ORGANIZED CRIME
Definition of Organized Crime
It is important to be clear about the precise definition of organized crime, because it is broader in scope than popular images suggest. The term brings to mind visions of career criminals in ethnic neighborhoods comprised of recent immigrants. In the United States, the vision of Italian-American gangsters predominates due to the success of those groups and popular media portrayals in books and films such as The Godfather, which is still the most popular book ever written about crime and one of the highest-grossing movies ever made. Even though it is a work of fiction, most people believe The Godfather is real because it corresponds to their image of organized crime
In fact, organized crime is both more diverse and more complicated than popular portrayals would have us believe. This is due to its universality and the kinds of people who commit it. First, all societies report problems with organized crime at some level, and the ethnicity of the participants is not controlling. In the same way that armed robbers are not explained effectively by their ethnicity, organized crime is committed by persons of all backgrounds. The "ethnicity trap" occurs when the idea is promoted that some ethnic groups are somehow more crime-prone than others, and that ethnicity can in some way shed light on the causes of crime. There is no evidence that this is the case.
- Chapters 23
- Department Sociology and Criminology
- Teacher
Ms. Saima Manzoor
