Organized Crime and its Stranglehold on the World Nuclear terrorism against the United States is one of the most likely outcomes of the post-cold war time period. At least according to Americans surveyed it is (United 1).
These weapons are now readily available to anyone with enough money to purchase them thanks to the surplus of weapons located in Russia, and the Russian Mafia?s uncanny skills in acquiring these weapons (United 3).
How organized crime was allowed arrive at this stage of power is a mystery. Peter Lupsha of the University of New Mexico writes that because organized crime is a process there is no real date or time that organized crime originated (Robertson 33).
However in the case of Russia, where organized crime was dormant for many years and then suddenly erupted into a national epidemic, a date can be placed on the point of upheaval. Organized crime was slowly building its power with minimal activities and then exploded with the fall of Communism (Kerry 22).
American organized crime, on the other hand, can be traced back to the birth of the United States, when freedom and the constant human struggle for increased profits combined (Robertson 33).
It slowly gained followers up to the 20?s where it then exploded into major business. It has since expanded into a worldwide operation threatening to corrupt entire governments and running very profitable businesses (United 3).
Law enforcement techniques of the past have been sidestepped by crime groups allowing for a growing and increasingly active crime wave which has forced policing changes. Organized crime groups growth and power are out of control and new law enforcement techniques and strategies are hoped to put an end to this Most organized crime groups follow a structured line of hierarchy. This line of power is the organized in organized crime, which aids in its growth and power (Beare 1).
The Essay on Fundamentals of Building a New Crime Analysis Unit
Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, police departments across the country and throughout the world have begun adopting what is known as proactive policing. This term began as a simple theory which utilized concepts such as community policing and statistical formulas to engage and apprehend criminals before they commit a crime. Police chiefs, county sheriffs, and department heads began to realize ...
Even crime groups with lower levels of organization, such as the Russian Mafia, all have a certain way of grouping members (Finckenauer 232).
An example of this hierarchy is the Sicilian Mafia, or La Cosa Nostra. All of its members are divided into separate but supposedly equal families. Currently there are over twenty different families stationed in specific cities nationwide. Each of these families are under control of a boss, or capo, who has the final say in just about everything involving his family. Each boss has his own appointed counselor. These counselors are generally older, partially retired mobsters with enough experience in crime to advise the boss in the running his family. Next in line is the underboss, also know as a sottocapo. They are generally known as the boss?s right hand man, and are always on the boss?s side. The rest of the family is broken up into smaller groups, each being led by a captain. The captains in turn have control over the soldiers, which are the lowest ranking official members of the mob. These smaller groups are the ones that carry out the boss?s wishes, and many of the captains have there own illegal businesses that they run. This chain of command is what keeps the bosses relatively clean of committing crimes, in turn keeping the family, and La Cosa Nostra as a whole running (Harris 14-16).
Every mob group runs businesses that help bring in and launder large amounts of money. Businesses range from the obvious: drug trafficking and making, and the newly emerging: health care fraud; either way every business makes large sums of money (?New? 1,2).
Many of these businesses thrive on that fact that they are illegal, and they are the only group offering the service in a certain city (Ferris 1,2).
Loan sharking is one of the more prevalent businesses as it is a part of nearly all criminal organizations. These sharks loan money to people who can not obtain money legally, and want the loan immediately. Another perk to using a loan shark is that no collateral is required to acquire the cash. The sharks make their money off of illegally high interest rates (Albanese 8).
The Essay on Perceptions of Organized Crime Groups
The United States is run by a democratic government that has laws in place to ensure order and organization. However, there are certain people and groups that wish to compromise and profit personally from breaking these laws. According to Understanding Organized Crime (2007), organized crime can be defined by the members and the activities of a group. There are many crimes in which organized crime ...
These astounding rates range from thirty to upwards of two hundred percent. Repayment of loans is ensured with violence towards anyone owing money as refusal to pay often leads in death, or severe destruction (Harris 72-75).
This destruction is also seen in another area of criminal groups businesses, drugs, and the death and destruction is obvious. One of the biggest moneymakers for organized crime groups is in the drug making and distribution businesses. In fact it is estimated that the drug industry accounts for over eight percent of the entire world?s economy, or 400 billion dollars. Nearly a quarter of this striking amount comes from trafficking (trading, or selling from place to place) alone (United 4,19).
Amazingly this problem is on the rise. With the new found ties between Colombian drug cartels and both the Sicilian and Russian Mafias, the profits and destruction caused by the drugs can only go up (Kerry 29).
The power and influence of organized crime are unmatched by any other group of people in the world. The reasons for this immense power are innumerable, ranging from pure number of people willing to commit crimes to the strict code of conduct that most crime groups require. The most influential reason, though, is corruption of police forces (Kerry 29).
