Exam 1 - Global Crime

What is organized crime?

1. the provision of illegal goods and services 

   1. Criminals providing illegal goods to people

   2. Criminals making money off stuff we want 

1. Who created the idea of organized crime?

1. The media and politicians produced the “idea” of organized crime 

1. Why is the creation of organized crime problematic?

1. Have their own interest 

2. Media wants organized crime to be entertaining 

   1. Politicians use crime to show they are “tough” 

   2. The police use crime to get “stuff” 

1. Why should we question whether there are organized crime groups?

1. Most of what we believe about gangs, mob, etc is just wrong 

2. Television shows and movies make people up and have interactions that would not take place 

1. What is an informal status hierarchy?

1. ppl on the bottom and ppl on the top

1. What is a street tax?

1. lower criminals have to pay higher criminals to sell things on the area

1. What is the underworld?

1. the cultural norm of criminals 

1. What is the upperworld?

1. the  cultural norm of society

   1. Ex: China, Hong Kong, and the triads

1. Why is organized crime like a Rorschach test?

1. Many scholars say organized crime is whatever we believe it to be 

Cesare Lombroso

originated the “born criminal” ideology

atavism

explains criminal behavior as the manifestation of primitive, genetically inherited traits that were adaptive in early human societies but are maladaptive in modern contexts

Who is Frederic Thrasher

• The Gang (1926)

  • Underworld - criminal society

  • Upperworld - legitimate society

  • The upperworld is using the underworld to get some “things” done

  • Businesses may use criminals to break up unions, etc.

Who is John Landesco

• Organized Crime in Chicago

  • The underworld has become a business-like enterprise

  • The underworld and upperworld have become “almost” partners

    • Sometimes the upperworld and underworld are hard to tell apart

• From the 1930s to the 1950s, no one paid any attention to the idea of organized crime

  • However, journalists wrote about it

    • Most accounts were overblown

Who is Donald Cressy? Why is he important?

Theft of a Nation (1969)

• Organized crime has two functions: 

1. Business structure for illegal activities

2. Regulates the behavior of criminals 

• Cressey was the first academic to seriously examine organized crime 

1. What is the alien conspiracy model?

• Cressey’s research also created the alien conspiracy model

  • Alien conspiracy model - organized crime members come from other countries and bring their crime (immigration) 

  • We came to believe this because our view that organized crime means the Mafia/Italian

• The alien conspiracy model is wrong 

  • The Kefauver Committee (the early 1950s) found no evidence of an “international mafia” 

What were the two big events that created the mafia?

Prohibition and Benito Mussolini

Who is Benito Mussolini?

• Was prime minister (president) of Italy from 1922 to 1943

• Created the National Fascist Party

  • He did all the things you can think of a dictator and fascist doing 

  • Silenced journalists, imprisoned political rivals, said Uni profs were teaching wrong things, killed ppl who didn’t agree with him, etc.

nativism

• the political policy or practice of preserving or reviving an indigenous culture

  • When a grp feels attacked or discriminated against, they often develop ways to protect themselves

What is Tammany Hall?

• A political machine that dominated NY

  • Became an arm of Irish organized crime 

• Tammany Hall Police

  • Politicians gave ppl jobs as police officers because of donations, favors, etc. 

  • They were viewed by the public as being political appointees who simply protected their grps

    • A person had to pay $250 to become a police officer

  • Promotions were given on a fee basis 

What role did the Jewish Mafia play in the development of organized crime?

• Jewish grps coming from Europe were discriminated against upon their arrival in the US

  • Jewish gangs developed, and organized crime took off

    • Est. that about 50% of bootleggers were in Jewish gangs

Who is Arnold Rothstein?

• Many regard him as the "actual" Godfather 

  • The Black Sox Scandal of the 1919

  • Operated the largest drug ring in the US

    • Smuggles drugs, liquor, diamonds, etc…

• He got caught giving $20,000 to get a politician elected 

  • Labor racketeering 

  • He had his hand in just about everything 

What is the Bug and Meyer gang?

• Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906-1947)

• Meyer Lansky (1902-1983) 

  • Started a gang to help protect bootleggers from thieves and the police 

• Set up a gambling operation in NY

• Lansky went to Cuba to set up gambling ventures 

  • Became known as the “money mover” because he could launder illegal money

What are the key components of crime across the globe?

1. Culture 

2. Inequality 

3. Weak social support 

4. Marginal work 

5. Strained fam

6. Harsh and ineffective CJ System

7. Gun availability 

8. Government type

What is culture?

 the norms, behavior, and values found in a society

What role does culture play in crime?

collective vs. individualism vs. universalism vs. fetishism vs. achievement

collectivism

emphasizing the importance of the group—such as a community, nation, or class—over the individual

individualism

• Multiple studies show that areas that have a more collective orientation have less crime 

• Areas that are more individualistic have more crime

universalism

• If you don’t achieve it is because you didn’t work hard

• Studies have shown that areas that have a stronger social system have less crime

  • We help each other 

fetishism

• Money is the key indicator of success

• We rank people with better personality traits when we know they are wealthy

achievement

• The outcome is all that matters 

  • EX: Prescott Bush (George W. Bush’s grandfather) 

    • Sold gold, fuel, steel, coal, and US bonds to Hitler before and during the war

    • The US concluded that Bush’s sales were of “considerable assistance” to Germany

      • Made millions off of this sale 

What is income inequality?

The disparity in income from the top to the bottom

• Income inequality is one of the most significant predictors of crime in cross-national studies

What role does gender inequality play in crime?

• Areas that are more equal have less crime

• Areas that have more gender inequality have higher homicide rates

What is segregation? What role does segregation play in crime?

the action or state of setting someone or something apart from others — weak social support

code of honor

• The lower class has this thing where men cannot be disrespected 

  • This leads to violence

What region of the United States has the most crime? Why?

south — highest inequality rates overall and SO many guns

What is legitimate violence?

an authority teaches that violence is okay

What is brutalization?

an increase in violent crime after the death penalty is used

What role does weak social support play in crime?

Weak social support — low-quality or scarce networks of relationships — can increase the likelihood of criminal behavior by reducing protective influences, increasing stress, and limiting access to legitimate opportunities

What role does marginal work play in crime?

• Weak social support = no way to lift themselves out of poverty 

  • The US has weak social support

  • It is impossible to receive social support and raise out of poverty

    • Some states make recipients take marginal jobs to receive social support, which prevents them from going to college or receiving any training that may raise them out of poverty 

What role do strained families play in crime?

• Families are not created in a vacuum 

  • Families reflect society 

• When a father is in a marginal job he may become angry 

  • He beats his children 

• Society either accepts this behavior or it sanctions this behavior

• The child who is beaten learns that violence is the way to deal with stress

  • The child beats other children… becomes a father who beats… etc. 

• Legitimate violence 

  • An authority teaches that violence is okay

What role do harsh and ineffective criminal justice systems play in crime?

• Harsh penalties can “backfire” on a society 

  • What would you think if we beheaded ppl for stealing from Kroger? 

    • Ppl can begin to think that police, lawyers, prisons, etc. are corrupt and work against them 

  • When ppl stop believing in the justice system ppl will “fight” back 

    • Some will be peaceful and justified

    • Some will see the entire system as bad and be more violent and not justified 

What role do guns play in crime?

states w/ more guns have higher homicide rates

Why is the connection between guns and crime hard to study?

• Gun data is hard to come by 

  • Of the 172 countries that have some form of firearm data available the USA is first in the number of guns 

  • 120.5 per 100 people 

What does it mean that the context matters when we are examining guns and crime?

• Stable country with guns, may have a low homicide rate 

• An unstable country with guns, can be a problem 

• It is the same in the US

  • Context matters

• Guns make a situation worse if “bad” areas/countries/states/etc.

  • Guns make it easy to kill 

What does it mean that the type of government matters when examining crime?

• The type/stability of the government can have a large effect of crime

What is the history of the Congo? What does the Congo show us about crime?

