CHAPTER FOUR Explaining Organized Crime Abadinsky, Organized Crime 10th ed. According to the theory of "Ethnic Succession," organized crime in the United States has been a social mobility vehicle for disadvantaged segments of the population. With social and economic success, these formerly disadvantaged exit crime in favor of conventional lives. This affects the American Mafia that now has difficulty attracting prospective members from traditional "mob neighborhoods." This chapter examines relevant theories in the fields of sociology, psychology, and biology. 2 ORGANIZED CRIME THEORIES Organized crime has been subjected to only limited attempts at explanation--explanations beyond immoral people in pursuit of personal gain.  The sociological literature on organized crime is sparse.  Psychology provides even less, but offers some insights.  Biology, in particular neurology, offers an understanding of problematic behavior. 3 THE STRAIN OF ANOMIE  Building on Durkheim's concept of anomie, R.K. Merton set forth a social and cultural explanation for deviant behavior in the U.S.  He theorized that organized crime is a normal response to "strain" between societal goals and the means available to the individual to achieve those goals.  He argued that American fixation on economic success--"pathological materialism"--causes some individuals to innovate the means to achieve the goal. 4 THE SOCIOLOGY OF ORGANIZED CRIME THE STRAIN OF ANOMIE (CONT.)  In the 19th century and later, immigrants' lacked access to acceptable means for achieving societal goals.  But why do middle-class youngsters with access, and some wealthy and powerful individuals, participate in organized crime?  And why do some persons suffering from anomie not turn to organized crime?  E. Sutherland provides an answer in differential association theory. 5 DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION  According to Sutherland, all behavior--lawful and criminal--is learned.  The principal part of learning occurs within intimate personal groups.  What is learned depends on the intensity, frequency, and duration of the association.  When these variables are sufficient, and the associations are criminal, the individual learns the techniques of committing crime. 6 DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATON (CONT.)  Enclaves where criminal subcultures flourish foster education in the techniques of sophisticated criminality.  Instead of conforming to conventional norms, some persons, through differential association, organize their behavior according to the norms of a criminal group.  In enclaves with OC traditions, persons exhibiting criminal norms are integrated in the community, exposing young people to learning those norms. 7 SUBCULTURES AND SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION  Culture is a source of patterning of human conduct.  It is the sum of patterns of social relationships and shared meanings. ...

1. CHAPTER FOUR
Explaining Organized Crime
Abadinsky, Organized Crime 10th ed.
According to the theory of "Ethnic Succession,"
organized crime in the United States has been a social
mobility vehicle for disadvantaged segments of the
population. With social and economic success, these
formerly disadvantaged exit crime in favor of
conventional lives. This affects the American Mafia that
now has difficulty attracting prospective members from
traditional "mob neighborhoods."
This chapter examines relevant theories in the fields of
sociology, psychology, and biology.
2
ORGANIZED CRIME THEORIES
Organized crime has been subjected to only limited
attempts at explanation--explanations beyond immoral
people in pursuit of personal gain.

2. understanding of problematic behavior.
3
THE STRAIN OF ANOMIE
Building on Durkheim's concept of anomie, R.K.
Merton set forth a social and cultural explanation for
deviant behavior in the U.S.
to "strain" between societal goals and the means
available to the individual to achieve those goals.
success--"pathological materialism"--causes some
individuals to innovate the means to achieve the goal.
4
THE SOCIOLOGY OF ORGANIZED CRIME
THE STRAIN OF ANOMIE (CONT.)
to acceptable means for achieving societal goals.

3. -class youngsters with access, and
some wealthy and powerful individuals, participate in
organized crime?
And why do some persons suffering from anomie not
turn to organized crime?
association theory.
5
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION
--lawful and
criminal--is learned.
personal groups.
and duration of the association.
associations are criminal, the individual learns the
techniques of committing crime.
6
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATON (CONT.)

4. education in the techniques of sophisticated
criminality.
some
persons, through differential association, organize their
behavior according to the norms of a criminal group.
criminal norms are integrated in the community,
exposing young people to learning those norms.
7
SUBCULTURES
AND SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION
shared meanings.
that is apart from a larger value system.
deviant and that lead to criminal behavior.
wrong, but but this is not their controlling attitude.
8

5. SUBCULTURE ANECDOTE
"They saw the Outfit guys, and gave them deference.
It's in the culture. It is a perverted sense of values.
Knockin' down an old lady to take her purse, that's
wrong; killing the clerk at the corner store for a few
bucks, that's wrong. But everything to do with
organized crime is perfectly acceptable" (Scarmella
1998).
9
CRIMINOGENIC NEIGHBORHOODS
Chicago in the 1920s-1930s.
orhoods maintained
high levels of criminality over time despite changes
in ethnic composition.
and values that are conducive to delinquency and
crime, particularly organized crime.
10
SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION
1920s.

