Controlling Organized Crime

Controlling Organized Crime

CJA/384

Write a 1,050- to 1,750-word paper, using definitions, principles, and theories from previous assignments, in which you establish a thesis regarding the control of organized crime.

Introduction:

Identify the problems presented and the various relationships established by organized crime

Describe the legal limitations associated with combating organized crime, including critique of major federal laws and strategies that support this effort.

Suggest a realistic solution to control organized crime by discussing and evaluating the effectiveness of organized crime prosecutions.

Conclusion:

Controlling Organized Crime

Controlling organized crime will always be a major task for government and law enforcement agencies within the United States. This is the case because policy makers and the law enforcement communities cling to a faulty model of organized crime in the United States: an alien conspiracy theory. It depicts organized crime as an underworld corporate enterprise comprised of ethnically or culturally distinct alien groups that corrupt fundamentally sound political and economic institutions (Mastrofski, 2010).

Problems presented and the various relationships

Organized crime presents a number of problems. Many organized crime families do operate within the family structure and this to an extent creates a less than desirable environment to raise children, organized criminals tend to gear their children into a negative lifestyle. Today’s organized crime families are different than those that came about in the past. In the past, criminologists would examine La Cosa Nostra or the Italian Mafia, but criminal activity goes well beyond such crime families. Asian and Russian organizations enter the picture in the United States today. Asian gangs have become quite apparent in modern America. They seem to traffic in illegal goods and practices such as heroin, prostitution, and gambling (Bolz, 1995). They also engage in money laundering schemes (Bolz, 1995). This latter focus is at the heart of many crime organizations because they have to cover their tracks and make it appear as if everything they are doing is legal. Therefore, money laundering appears to be universal. Money laundering is also considered to be the key to the Russian Mafia’s operations (Paddock, 1998).

It is easy to see why problems are created in respect to the various relationships established by organized crime. Organized crime rings are focused on illegal activity which can result in prison time, thus changing the lives of the criminals as well as their families. Additionally, although some of the activities involved supposedly victimless crimes such as prostitution and money laundering, there are many murders that take place in the background. There have been crime families pitted against one another that end in violence and results in fatal injuries.

Legal limitations associated with combating organized crime

When combating organized crime, there are legal limits. There are many famous criminals that have not been arrested because it is difficult to catch them in the act of a crime. Federal law limits their efforts. While it had been difficult for police to catch these criminals, Congress passed the RICO laws, also known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, in 1970 (“Rico Act,” n.d.). The goal of Congress was to eliminate the negative effects of organized crime on the economy, and to eliminate the Mafia (“Rico Act,” n.d.). Throughout this period of time, it was La Cosa Nostra that was most established. RICO was generally used during Mafia cases (“Rico Act,” n.d.). Things worked well for a time, but during the 1980s, civil attorneys pointed to section 1964(c) of the RICO Act, which is something that allows civil claims to be brought by anyone injured due to a RICO violation (“Rico Act,” n.d.). Anyone prosecuted under RICO could receive a financial windfall because the government would pay more than was lost due to prosecution (“Rico Act,” n.d.). Today, RICO is hardly used to prosecute Mafia members (“Rico Act,” n.d.). This is an example of a federal code that failed to truly put criminals behind bars.

In general, the police and federal agents are limited by the laws that prosecute all citizens. Therefore, police are often irritated that they cannot gain access to an organized crime organization due to the normal limits of the law. That is, they cannot use wires to tap a phone line for example without authorization from a judge. While the police may for instance know that someone is involved in organized crime, they cannot secure a search warrant without some sort of proof of criminal activity. Sometimes, a search warrant is necessary in order to find the information needed to prosecute the offenders.

Realistic solution to control organized crime

Although there have been famous organized crime family offenders imprisoned, by and large, many criminals are not prosecuted. This is because in many cases evidence cannot be found due to legal protections and that the organized crime families are very careful. Not like common thieves, organized crime families are, as their name suggests, organized. They do not take rash action. Even murders are determined in advance. By being so careful, it is not surprising that many of the offenders are not arrested.

Part of the problem also is the fact that in many criminal cases, deals are made for information leading to an arrest. For instance, someone who is a junior member of a crime ring may confess in exchange for a lighter sentence. However, with organized crime comes loyalty and fear. For the most part, members of these organized crime rings will not give up another member and so the crime ring stays intact even if someone is arrested. Things had changed in the final days of the twentieth century. A well-known case is when Sammy the Bull Gravano turned on his boss John Gotti, which led to Gotti’s arrest. This was unique but helped a bit. Government agents can help to destroy the bonds between family members. By wearing criminals down, the government can seize evidence and get the arrests they want.