• Long history with it beginning as being owned by King Leopold II of Belgium bought the Congo in 1884 (by him, not the country) and he killed all the elephants, tortured all the people, cut their hands off, etc..

• Leopold gave the Congo to Belgium in 1908 and ran it until 1960 (was very unstable)

• Lumumba was elected. Communistic teachings and was killed soon after

• Mobutu took over

  • was pro US and against communism

  • ran it like a dictator and then fled and died bc they hated him so much

• Then AIDS came over

Who is Francis Ianni and why is he important?

• Ianni was a sociologist

• Worked for the NYC organized crime taskforce

  • Asked the mob if he could study them (Lucchese?) 

• Things he found: 

1. There were 42 crime members in the family

2. Only 4 were children whose parents were involved previously 

3. Most of the children were now respectable upper-middle-class members

4. They went to good colleges, they were professors, dentists, accountants, etc. 

   1. Mayer Landky’s son graduated from West Point

What is intergenerational mobility?

• That organized crime pays

• There is some sort of benefit to future gens. 

What is rational choice theory?

• People make rational choices based on the info available to them

• Crime is committed for all kinds of reasons 

  • Economic, political, psychological/emotional, and social 

What is deterrence theory?

• Scare people into not committing crime

• Specific deterrence - punishing person that did it

• General deterrence - public seeing someone punished and don’t want to it

  • Certainty- if you do it, you’ll get caught 

  • Celerity (swift) - if you get caught, it’s immediate

  • Severity - how severe the punishment is 

What is differential association theory?

• All behavior is learned from friends/family

  • Certain grps are going be able to be associated with organized crime because that is where crime is located

  • How do you join the Mafia? 

    • People in these neighborhoods know each other and teach each other how to be criminals

What is conflict theory?

• There is a fight between the wealthy and the poor

  • The government makes laws based on the elite (bourgeoisie) morals

  • The gov makes most vice crimes illegal, which is what organized crime specialized in

    • Drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gambling, etc.

What is social disorganization theory?

• Certain neighborhoods are not able to control the behavior of the residents

  • Think of the worst neighborhood you can

  • Police not functioning properly

    • Characterized as poor 

      • Zone of transition: intercity where everybody wants to move

• Crime is not unique to a specific grp

  • As one grp moves, another will move in and become criminal 

  • Something about the neighborhood creates

    • Concentric Zone Theory

What is differential opportunity theory?

Friends and family, but also neighborhood type create crime

• If you decide to be a criminal, you cannot become any type

• The type of neighborhood produces the type of criminal:

1. Retreatist subculture - neighborhoods with drug use and selling

2. Conflict subculture - violent neighborhood 

3. Criminal subculture - gangs devoted to making money

What is strain theory?

• Robert Merton (1938) 

• Our pursuit of money creates stress or strain if we cannot get what we want 

What is enterprise theory?

• The free market is supposed to provide us with what we want 

  • By making “things” illegal that we want there will be a black market 

  • People will provide us with the stuff we want because there is still a market. It is just an illegal market.

Who are the Pagans

• The Pagans were created in 1959 in Prince George’s County, MD (Washington, DC)

  • mainly east coast (hard to nail down)

  • very violent

  • friendly with the Italian Mafia and Aryan Brotherhood

Nomad

don’t stay in one place for too long — travel often

What is the Pagan’s connection to Nazism?

• In the 1960s, the Pagans were soldiers for the American Nazi Party 

  • The party was based off of the teachings of Hitler

    • Rockwell was the founder. He was killed in 1967

• The Pagans sometimes will add Nazi or white supremacist symbols and patches to their jackets (or tats) 

What is the mother club?

the original or founding chapter of a motorcycle club that serves as the ruling body and source of authority for the entire club

Are motorcycle clubs structured or nonstructured?

structured: Mother Club → Regional Representative (chapter) → 2 chapters

How do members make money?

They do illegal things and the give some of the money to the chapter as dues

What is the enforcer unit?

• They report directly to the national president 

• They are bodyguards of important members and enforce the rule of the club

What is the intelligence member?