6. during Prohibition)
h
members of organized crime emerge.
tend to become autonomous in their impact.”
11
DIFFERENTIAL OPPORTUNITY
opportunity, is not equally distributed throughout
society.
ladders of legitimate success results in collective
adaptations in the form of delinquent subcultures.
12
Entry into organized crime groups is not
available to just anyone in the subculture.
There too, is differential opportunity.

7. DELINQUENT SUBCULTURES
1. Retreatist subculture: reject economic success
goal in favor of an easy goal--e.g., a drug "high."
2. Conflict subculture: reject economic success goal;
seek status through violent, destructive gang
activities.
3. Criminal/rackets subculture: gang activity
devoted to utilitarian criminal pursuits, an
adaptation that approaches organized crime.
13
SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY
community influences its members toward
conformance with established norms of behavior.
s?
to contend for positions in OC, choose not to?
14
SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY (CONT.)

8. an individual's bond to society is weak or broken."
public shame and/or fear of punishment.
mechanism that provides a sense of guilt.
15
ETHNIC SUCCESSION
immigrant groups experienced strain, and some members
innovated, using illegal means to achieve societal goals.
committed to a deviant subculture, but are merely using
available, if illegal, opportunities to achieve economic
success.
his kids what we got" (Goldberg 1999).
te some persons
rationally choose OC, although they have other options.
16

9. ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN AND
THE RATIONALIZATION OF CRIME
-1928) set new
standards in OC. He transformed criminal activity
from a haphazard endeavor into a bureaucracy with
specialized expertise, administrative hierarchy, and
organizational procedure.
business district, employed a staff comparable to
that of any large, legitimate, commercial firm,
complete with secretaries, bookkeepers, and legal
counsel" (Joselit 1983).
17
ZIPS
are the connection between the criminal organizations
of southern Italy--Mafia, Camorra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra
Corona Unita--and the American Mafia.
restrictive immigration statute which had
discriminated against southern and eastern
Europeans.
es;
others formed their own criminal organizations.

10. 18
"Zip" alludes to
their rapid speech
in Italian dialect.
ZIPS (CONT.)
highlighted during the 1987 "Pizza Connection" case.
Mafia group headed by a former Sicilian supplied $1.6
billion of heroin to a Bonanno Family group.
customs, philosophies, and a common heritage. The
prototype of the crime Family is identical in each system.
"Old World" ways have earned the Zips more fear and
respect than their American counterparts.
19
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ORGANIZED CRIME
fy societal
variables that motivate involvement in organized
crime, they fail to explain why only a small fraction of
persons exposed to such variables actually become

11. criminals.
differently? Psychology, a discipline that focuses on
the individual, provides some answers.
20
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY/
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
have a poorly developed superego--the conscience-
like mechanism that restrains antisocial behavior.
detached.
expressed in shades from from quiet intimidation to
explosive violence.
Grim Reaper')
whips out a piece and shoots the guy in the head."
21
BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY/
LEARNING THEORY

12. shaped by its consequences.
ing:
learning through positive and negative reinforcement
that results from interaction with the environment.
to behave aggressively.
antisocial behavior, while conventional, conforming
behavior is often ridiculed.
22
BIOLOGY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Specialized cells receive information about the
environment and translate it into electrochemical signals
that we experience as sight, sound, smell, and touch.
particularly as related to antisocial behavior.
boring and unpleasant and seek novel and/or intense
sensory stimulation.
23

13. CHAPTER TWO
Development of Organized Crime
in the United States
Abadinsky, Organized Crime 10th ed.
Murder, Inc. represented the apex of organized crime in
the United States, when the major chieftains financed a
unit of assassins who, although operating out of
Brooklyn, NY, carried out murders throughout the
country. The history leading up to this development will
be discussed in Chapter Two.
2
The intertwining of urban machine politics and
Prohibition provided Irish, Jewish, and Italian
immigrants unparalleled criminal opportunity to climb
the "queer ladder of social mobility." But it was the
Robber Barons who helped enrich the fertile soil
necessary for the growth of organized crime in the
United States and whose spiritual legacy lives on in
twenty-first-century corporate crime.
3
THE ROBBER BARONS:

