Controlling Organized Crime

Essay by yoopersoonerUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, May 2007

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According to www.chow45.blogspot.com, Organized crime is not relative. It is universally condemned, because most right-thinking individuals realize that such activity is detrimental to the human race as a whole.

"Organized Crime" is a word that brings to mind acts of selfishness, antisocial acts that disrupt the functioning of society, that cause hurt or suffering. It is always evaluated while bearing in mind fairness, and thus what is unfair is often a crime. Stealing relegates property that rightfully belongs to its owner to someone else. Murder deprives an individual of the right to live. It is this innate moral compass that helps the majority of men to be able to judge what is crime and what is not, and therefore crime appears to us as a cut-and-dried subject, easily defined and identified.

The ProblemWhat is the problem with organized crime? How is it different from regular crime? Well, according to Moore, organized crime is different from other types of crime because "The criminality of persons in organized crime differs from that of conventional criminals because their organization allows them to commit crimes of a different variety.

(Labor racketeering, for example, and on a larger scale, smuggling planeloads of cocaine) than their less organized colleagues" (Moore 1987). According to the readings, there are a number of attributes that provide a basis for determining if a particular group of criminals constitutes organized criminal behavior. These attributes are such that, Organized Crime:•is non ideological•is hierarchical•has a limited or exclusive membershipControlling 3.

•perpetuates itself•exhibits a willingness to use illegal violence and bribery•demonstrates specialization/division of labor•is monopolistic•is governed by explicit rules and regulations.

Combating Organized CrimeThere has been much review and discussion in regards to which method of approach would be best suited to target organized crime. Should law enforcement supplement traditional...