Another problem with charging criminals in organized crime is that victims and witnesses are fearful of testifying in court. Because the crime families will murder in order to keep the organization intact, people claim that they do not know anything. Members of the organization will not cooperate with police. Offering improved witness protection programs can help circumvent the situation. Broader laws to allow for surveillance when organized crime is suspected, something in line with the current terrorism laws, can help to prosecute these criminals as well.

Reference

Bolz, J. (1995, September 1). Chinese organized crime and illegal alien trafficking: Humans as a

Commodity. Asian Affaires: An American Review, 22, 147.

Paddock, R. C. (1998, September 23). A New Breed of Gangster Is Globalizing Russian Crime;

Corruption: Authorities say these wise guys work both sides of the law and rival the

Mafia and drug cartels. Los Angeles Times, A1.

Rico Act. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ricoact.com/

Stephen D. Mastrofski: The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social

Science, May 2004;vol.593, 1:pp.100-118

Legal Limitations

While law enforcement agencies and the government has the tools to combat organized crime and has used to tools to be moderately successful in combating organized crime through high profile arrest and seizures, organized crime continues to flourish in society. There are numerous reasons why organized crime continues to grow even with law enforcement’s best efforts to stop it. There continues to be no end in sight in the ongoing drug war, society’s growing demand for illicit drugs, and improvements in criminal organizations level of technology are among possible reasons. However; the growth of organized crime can also be attributed to the legal limitations law enforcement faces.

Perhaps the key reason law enforcement cannot combat organized crime is because of the restrictions place on them according the federal constitution and state constitutions which creates different laws, rules and regulations. In addition; each level of government has its own jurisdiction which has different procedures. These laws, rules, regulations, and procedures create conflicts among law enforcement agencies to investigate, apprehend, and prosecute criminal organizations and their members. In essence; one law enforcement agency cannot start and investigation in the jurisdiction of another without the cooperation of the latter. Unfortunately; these conflicts also create numerous loopholes in the system that criminal organizations become aware of and take full advantage of in terms of operating in areas where it becomes hard for any law enforcement agency to investigate and disrupt their activities.

If law enforcement is unable to investigate and disrupt organized crime because of the differences in laws, rules, regulations, and procedures then perhaps those restrictions should be changed. The way that can be changed is to effectively reduce them or eliminate them all together. One possible solution is to rewrite federal and state laws so they are more universal when it comes to investigation, apprehension and prosecution of organized crime and its members. Another solution is to eliminate jurisdictional boundaries so that no one law enforcement agency dictates how another agency can conduct investigations or arrest of organized crime members. Changing or doing away with the restrictions would allow for cooperation between agencies, close the loopholes criminal organizations take advantage of and allow increased reduction of organized criminal activity.

While reducing legal limitations on law enforcement agencies can help reduce organized criminal activity it can also create different issues which could result in dropped charges and dismissal of cases. If the restrictions are changed and wider latitudes were granted to law enforcement officers in their quest to curb organized crime there is a risk of those officers overstepping their boundaries. There is a risk of overzealous officers violating a suspect’s constitutional or civil rights which could in internal investigations against an officer, civil lawsuits against them and their agencies. Yet another consequence of reducing legal limitations is the possibility of innocent people being arrested and prosecuted by mistake and forced to accept plea bargains or jail time.

Solutions To Combat Organized Crime

The United States has created several laws over the years for the purpose of investigating, arresting and prosecuting organized crime members. The most recognized law is the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations or RICO (18 USC Chapter 96). The RICO Act is a federal law written as part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. In essence the law allows for anyone who knowingly and willfully became members of domestic or international criminal organizations or known associates of such organizations and engaged in organized criminal behavior to be investigated, arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to a minimum of five years and up to $20,000 in fines as well as forfeiture of any and all assets in their possession.

Even though this law is effective in fighting criminal organizations there is more that could be done. As previously mentioned, one solution is that federal and state laws could be written to eliminate legal limitations. If there are no jurisdictional boundaries, procedures and regulations interfering in the ability of various agencies working together they can become more efficient in joint investigations. It will also close the loopholes that criminal organizations have taken advantage of for several years.