14. UNSCRUPULOUS AMERICAN BUSINESSMEN
19th century uncontrolled capitalism provided role models and
created a climate conducive to the growth of organized crime.
-1848)
-1877)
-1879)
-1872)
-1892)
-1884)
(1839-1937)
4
The 3 members of
the Erie Ring
WHO WERE THEY?
Ancestry.
, and

15. invested his gains in slum housing.
Vanderbilt
monopoly.
railroad monopolist.
5
WHAT ARE WE TO CONCLUDE FROM OUR
GLIMPSE OF THE ROBBER BARONS?
violence
(financial piracy) and literal violence (thugs, police, military).
rce and corruption to achieve
private
ends.
Anti-
Trust Act in 1890 (discussed in Chapter 14).
became institutionalized, and their progeny controlled the
economy.

16. and ambitious residents of our cities?
6
IMMIGRATION AND URBAN POLITICS
--Irish, Jewish, Italian--innovated in a
manner
consistent with available opportunity.
in
the vice and politics of urban America.
powerful
entity known as the "machine."
7
THE IMMIGRANTS
-1850: population of cities in the East and West
quadrupled.
ntly attacked.

17. 8
ORGANIZED CRIME IN AMERICA:
A 100+ YEAR EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS
and sought these through personal relationships.
could
also manipulate the American environment.
urban
American before Prohibition.
the famine (1845-47),
arriving in America a close-knit, politically sophisticated
society,
whose members were experts in non-confrontational warfare.
They could make alliances without formal conferences,
agreements, or treaties that would leave a record.
9
IRISH

18. became an integral part of the process of recruiting more
Irishmen into the Democratic Party and government.
me a
secular extension of their Catholic identity.
European immigrants who would vote for an Irish candidate.
structure.
10
THE SALOON AND THE MACHINE
provided social
services, newspapers in several languages, cigars, mailboxes for
regular
patrons, free pencils, paper, and mail services for those wishing
to send
letters, and information on employment.
bowling alleys, billiard
tables, music, singing, dancing, conversation, charity and
charge accounts,
quiet corners for students, and special rooms for weddings,
union meetings,

19. and celebrations.
divided into
wards which were both electoral and administrative units,
containing
relatively small numbers of people.
customers' votes. They
could deliver their precincts and control the wards.
11
THE MACHINE POLITICIAN
before social
welfare programs, he provided important services to loyal
constituents--
jobs, food, and assistance dealing with pubic agencies,
including the police
and the courts.
become wealthy in
politics.
looked at me
with sadness and said, 'That woman's got a dead rat in the alley

20. behind her
house and she don't call no Republican to take care of it, she
calls the
alderman.' So what are you going to do, Charley? 'What can I
do? I got to
go over there and pick up her rat and find a good garbage can
with a top on
it and, well take care of it. This woman will be peekin' out her
window and
see the alderman drive up in his Cadillac and get out and pick
up her dead
rat and drive away with it. She'll tell everybody.'"
12
THE SENSE OF THE MACHINE
e electorate as an
amorphous, undifferentiated mass of voters.
that
the voter is a person living in a specific neighborhood, with
specific personal problems and personal wants" (R. Merton
1967).
"In the midst of the depression, an Irish alderman distributed
unleavened bread (matzah) to hundreds of Jewish families in
his district, so they might keep Passover. This will not cost him
any votes" (McConaughy 1931).
13

21. UPPERWORLD AND UNDERWORLD
broker
in a key position to perform services for captains of industry
and captains of vice.
r franchises, access to
underdeveloped land sites, government contracts, tax
abatements, and other special considerations.
alliances with older-stock business interests.
ne organized urban immigrants into a
political force through which it dominated the government.
14
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
and tumble city
bosses allowed the private utilities and favor-seeking men of
wealth as well
as the purveyors of vice to exploit the citizens.
government.
town' and its upperworld

22. allies shall be permitted to plunder the public treasury" (Dobyns
1932).
houses of
prostitution, grocers who wanted to obstruct sidewalks, builders
who
wanted to violate the building regulations of the City, paid
tribute at election
time to district leaders, who turned the money over to the
general
campaign fund of Tammany Hall" (Werner 1928).
15
REFORM AND NATIVISM
-reform-corruption-reform hypocrisy.
n part of the rampant nativism that
intertwined with social Darwinism.
interests against urban, Catholic and Jewish Democrats.
machine politician cultivated the immigrant's ethnic
pride by defending him against nativist attack, observing
his customs, and concerning himself with conditions in the
homeland.

