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... 3, 28, 29). These newer criminal organizations spell trouble for the United States. The United States is one of the more criminally diverse countries on earth. America seems to be the worlds cesspool of organized crime and corruption. The major players here are Russian, Sicilian, and Latin American. The Russian groups are currently running major businesses in California.
Fuel fraud is one of the most profitable, costing America around two billion dollars per year in taxes (Waller 12). Russian groups have not displayed the command of the American government that has been achieved in Russia, but the number of Russian mobsters in America is rising, and the potential for corruption at higher levels is always a threat, especially when cooperation blooms between another established crime group. That group is the La Cosa Nostra. The Sicilian mob has been apart of America since the 20 s, and although both power and numbers are dwindling, the Sicilian mob is firmly established in America (Kerry 29, 89 - 91). With families located in numerous major cities across the nation, their reach and authority goes from coast to coast (Harris 13). Team with this the seemingly unlimited number of Russian mobsters willing to expand to the U.
S. and the problem could become worse than the current situation in Russia. Along with the Russian and Sicilian groups, the Colombian cartels are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Mainly known for its drug trafficking, Colombian and other Latin American organizations are controlling some criminal operations in southern Florida (Harris 36 - 38). This expanding of horizons from drugs to actual criminal businesses is another major cause of concern for American law agencies. The stranglehold on the global community that organized crime groups are exhibiting is tightening daily causing political, judicial, and economic problems worldwide.
Changes in current law enforcement strategies are expected to curb and eventually dramatically decrease the number and activity of organized crime groups universally. New and improved technologies are important aspects of the law enforcement process. One of the most helpful technological advances recently was the National Criminal Information Center (NCIC) terminal. This information center is accessible by 17, 000 police departments in America, and one terminal located in Germany. The NCIC allows anyone with the system available to them to gain information on a number of criminal activities in the United States. The sharing of this information aides police departments nationwide, and now in Germany, in the investigation of organized crime groups.
It is hoped that the technology will soon be made available for the making of universal data bases that can be used with respect to forensics, linking laboratories internationally through telecommunications and new imagery advances (United 4, 5). Another step taken in slowing crime groups is in the security of both federal agencies, and private business electronically. A new cyber defense plan, which was scheduled to be partially available this year, calls for both groups to identify and confront their disadvantages. According to Jeffery Hunker, the director of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office of the National Security Council, The systems we are using are full of holes; we have to identify critical vulnerabilities and fix them. The second half of the plan is to have federal agencies and private businesses engage systems that would recognize attacks and invasions with firewalls, intrusion detection monitors, enterprise wide management systems and malicious-code scanners.
This system is expected to be in use by 2003 (Harrison 1, 2). With the advancement of technologies and the improving of current ones, the policing and investigation of organized crime is becoming easier and more globally united. The most important aspect in fighting organized crime is cooperation among foreign law agencies. The deployment of our federal agents to foreign nations is helping in every aspect of crime fighting. Training by American operatives on the correct investigation processes is being performed in many crime-ridden nations. A better trained police force is a more loyal, and in turn less corrupt, police force, turning the tables on criminal groups best weapon.
Also, with new technologies comes the problem of attaining the knowledge needed to use the technology. United States agents trained in the use of these new technologies make the learning process quicker and more accurate for our international allies. With the proper training equipment can be used to its extent, making it that much harder for crime to survive (United 4 - 6). The other major aspect of stopping organized crime is police forces working together in actual crime fighting.
Internationally, police and other law agencies are striving towards the joining of powers, picking up on the strategy that organized crime groups began using long ago, combining forces. The product would be somewhat of an international police force that would crack down on criminal organization and make it more challenging for organized crime to expand and corrupt. The cooperation of police forces is necessary for the technologies to serve their purpose of sharing information. According to Louis Freeh, the current director the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the most important international cases involving organized crime have been a success only because of the occupancy of FBI agents in foreign nations and their very special skills in forming working ties with their counterparts (United 6 12, 16). Without international cooperation we will soon be working against each other, further complicating the matter, and giving crime groups another edge. Working together is by far the most valuable weapon we have against organized crime.
To once again hold authority over what is and is not allowed in the world of law and orde, police forces must be properly trained and combined, to form a smoothly running defense against the currently overpowering organized crime offensive (United 6). The uncontrolled growth and power of organized groups has forced the introduction of new strategies and techniques in the fighting of organized crime. They grow strong with their intricate chain of command and the running of innumerable businesses that generate huge profits (Harris 14 - 16, 72 - 75). These profits allow mobsters to broaden their reach and levels of business, as was the case with Colombian drug cartels. Nearly all of these illegal businesses involve violence of some sort, threatening the lives of the average citizen. Their constant stream of money allows for the bribery of governments as a whole, along with individual policemen and police forces, giving crime groups power and leniency where they specifically need it (Kerry 23, 28, 29).
Crime fighting techniques have been improved to slow the problem. The new techniques, joined with new technologies, will make the investigating and policing of organized crime less of a challenge, but will not end the problem. In order to stop or significantly slow the global crime wave, cooperation is needed among all major law agencies worldwide. With cooperation comes the sharing of information and better trained personnel on a global scale (United 4 - 6, 12, 16). However without these new crime fighting techniques, or if organized crime finds a way to sidestep these techniques as they have done in the past, organized crime will become an immediate threat to the global community within the next few decades, threatening the lives of everyone on earth. Bibliography: Works Cited 1000 Cases of Corruption in Russia.
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Beare, Margaret E. Organized Crime and Corruption. Nathonson Center for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption. Online.
Compuserve. 18 Sept 2000. Ferris, Kirby. How To Defeat Organized Crime. April 1997. The Coastal Post nd: n. pag.
Online. Compuserve. 18 Sept. 2000. Finckenauer, James O. and Elin J. Waring. Russian Mafia in America: Immigration, Culture, and Crime.
Northeastern UP, 1998. Harris, Jonathan. Super Mafia. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984. Kelly, Robert J.
Organized Crime. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield, 1986. Kerry, John. The New War: the Web of Crime That Threatens Americas Security. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. New Jersey Says Organized Crime has Ties to Health Care.
CNN interactive 21 Aug. 1996. : CNN Online. Online. Cable News Network. 11 Sept. 2000. Robertson, Frank. Triangle of Death: The Inside Story of the Triads the Chinese Mafia.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1977. United States. Committee On International Relations. The Threat From International Organized Crime and Global Terrorism. 105 th Cong. , 1 st sess. H Rept. Washington: 1 Oct. 1997.
Waller, Michael J and Yasmann, Victor J. Russias Great Criminal Revolution: The Role of the Security Services. American Foreign Policy Council. : Online. Compuserve. 18 Sept 2000.
Free research essays on topics related to: organized crime, police forces, crime fighting, police departments, simon schuster
Research essay sample on Organized Crime Simon Schuster