Another solution is to develop or improve relationships with other nations who fight organized crime as well. Improved relations can allow for the sharing of intelligence on criminal organizations and how they operate from one nation to another. If nations work together, there can also be shared methods or tools used to investigate and prosecute members of criminal organizations. Finally if there is cooperation between countries then there will be less of an issue when someone belonging to a criminal organization is arrested in one country on charges from another country that person can be sent to other nation to be prosecuted and sentenced.

Conclusion

Organized Crime is far worse than what Hollywood portrays it to be despite how simple the actual crimes are. Criminal organizations are extremely powerful and sophisticated and they are extremely dangerous. They will use any method they can including extreme violence as they do not care about who or what they hurt as long as they can make their money or achieve their goals. Criminal organizations stress the very fabric of society and for over 50 years have challenge for law enforcement to eradicate. Sadly; as long as parts of society demand the products and services organized crime can provide they will continue to exist despite society’s best efforts to eliminate it.

References

Crime Causation: Sociological Theories-Social Disorganization Theory (n.d) Retrieved September 15, 2012 from http://law.jrank.org/pages/818/Crime-Causation-Sociological-Theories-Social-disorganization-theory.html

Crime Causation: Sociological Theories – Control Theory. (n.d). Retrieved September 15, 2012 from http://law.jrank.org/pages/816/Crime-Causation-Sociological-Theories-Control-theory.html

Crime Causation: Sociological Theories – Strain Theory. (n.d). Retrieved September 15, 2012 from http://law.jrank.org/pages/814/Crime-Causation-Sociological-Theories-Strain-theory.html

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d). Gangs; They poison our streets with drugs, violence, and all manner of crime. Retrieved September 14, 2012 from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2011). Organized Retail Theft; A $30 Billon A Year Industry. Retrieved September 14, 2012 from http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/january/retail_010311

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2002). Terrorism. Retrieved September 14, 2012 from http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005

National Institute of Justice. (2011). What is a Gang? Retrieved September 14, 2012 from http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/gangs-organized/gangs/definitions.htm

Organized crime. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved September 13, 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/organized+crime

RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act). (n.d) Retrieved September 16, 2012 from http://law.jrank.org/pages/1966/RICO-Racketeer-Influenced-Corrupt-Organizations-Act.html

Racketeering. (n.d.) West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. (2008). Retrieved September 13, 2012 from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Racketeering

If there was more stringent limitations on criminals the organized crime organizations could continue to avoid detection from the law enforcement. There must be new laws but in place to standardize the policies and procedures for the law enforcement to go from one jurisdiction to another and create less stringent limitations for the law enforcement to investigate. There got to be new legislation that allows special law enforncement to help with the detection and the apprehension of organized crime organizations that are involved in criminal activities. These special law enforcement agencies must be able to track organized crime organization nationally and internationally. For the United States to track internationally, the United States got to have a partnership with the other countries that are experiencing the some problems.

The danger of this sinister sub-culture cannot be abolish until the American society will no longer accept the presence of organized crime and cease to protection for the organized crime organizations. The society will have work within partnership with law enforcement to help to create solution to help to eliminate the organized crime organization within society. People of the society need to report thing that seem suspicious to law enforcement, so they can act on the reports.

Organized crime does not longer consist of gang member controlling the neighborhood and businesses within the neighborhood. Most modernize groups work in secret and they use means of legal and illegal functions. Most organized crime groups use the technology and loopholes within the laws to help effectively run their enterprises and they have the understanding that the law enforcement faces difficulties investigating their action and activities. There is a need to create new legislation to help to limit the activities of the organized crime groups and form better procedures for the law enforcement.

Organized crime generated an estimated $870 billion dollars of the global economy and this is equivalent to approximately 7% of the world’s exports in merchandise according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. This is quite a substantial amount of money that has been drained form our economy that’s already suffering from the recent recession. The problems caused by organized crime and the relationships established will be covered along with the legal limitations associated with combating these efforts. Major federal laws such as the RICO Act will be addressed along with the strategies that support those efforts will be explained along with a solution to controlling organized crime by addressing many key factors. Organized crime is a nuisance to society and efforts to reduce this type of crime must not be taken lightly in order to maintain control here in the United States of America.

Many issues are caused by organized crime such as higher crime rate, danger within the community, corruption of political officials, and can weaken the economy. These issues caused by organized crime and the association between organized crime and terrorism is becoming quite similar. After the attack on September 11th the efforts of cutting funds to the terrorist groups increased and many country’s that were financing these groups quit due to the destruction caused, so this led these terrorist groups to take another approach in their financing efforts. This is becoming an issue as the terrorist groups are working in conjunction with certain organized crime groups to help both organizations capitalized immensely. The crime rate in these communities’ increase due to the criminals operating within the community and they will intimidate any individuals opposed to their actions if needed.