23. 16
PROHIBITION
etween
Protestants and Catholics, between Republicans and (non-
southern) Democrats, between "native" Americans and more
recent immigrants, and between business and labor reached a
pinnacle with the ratification of the 18th Amendment in 1919.
ition agents were inept, corrupt, and a public menace.
Chicago
rose, going from 6.8 er 100,000 in 1920 to 9.7 in 1933.
17
ORGANIZED CRIME
d boys for the
politicians and the gamblers.
entrepreneurs, and gang leaders.
s patron for the vice
entrepreneurs and gangs.

24. robbers
was suddenly more important than protection from police.
Prohibition turned gangs into empires.
18
MURDER, INC.
began
meeting throughout the US in anticipation of the new era.
gathered at a NY hotel with Johnny Torrio presiding. They
came
to an understanding:
in his
territory without his approval."
killers,
the "Boys from Brooklyn." Gang leaders across the country
used their services, murdering about 1,000 persons nationally.
19
KEFAUVER CRIME COMMITTEE

25. organized crime as a national political issue. (Memphis "Boss"
Crump had vigorously opposed his election to the Senate.)
Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, the first major
Congressional investigation into organized crime.
more than 600 witnesses in 14 cities,
and
concluded that the Mafia is “the shadowy international
organization that lurks behind much of America’s organized
criminal activity."
inextricably, wrongly equating Italians with organized crime.
20
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction to Organized Crime
Abadinsky, Organized Crime 10th ed.
During the past 15 years, technological innovation and
globalization have proven to be an overwhelming force
for good. However, transnational criminal organizations
have taken advantage of our increasingly

26. interconnected world to expand their illicit enterprises.
2
ATTRIBUTES OF ORGANIZED CRIME
1. Absence of political goals.
2. Is hierarchical.
3. Has a limited or exclusive membership.
4. Constitutes a unique subculture.
5. Perpetuates itself.
6. Exhibits a willingness to use violence.
7. Is monopolistic.
8. Is governed by rules and regulations.
3
THE ATTRIBUTES ARE ARRAYED
IN A STRUCTURE
These attributes are arrayed in a structure that enables the
criminal

27. organization to achieve its goals--money and power.
A criminal group will pass through stages of development and--
if
sufficiently stable--mature into an organization with most, if
not all, of the
attributes.
Two variables that synopsize organized crime:
1. Non-ideological.
2. Instrumental violence.
4
ORGANIZED CRIME AS A BUREAUCRACY
Bureaucracies are rational organizations sharing a number of
attributes:
of the hierarchy to persons on

28. the bottom via
a chain of command.
5
BUREAUCRACY HAS INHERENT WEAKNESSES
FOR CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS
A criminal organization structured along bureaucratic lines has
inherent weaknesses:
anagement to operational-level
personnel can
be intercepted.
entire
organization.
dangerous gaps in
operations.
rsonal ties makes betrayal more likely.
6
COMPARTMENTALIZE
TO OFFSET WEAKNESSES
and know only

29. other members of their cell.
ll is lost, the result of law enforcement infiltration, for
example, the
organization can continue to function uninterrupted and the cell
is
eventually replaced.
not in direct
contact with and may not even know the other controllers.
command opeating
out of an area of relative safety, such as another country.
7
FRANCHISING AND CREDENTIALING
ganization may be an independent
entrepreneur,
operating a franchise. The franchise is a grant of authority to
engage in
business activity under the aegis of the organization.
ials enable the possessor to engage in criminal
activity knowing that
he will be supported and protected by the franchisor--the
criminal

30. organization granting the franchise.
reputation.
an
organization with sufficient martial capacity can offer services
typically
reserved for government such as contract enforcement and
adjudication of
disputes.
8
CRIMINAL NETWORKS, BROKERS, AND
POINTS OF CONVERGENCE
--
points of
convergence.
participants
congregate--"hangouts."
be owned by or
under the
control of criminal entrepreneurs.
opportunity to
advance business interests. The subculture contains gaps
between persons