• They are undercover 

• They collect info on other clubs, the police, politicians, judges, and businesses

  • Some of these members are ex-military intelligence experts 

What are the president, vice president, secretary-treasurer, enforcer, sergeant-at-arms, and road captain?

• President 

• VP

• Secretary/Treasurer - takes notes and handles the budget 

• Enforcer - enforces the rules of the club to members 

• Sergeant-at-arms - handles the club “business” outside the club 

• Road Captain - maps out the routes to be taken when on runs 

Are women allowed to become members?

hell no.

What are old ladies and sheep?

• Old ladies – the wives and girlfriends

  • Old ladies wear a property patch and have to earn for their man (off limits for all other members) 

    • Prostitution or some other job 

• Sheep are women who belong to all members 

  • Every member can have a relationship with this women, can have relations with her, and she is protected by them from other clubs 

    • 3 or 4 of them 

    • Live in the club and clean and such 

• Sweetbutts - like free agents 

  • They can go from club to club and go where they want

    • Sweetbutts do not belong to any members or club

    • They often come to parties, rides, etc. 

What does it mean that organized crime takes the place of a government

If the government will not support or help the people, the organized crime will, they will inevitably become the governing body of the people

Congo wars

• Sometimes referred to as Africa’s World Wars

• The Rwandan Genocide continued in the Congo (called Zaire) 

  • Hutus retreated to the Congo

    • The First Congo War (1996-1997) 

• Laurent-Desire Kabila and the rebels overthrew Mobutu

  • They killed an unknown number of Hutu on their way to the capital

• The Second Congo War (sometimes called the African World War) 1998-2003

  • The deadliest war in AFrica with officially 5.4 million people killed 

    • Death toll is probably higher if we include deaths from disease and starvation 

  • About 1,000 people died daily in 2004 from easily preventable cases of malnutrition and disease

John Jacob Astor

a German American

• fur trade and selling opium

• 1st multimillionaire (1st American)

 Cornelius Vanderbilt

robber

• monopolized Hudson River

John D. Rockefeller

monopoly of oil

Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs

1935 McCook, IL — anti-jew paten

• HQ in Detroit

  • enemies of Hells Angels

• Outlaw = American outlaw Association (AOA)

  • Chapters in Fayetteville, Fort smith, and Boosercanty

Where were motorcycle gangs created?

the US

When did the motorcycle gang develop?

after WWII

Who are the POBOBs? Why did they become violent?

1. 1st known motorcycle gang 

   1. Pissed off Bastards of Bloomington 

2. Small time lawbreakers who weren’t violent

   1. became violet after 4th of July rally

   2. created moral panic

What is the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally?

Held for 10 days in 1st week of August in Sturgis, SD

• has PCP of 7k BUT 500k show up

Clarence “Pappy” Hoel

created the Sturgis Rally in 1938

What is the 1%?

1% of all bikers are criminals

What does the “Big Four” mean? Who are the Big Four?

1. Hells Angels 

2. Outlaws

3. Pagans

4. Bandidos

   1. gangs

What are the colors?

official club logo

What happens if someone wears the colors without being a member?

they will harm them

What is a rocker?

Patches

1. top — club name

2. middle — logo

3. bottom — location of the club

How were the Hells Angels formed?

POBOB broke away and name came from fighter pilot during WWII

Patch over

puppet clubs will become new clubs for big 4 — wannabe

What is a prospect?

process of becoming official member

What crimes are the Hells Angels involved in?

drugs, guns, prostitution

Can you get a Hells Angels tattoo if you are not a member?

No, you cannot

What does it mean that the Hells Angels are image conscience?

attempt to portray noncriminal image

Who are the Outlaws? How were they formed? Where are they located?

rebels and outsiders — involved in crime

What does ADIOS mean?

“Angels Die in Outlaw State

What crimes are the Outlaws involved in?

low level crime

Who are the Bandidos?

Mexican bandits, 1966 in AR

• Ft. Smith and LR

Who are the enemies of the Bandidos?

Hells Angels

How did the Hells Angels become popular?

through patch over

1. increase size of club

2. allow club into new territory