The political officials become involved in order to capitalized on such efforts and help protect the operations these are called political machines. The corrupt political machine is related to the politician within such communities that operate and carryout acts that will benefit themselves and help them gain wealth and power. This creates a problem as the organized crime groups will recognized these efforts and ultimately try and become a political machine or coexist with the political machine. This leads us to the fact that organized crime drains our economy, which is already in distress by these political machines. These issues cause by organized crime is extensive and require attention in order to stop such efforts from continuing and ultimately becoming a bigger problem then they are currently.

The legal limitations associated with combating organized crime was quite restrictive until the Federal Government developed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act, Title 18 U.S. Code, Sections 1961-1968. Prior to this act the Federal Government had a hard time associating other individuals involved in such crimes, which made it almost impossible to indict the individuals in charge of this criminal conduct. Once this act was established in 1970s it enacted justice upon enterprises, or persons that are unlawfully committing crimes such as extortion, loansharking, bribery, and obstruction of justice. In a federal court, the prosecution will file charges under the RICO act. California courts will prosecute under the California Control of Profits of Organized Crime Act. Many states have implemented their own racketeering statute laws; the intention is to fill in possible gaps to the federal RICO statutes (Wallace & Roberson, 2012).

The federal governments involvement in RICO investigations ultimately override the states power. Violations that take place in particular state are unlikely to be prosecuted on the state level, if the federal government takes jurisdiction. Some believe this RICO act caused a miscommunication between the lines of state and federal law enforcement jurisdiction. This has invalidated the protections instilled in the due process stipulations guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The RICO act does not only apply to members of organized crime syndicates, it applies to any person engaging in a pattern of racketeering behavior with other individuals. Criminals like motorcycle gangs and street gangs have been extremely affected by the RICO act, as many successful prosecutions have taken place under this act.

Congress initially stated many different findings on grounds for implementing the RICO act. Congress stated that the organized crime in the United States was highly complex, this ultimately deprived our economy from billions of U.S. dollars due to this illegal conduct. Also, Congress stated that these illegal proceeds were used to infiltrate and corrupt legitimate businesses. This organized crime was becoming out of control, both the state and Congress were responsible for reducing this conduct ultimately why the RICO act was established.

California Racketeering penalties concentrate on the financial profits gained through their conduct in the criminal activities. California state law intends to strike fiercely down upon the defendant by forfeiture laws. The state will obtain possession of the property, but must show that the property involved was gained through the criminals profiteering activities. Forfeiture of ones property will not prevent the state of California from pursuing charges for the underlying crimes that come along with this criminal behavior. If convicted of an underlying crime a prison sentence may be ordered as a separate charge (Find Law, 2012).

In order to determine a realistic solution to control organized crime the cause needs to be discussed to help evaluate ways to combat organized crime. The main reason organized crime takes place is due to the ability to capitalized on illegal goods and make countless amounts of money in doing so. Money is the focus of organized crime but what gives these groups to ability to operate in certain areas? Social disorganization plays an astronomical role in the ability for these groups to operate within communities. According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service social disorganization is defined as the inability of community members to achieve shared values or to solve jointly experienced problems. This is the main cause that allows the operation of organized crime to operate within these socially disorganized communities. The solution to the issue at hand would be to concentrate on the communities that suffer from social disorganization. Locate known areas that have large amounts of organized crime taking place and develop a task force in order to combat the organized crime organizations. Contact local politicians in charge and internally investigate the operation of the city in order to insure political corruption is not taking place. Once the political officials check out collaborate with them in order to develop a plan to unite citizens within the community. It is paramount that organized crime is reduced in order to maintain a safe environment for the citizens of the United States of America.

References

Anderson, W., & Jackson, K. (2004). Law as a weapon: How RICO subverts liberty and the true purpose of law. Retrieved from http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=215

Find Law. (n.d.). California racketeering laws. Retrieved from http://statelaws.findlaw.com/california-law/california-racketeering-laws.html

National Criminal Justice Reference Service. (2014). Social Disorganization and Rural Communities. Retrieved from

US Attorney Criminal Resource Manual U.S. Attorneys Department, (n.d.). Organized crime and racketeering (9-110.000). Retrieved from website: http://www.justice.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/110mcrm.htm

Wallace, H., & Roberson, C. (2012). Principles of criminal law. (5th ed., pp. 3-14). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Reference