual crimes
Drug smuggling/trafficking, gambling, migrant smuggling, loansharking, prostitution, money laundering
Predatory/consensual crimes
Vehicle theft, environment crimes, counterfeiting and piracy, corruption of govt, illegal trade in wildlife & organs and tissue, illegal trafficking in arms, ammo and explosives, trafficking in nuclear & radioactive substances, illegal trade in stolen artifacts, jewellery and art, trafficking endangered plant species
Predatory crimes
Human trafficking, extortion, murder and grievous bodily injury, business and labour racketeering, kidnapping, consumer fraud, government fraud, theft, corporate fraud and stock market manipulation
Italian Mafia
3 categories: Sicilian, ‘ndrangheta, and Canadian arm of Italian-American crime families (la cosa nostra)
In North America since 19th century
Formal network covering my of North America
Hierarchical, pyramid structure
Strict code of conduct
“Wise guy”- anybody who follows commonly accepted rules and laws of civil society is a sucker
10 Mafiosi Commandments
- ) no one can present himself directly to another of our friends must be a 3rd person
- ) Never look at wives of friends
- ) never be seen with cops
- ) don’t go to pubs and clubs
- ) always be available for cosa nostra
- ) appointments must be respected
- ) wives must be treated with respect
- ) when asked for info, the answer must be the truth
- ) money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or other families
- ) people who can’t be apart of cosa nostra are anyone with a close relative in police, 2 timing relative, anyone who behaves badly
Characteristics of Biker gangs
Use of force and violence to survive and thrive
Hierarchical structure
Committing crimes is left to new recruits
Show off colours in public
Require American made bikes - Harley Davidson
Difficult to infiltrate
Categories of Triads
- ) localized street gangs of youths and adults
- ) Chinese triads
- ) non triad Chinese criminal networks
- ) loose network of criminals from China (big circle boys)
- ) Vietnamese crime groups
- ) Indo-Canadian crime groups
Ways to control organized crime
- legalization of illicit goods and services
- police investigation
- national criminal laws and procedures
- international cooperation
Alien conspiracy theory
Organized crime groups are the result of importation of secret criminal societies that are rooted in foreign culture.
- not created by scholars but by us senate in 1950
Ethnic succession theory
Root of causes of organized criminality in the broader social, political, cultural and economical environment of North America
- when a subsequent immigrant group fills the criminal void in their attempt to climb the ladder of success
Economic theories
Crime as a rational system that operates according to the laws of supply and demand
