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Example research essay topic: Organized Crime In America - 1,678 words

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Organized Crime in America The events of September 11 resulted in drastic changes in a lot of law enforcement agencies, primarily due to the fact that the main emphasis switched from the war on organized crime to war on terrorism. With FBI now reassigning its resources to fight terrorism in a fast and efficient way, there is a possibility that the organized crime members would engage in more criminal activities than ever, simply due to the fact that the FBI would not be able in the current situation to devote their energy and resources to fight the US criminal world. In order to elaborate on the changes brought about by that resource reassignment, we should first discuss the organized crime itself. Organized crime is one of the oldest and longest running businesses in the world. (Orkin, p. 63) The Mafia has a lot more history than most people think. When people hear the word Mafia they think of clam bars and Tommy guns, when in fact the Mafia had nothing to do with crime and gangsters when it was first formed. The Mafia has been around for a long time.

It started in Sicily and was carried over to America. Since its beginning organized crime has been doing nothing but growing to this day. New York City is the base of operations for organized crime. There are five major mob families in New York. (Tyler, p. 117) Salvatore D'Aquila was the first boss of the Gambino Family. He was murdered on October 1928 in Brooklyn New York. Eventually Albert Anastasia took control of the Gambino family.

Albert Anastasia formed a group called Murder Inc. Murder Inc. killed at least 400 people. Everyone in the Gambino family started to question Anastasia's sanity. Anastasia was murdered by the Go brothers, they were sent by the family. Carlo Gambino then took over the family, after Anastasia was killed.

Carlo Gambino was the best boss of the family. He had never served a day of jail time throughout all the years he was boss. Gambino gave his title to his cousin / brother -in-law Paul Castellano. Castellano was assassinated by John Gotti who then took over the Gambino family. John Gotti's son is now believed to be running the Gambino's while his father is in jail.

The induction ceremony is a rather interesting aspect of the organized crime in America. The induction ceremony is preformed with top ranking family members there. The person that is being "made" goes through a few initiations. The initiates finger is cut and his blood is dropped on a card that has the family's patron saint on it. The card is then burned to the persons hand. (Savage, p. 38) The FBI has tapes from a few induction oaths.

No one really knows where the name "Mafia" came from. Mafia was formed to stop Arab invaders and later fought French invaders in Sicily. Ma-Fia is a myth about a young girl being raped by French occupiers, her mother ran to her screaming "Ma-Fia, Ma-Fia!" . Square della Mafia was a group of peasants that supported Giuseppe Garibaldi. (Tyler, p. 26) Organized crime is a widespread topic of concern among many Americans due to its popularity in the media and entertainment industry.

The public is aware of its existence, yet is not fully aware of why and how this complex underworld exists. In order to fully understand this area of criminology, one must take into account the characteristics of organized crime, the variables that allow organized crime to thrive, its large-scale effects on society, and the measures that have been taken to extinguish organized crime. The face of organized crime has changed within the past few decades, however, and is currently in a period of transition. (Savage, p. 57) Whereas the Italian-Americans were once the rulers of the underworld, African-American and Hispanic involvement has been on the increase. This cultural shift is significant because it alters the infrastructure of organized crime within the United States. Overall, there are two widely used analogies when analyzing organized crime: the quasi-government analogy and the firm analogy. The quasi-government analogy stems from the fact that the core business of criminal organizations is to make the rules in given territories (be they geographical or functional) so that they can extort money (taxes) and impose their own regulations on legal and / or illegal businesses.

The firm analogy is founded on the assumption that criminal organizations are involved in different markets and face competition (from other criminal groups) within those markets. (Orkin, p. 112) One way to minimize such competition (and maintain a monopoly position) is to invest in weapons and hit men who will physically deter potential entrants to the market. Organized criminals will typically form relationships with legitimate businesses in order to have a safe front for their illegal activities. It is believed that organized crime actually has more similarities to legitimate economic activities that most would like to admit. Like legitimate businesses, criminal groups develop codes to oversee their relationship with the non-criminal world. Because of these factors, many have raised questions as to whether organized criminals recognize themselves as criminals, or whether they are merely attempting to achieve the American dream of prosperity by providing a genuine service. Another factor that allows organized crime to exist and thrive is the link between criminal groups and politicians. (Tyler, p. 72) Politicians can ultimately benefit from ties with organized crime by paralyzing the hand of the law in order to receive campaign contributions, organization work, votes at election time and the ability to participate in the profits of the company.

Organized criminals have also been known to intimidate and influence police officials. It is interesting to consider the fact that the reassignment of the FBI resources in order to fight terrorism, which leaves organized crime almost free to act the way it wants to, might have been possible not only because of the events of September 11, but also because of the powerful lobbying performed by the organized crime members. Although in the recent years the government and FBI were able to fight the organized crime rather efficiently, the changes that occurred after the September 11 events might drastically change the situation. The criminal world, knowing that now Fbi's attention is concentrated on terrorism mainly, would certainly enjoy the opportunity to expand its activities and to initiate various criminal schemes that would bring additional profits to them.

Since FBI would have to confront two major enemies at the same time terrorism and organized crime, it certainly would not be able to perform at its best, simply due to the lack of resources and staff necessary to fight both those enemies at the same time. It is not that hard to predict the reaction of the organized crime on the changes made within the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. It is a known fact that organized crime members have their informers in most of the governmental structures. (Tyler, p. 99) Therefore they would be able to anticipate and predict the pattern of resource reassignment in certain areas, as well as the changes in the FBI activities. Being informed means a lot nowadays, and certainly the organized crime members will put forth their best efforts in order to use all the opportunities possible while the governmental agencies fighting it are preoccupied with war on terrorism. The first predictable reaction of the organized crime would be to initiate new gangs and criminal structures as well as to expand their criminal activities in all of the major areas where they rule, such as gambling, prostitution, drugs, etc. Previously, the FBI would have been able to spend that expansion by using their resources, however in the current situation it would be impossible.

The more freedom organized crime perceives because of the Fbi's resource reallocation, the more the chances are that it will penetrate the new spheres of everyday life, such as Internet and Internet related technologies. The economic impact of this shift of governmental resources would be tremendous. Not only additional amounts of money would have to be spent on war with terrorism, but also the shade economy would certainly make more money than ever because of lack of attention from the FBI, which would mean decrease of money flow from the legal economy to government funds. The effect on state and local law enforcement agencies would also be significant, since they would definitely have to restructure in order to be able to fight terrorism efficiently. Undoubtedly, those changes in resource allocation would enable the organized crime to grow stronger than ever, with criminals in various areas expanding their activities to ensure more profits. With Fbi's attention devoted mostly to war on terrorism, organized crime would enjoy the freedom they have never enjoyed in the last couple of decades, and that would certainly upset most of the ordinary citizens.

It is hard to tell after the September 11 events what is more important to fight terrorism or organized crime, however the decision has been made already by the government, and now the general public will have to bare the consequences of that decision. The worst thing about that issue is that there is not that many things that can be done to prevent organized crime from further growth and expansion. A good idea would be to increase the Fbi's staff and funding, however those additional funds are not that easy to obtain, and new personnel would have to be trained, which would also consume a lot of time and resources. It is up to the US government to design the course of actions to prevent the growth of the organized crime, however in the given situation it might be useful to give more authority to the states, in order to make them develop their own course of actions.

Bibliography: Orkin, M. Can You Win? New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1999. Savage, Jeff.

A Sure Thing? Washington D. C. : Lerner Publications Company, 1997. Tyler, G, Organized Crime in America, New York: Vail Ballou, 1996.


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