31. with complementary resources and information. A third party--
a broker--
usually for remuneration, can fill the gap by constructing a
"social bridge."
9
TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME (TOC):
GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES
given rise to
massive opportunities for criminal organizations.
-type organization was linked to a
territory and
exercised control in that territory by intimidation and extortion.
opportunities derived
from the globalization of markets and widespread technology.
10
TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME (TOC):
AND TERRORISM
-perpetuating associations of individuals who
operate
transnationally

32. o for the purpose of obtaining power, influence, monetary
and/or
commercial gains,
o and protect their criminal activities through a pattern of
corruption and/or
violence,
o or through a transnational organizational structure.
commerce.
from detection,
sanction, and prosecution through their organizational structure.
11
THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION:
A PIVOTAL EVENT FOR ORGANIZED CRIME
circumstances
have led to a growing underground economy that habituates
people to
working outside the legal framework.
-organized, internationally-based criminal groups with
vast financial

33. resources are creating a new threat to the stability and security
of
international systems.
catalyst for
the mobilization
of criminal organizations and cooperative ventures of
syndication.
12
THE NEW FACE OF ORGANIZED CRIME (OC)
company,
combining rigid hierarchies and territorial rooting, with flexible
structures that are easily adaptable to changing circumstances"
(Patrinani, 2009).
derives
from intensification of goods traditionally traded by OC--drugs,
arms,
and sex workers.
finance
houses, customs formalities, and require ongoing relationships
with
criminal organizations of different countries.
13

34. IMPACT OF MIGRATION
criminal
networks.
crime-
related skills, knowledge, and contacts. Chinese, Nigerian,
Italian,
and Russian groups are examples of network proliferation
through
migration.
with other
networks around the world, and engaging in a wide range of
illicit
activities, including cyber-crime and providing support for
terrorism.
14
WHAT IS TERRORISM?
WHO IS A TERRORIST?
-state actors who seek to intimidate an
audience larger than their immediate victims in the hope of
generating widespread panic.

35. -combatant deaths as a means to
advertise a cause.
preservation of state structures, because they feed on those
structures.
15
CIUDAD DEL ESTE (CDE)
NEXUS BETWEEN OC AND TERRORISM
-Brazil-Argentina tri-border area--a free trade zone
for contraband,
infested with criminals and terrorists.
o An oasis for informants and spies, peddlers of contraband and
counterfeit products,
traffickers in drugs, weapons, and humans, common criminals,
mafia organizations,
Islamic terrorists, yakuza, Colombian and other Latin American
crime groups, Chinese
Triads, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, FARC, and others.
may overlap, but
cooperation is ad hoc.
utilize each other's

36. special skills in particular operations.
generate funds and to
acquire logistical support.
16
LINKS BETWEEN OC AND TERRORISM
--by extension, OC--money,
false documents,
border crossing, weapons.
terrorists.
through Europe to
safe houses in Paris, London, Berlin, and Madrid.
ey begin to share each
others' goals.
against Russian
sovereignty, from Chechen organized crime.
insurgency by taxing drug
trafficking operations.

37. efforts.
17
NARCOTERRORISM
involved in
cultivating, manufacturing, transporting, or distributing illegal
drugs.
facilitation,
protection, transportation, and taxation.
matériel and overt
movement of goods, people, and money.
ionships are mutually beneficial: drug traffickers gain
from access to
terrorists' military skills and weapons supply; terrorists gain a
source of
revenue and expertise in illicit transfer and laundering of
proceeds.
18
OC AND TERRORISM:
SIMILARITIES AND DISSIMILARITIES

38. organized along
compartmentalized lines.
as al-Qaeda use
sponsorships, apprenticeships, and initiation ceremonies.
criminally motivated
groups want to maintain it so they can keep operating.
means and ends: terrorists
use fund to further
political ends; OC seeks to form a parallel government while
coexisting with the
existing one.
try to give their
activities an altruistic aura to justify their acts and gain
sympathy for their cause.
19
GREED REPLACES IDEOLOGY:
TERRORISM CAN TURN INTO OC
violence to
achieve those goals.

39. individual skills developed as
terrorists and the
advantages of organization are mobilized in the pursuit of
pecuniary
interests: terrorists become organized crime.
relinquished violence as
an organizational tool.
Colombia (FARC)
are becoming increasingly involved in drug trafficking and are
losing sight of
their ideological motivation.
20