Organized crime in Canada

What is organized crime?

Crime committed by a continuing secretive group seeking financial or material benefit

Why is scale important in defining organized crime?

Larger and more coordinated activity is more likely to be considered organized

What does section 467.1 of the Criminal Code require?

Three or more people whose main activity involves offences for material benefit

What groups are excluded from section 467.1?

Groups formed randomly to commit one offence

What structural minimum does the deck associate with organized crime?

Two or more people involved in coordinated activity

What is a systematic pattern of relationships?

Stable connections that allow offenders to coordinate repeated criminal activity

What relationships can organize criminal groups?

Kinship friendship or business relationships

What structures can organized crime groups have?

They may be hierarchical or symmetrical

What relationship trend is emerging in organized crime?

Business relationships are replacing some personal and family ties

What is limited or exclusive membership?

Restrictions controlling who may join an organized crime group

What is specialization in organized crime?

Members are assigned different tasks based on their roles or skills

What is transnational organized crime?

Organized criminal activity that crosses national borders

What is a continuing criminal enterprise?

A group designed to survive changes in members and leadership

What is a career criminal?

Someone whose long-term occupation and lifestyle revolve around crime

How does organized crime resist law enforcement?

Secrecy and organizational layers protect senior members from prosecution

What does sophistication mean in organized crime?

Using technology and expertise for complex crimes such as fraud and money laundering

Why is recruitment important to organized crime?

Groups need new members or contractors with specialized skills and resources

What is consensual crime?

Providing prohibited goods or services that customers willingly demand

What is predatory crime?

Crime that directly harms victims such as theft extortion fraud or human trafficking

Why do organized crime groups seek monopolies?

Controlling a market increases profits and reduces competition

What tactics support organized crime businesses?

Corruption violence money laundering surveillance and intelligence gathering

What does rationality mean in organized crime?

Actions are chosen to maximize profit according to supply and demand

How can violence be rational in organized crime?

It is used strategically to protect markets enforce rules or eliminate competition

What are organized crime subcultural values?

Norms supporting crime and showing contempt for conventional society

What does non-ideological motivation mean?

The group seeks material profit rather than political or religious change

Why do organized crime groups create rules?

Rules protect secrecy loyalty discipline and group stability

How is discipline enforced in organized crime?

Through codes of honour and fear of retaliation

What are the main Italian organized crime groups in Canada?

The Ndrangheta Sicilian Mafia and Canadian La Cosa Nostra

What is the Ndrangheta?

A powerful Calabrian organization with seven Toronto families linked internationally

What is La Cosa Nostra in Canada?

Canadian groups historically connected to American Mafia families in New York and Buffalo

What happened between the Cotroni and Rizzuto groups?

The Rizzutos displaced the Cotroni group and became largely independent

Why did the Rizzuto family lose influence?

Arrests murders and competition weakened the organization

What are Chinese triads in Canada?

Groups that developed from Chinatown gangs into transnational criminal syndicates

What are non-triad Chinese criminal networks?

Specialized groups involved in activities such as heroin dealing or migrant smuggling

Who were the Big Circle Boys?

A loose Mainland Chinese network involved in many crimes and dominant in Asian organized crime

What activities are associated with other Asian Canadian groups?

Vietnamese groups specialize in marijuana while Indo-Canadian groups operate mainly in British Columbia

What are outlaw motorcycle gangs?

Motorcycle clubs that evolved into organized criminal groups

What is significant about the Hells Angels in Canada?

They have a national network and more members per capita than anywhere else

What is the Hells Angels’ main criminal revenue source?

Drug trafficking involving cocaine marijuana and pills

What characterizes Russian and Eastern European organized crime?

Loose networks involved in varied offences with a major focus on electronic crime

What is alien conspiracy theory?

The belief that organized crime was imported through secret foreign criminal societies

How did alien conspiracy theory describe La Cosa Nostra?

As a centrally controlled nationwide conspiracy threatening North American values

Who promoted alien conspiracy theory?

The Kefauver Commission the 1967 President’s Commission and Donald Cressey

What are the main criticisms of alien conspiracy theory?

It is xenophobic and falsely presents the Mafia as foreign and centrally controlled

What is ethnic succession theory?

Excluded ethnic groups enter crime before gaining legitimate opportunities and being replaced by newer groups

What is a criticism of ethnic succession theory?

Assimilated groups remained criminal and groups such as the Hells Angels do not fit the theory

What do economic theories say about organized crime?

It is rational business activity responding to supply and demand

What is a criticism of economic theories?

They oversimplify organized crime and focus on consensual while ignoring predatory crime

How can government policy create organized crime markets?

Prohibitions taxes and tariffs create profitable underground demand

What is the bureaucratic or hierarchical model?

A tightly controlled structure with ranked positions specialized roles and division of labour

What is a criticism of the bureaucratic model?

Many Mafia groups are less formal and centralized than a true bureaucracy

What is the kinship model?

A family-based structure organized through blood marriage ethnicity tradition and personal relationships

What is the patron-client model?

A patron controls a loose network by providing protection and contacts in return for payment

What is the network model?

Temporary partnerships combine specialized skills through personal contacts and brokers