Cja 384 Organized Crime Paper

752 Words4 Pages
Organized Crime CJA 384 October 28, 2012 Organized crime is systematic, illegal activity for profit. I would describe organized crime as a crime operation in which every move is carefully planned. I have always thought of organized crime as “smart crime,” the type of crime that doesn’t leave traces and the end result leaves everyone involved with significant amounts of cash. Loan sharking, extortion, and racketeering are the types of crimes that I think of as being the most common with these criminal groups. However, drug smuggling and weapons trafficking are also quite common. I believe that organized crime groups nearly always use legitimate businesses as a front to cover up their illegal operations; such as trash collecting, pizza parlors, and ice cream trucks. In a way, these groups thrive off of the people in their community, while the community is completely unaware of what’s going on.…show more content…
Organized crime groups typically bribe police and other law enforcement groups as a way of defacing the legal system in order to avoid prosecution. Huge amounts of available cash allow these groups to persuade government officials in staying out of the way, thus assisting the crime groups in reaching its goals. Bribery helps these criminal groups to avoid prosecution and in turn, the criminals are able to continue their operations, uninterrupted. Another characteristic among crime organizations is the pyramid power structure by which these organizations run. This type of structure is known as a hierarchy system. This system consists of a main leader, underboss, advisor, captain, and members. The boss at the top passes orders down the chain. The members of this type of organization are initiated in a formal manner, much like what is seen in mobster movies. These organizations are set up like a family and have loyalty and trust as their
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