In nearly all countries the police are the ones that do the investigating and arresting of crimes and criminals. When this line of defense is corrupted neither of these necessary steps happen, and crime groups are free to do as they please. An example is organized crime in China. The Triads, one of the major Asian crime groups, have been in the crime business for over two hundred years. However it was not until 1975 that American crime agencies began to conceive that they were a threat, and were soon found to be criminally worse than the Sicilian mob. Triad groups located in San Francisco?s China Town are said to be getting worse. The city is doing very little to stop them as the police are a major part of the problem. The corruption has also made undercover police work harder. Fewer and fewer agents are willing to go against the Triads and become undercover agents (Robertson 54,58,64).
The Essay on Modern Organized Crime Groups And Gangs
Modern Organized Crime Groups and Gangs The Almighty Vice Lord Nation is the second largest, and one of the oldest street gangs in Chicago. The gang has more than 30,000 African America members. The gang criminal activities consist of drug trafficking, robbery, fraud, money laundering, extortion, and murder. The gang was founded by juveniles that was incarcerated in the Illinois State Training ...
The crime wave throughout Russia is astounding. Russia has essentially been overtaken by organized crime in every aspect of life, over one thousand cases of corruption in the government in the first quarter of this year (?1000? 1).
In 1993 and 1994 Russian government officials accepted around 100 billion dollars in bribes (Waller and Yasmann 2).
According to Arnaud De Borchgrave, the senior advisor of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, two thirds of Russia?s economy is ?under sway of organized crime? (United 17).
Unfortunately the corruption does not stop there. It has been reported that criminal groups in Russia now have access to the surplus of weapons created during the Cold War. These weapons, such as earth to air missiles, combat helicopters and submarines, were designed with only one purpose, mass destruction, and that destruction is now available to anyone with enough money (United 9).
These same groups have also long since moved into recruiting former KGB agents. KGB agents, trained in the arts of gaining information, carrying out murders in secrecy, and protecting anyone or anything they are told, add to the power of criminal groups by lending their expertise to the highest bidder (United 8,9).
These examples show only a fraction of the overall power the Russian Mafia exerts, as their ties and capabilities are improving and expanding more and more each day. As seen the Russian Mafia alone has more than enough power to be an influence on a global scale; factor in criminal groups of smaller size and equal potential found in every ethnicity in the world and the influence of organized crime is unparalleled (Kelly 34).
The corruption in Asia, for example, rivals that of Russia. China?s criminal groups, the Triads and their Japanese counterparts the Yakuza, are said to be the most effective crime organization in the world and according to Frank Robertson, the author of Triangle of Death, the Triads are ?more efficient than the Mafia?s dreams? (54).
The Essay on Punishment of Crimes in the Us Criminal Justice System
Punishment of Crimes in the US Criminal Justice System One of the greatest challenges facing the criminal justice system is the need to balance the rights of accused criminals against society’s interest in imposing punishments on those convicted of crimes. The U. S. criminal justice system deals with punishment of those in violation of the law in several ways; retribution, incapacitation, ...
The power of these Chinese groups comes from the lawlessness they operate in. This lack of policing is worsened by the extreme scarcity of undercover law enforcement agents. The Triads do extensive background checks on every new member making it incredibly hard to infiltrate their system. Because of this, law agencies have minimal information on how the Triads and other Asian crime groups operate, and what kinds of business they run (Robertson 56-58).
The crime wave has also spread across the Pacific Ocean into Latin America, and the business there is drugs. Drug cartels are corrupting governments from the inside out, extending all the way to the Presidents. Criminal organizations are found throughout Latin America, the worst of which are located in Colombia and Mexico. The governments in these crime infested countries are in shambles, leaving the door wide open for massive amounts of criminal activity (Kerry 23, 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 world?s 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).
The Term Paper on Community Policing In America
Community Policing in America (1) The concept of community policing has become especially popular in recent years, since celebration of diversity, had succeeded in turning the ever-increased number of streets in American cities into places, which people try to avoid at any cost, especially after it gets dark. It is not a secret that in so-called hoods, drug dealers often openly sell crack, with ...
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, enterprisewide management systems and milicious-code scanners. This system is expected to be in use by 2003 (Harrison 1,2).
The Term Paper on Reasons To Prevent Hate Crime Against Police Officers
... their hate training seminars: * Understanding the importance of hate crimes training * Organized hate groups – signs and symbols * Perpetrator profiles * Elements ... violations are a small minority that infects the entire police force. I feel the most effective way to change ... a Diverse Society. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2005 United States Department of Justice. Accessed April 24, 2005. ...
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.? AP Online 23 Apr. 2000. Electric Library. Online. Infonautics. 7 Sept. 2000. Albanese, Jay S. Organized Crime in America. 3rd sd, Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing, 1996. 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 America?s 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. 105th Cong., 1st sess. H Rept. Washington: 1 Oct. 1997. Waller, Michael J and Yasmann, Victor J. ?Russia?s Great Criminal Revolution: The Role of the Security Services.? American Foreign Policy Council. : Online. Compuserve. 18 Sept 2000.