Personal Perception of Organized Crime
Introduction
Drawing upon the statutory observations and official reports of Congress bodies, currently the United States law enforcement authorities do not have at their disposal a unified legal definition of organized crime laid down in the country’s legislation (Finklea, 2010). The obstacle in crafting a comprehensive definition of organized crime stems from a serious inability of academics, practitioners and theorists to find accurate characteristics of organized crime. Within this essay, the author describes certain approaches to defining organized crime and stresses that the United States notion of organized crime adopted by law enforcement bodies does not meet a real-world criminal setting.
Until 1979, one of the crime laws titled “The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act” dated 1968, construed organized crime as illicit actions (activities) of the participants of organized groups with a high extent of hierarchy which were involved “in supplying illegal goods and services” encompassing sell of narcotics, prostitution, provision of loans, gambling and other activities (p. 3).
In the author’s opinion, the evident failure of the aforementioned construction was that it purported to attach the essence of organized crime only to illicit activities. The result of this definition’s application would be confusing leading law enforcement officials to consider terrorism and fraudulent commercial practices as types of organized crime. Consequently, the 1968 term has been reversed and in recent days, the meaning of organized crime proposed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation is widely utilized.
In rendering its official attitude to the perception of organized criminal activities, the FBI refers to the definition of this phenomenon prescribed by the Continuing Criminal Enterprise law embedded in Title 21 of 18 United States Code. Thus, this legal rule construes organized crime as an illicit enterprise composed of six individuals and more, within the framework of which one of the perpetrators fills a leading position in this group gaining substantial profits from its unlawful actions of a continuing nature covered by “subchapters I and II of Chapter 13 of Title 21 of the United States Code” (The Federal Bureau of Investigation, n.d.). The author tends to agree to the definition described above, but with several exceptions discussed below.
Speaking more plainly, a criminal enterprise and organized crime turn out to be frequently applied as synonymous at both theoretical and practical levels. The author treats the given term critically since one cannot but question a reasonableness and appropriateness of ascertaining the actual number of individuals forming such a criminal group. Why should the group composition criterion start from 6 members only? Why not 7 or 8? Moreover, the organized criminal formation may have 2 and more organizers and leaders. Therefore, the author cannot see any practical and even theoretical significance in stipulating the number of participants and their leaders. The FBI does not address this issue. However, the author basically shares the official view at the organized criminal group as at the enterprise whether formal or not.
Interestingly, the researcher Federico Varese (n.d.) has made a detailed analysis of 115 notions of organized crime accepted and applied in the period covering almost all the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Varese analyzed the definitions in light of characteristics used by them to construe organized criminal activities, which included specialization, hierarchy, networks, enterprise, illicit activities, monopoly status, and harm. The scholar found that different time frames had witnessed differing approaches to defining organized crime by focusing on different characteristics.
Varese emphasizes that one of the reports of the Chicago commission on crime comments on the structure of organized criminal groups by assuming that they have their own rules, usages, manners of communication, specializations, and means of protection. The researcher goes further and ascertains that organized criminal formations may even monopolize the areas of their influence and thus provide protection to their participants, clients and supporters. This actions account for certain forms of governance like that exercised by the state (n.d.).
Characteristics Associated with Organized Criminal Behavior
The New York legislation and its authorities treat organized criminal formations as those creating complex and well-organized structures based on political support and power obtained through relationships with state officials and influential public figures. The New York experts assume that organized criminal formations must be tackled by complex investigative measures and efforts to ruin the band from inside (Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, n.d.).
The Western Europe initiative succeeded in ascertaining 11 features of organized crime which demonstrate the nature and essence of this type of offence. Among them have been identified a serious impact on political events, connection with money laundering, “business-like structure”, resort to violence and threats, continuing character of activities, and use of control and discipline (p. 8). These attributes and those found by Varese seem to exhibit a more concise and accurate set of peculiarities relating to organized crime.
Conclusion
As a result, one is expected to conclude that the national concept of organized crime should be addressed to respond to a real environment illustrating a confusing nature of organized criminal formations. By the way, there is no point in extending the current definition too much to mislead law enforcement officials – a profound rethinking is required.
References
Finklea, K.M. (2010, December 22). Organized crime in the United States: trends and issues for Congress. Retrieved from http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40525.pdf
Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC. (n.d.). Chapter 1. An introduction to organized crime. Retrieved from http://samples.jbpub.com/9781449648046/22572_CH01_V1.pdf
The Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). Organized crime. Glossary of terms. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime/glossary
Varese, F. (n.d.). General introduction. What is organized crime? Retrieved from http://www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/materials/people/varesef/What_is_Organized_Crime-Introduction.pdf
