this paper looks at the gangs in

1. Gangs in Russia, Italy, and America
By
Liu Qian (2010300350012)
Fang Fei()
Xiang Shaofeng (2009300950069)
28-5-2012

2. Abstract:
This paper shows the Russian, Italian, and American gang issue in the aspects of the
origin of the gangs including the cause of the early gangs and some information about
the first gangs, the development of the gangs consisting of the characteristics of the
gangs, and last but not least, the different influence of the gangs in the three coutries.
Respectively, the political and economical infulence in Russian, the cultural infulence
in Italy, and three major gangs cities in America.
Russian Gangs
Introduction:
Russian: Русская Мафия, Russian Mafia gangs are typically called "bratki", "bratva"
meaning "brotherhood" in Russian. Russian criminals are internationally active in the
illegal oil trade, human trafficking, drug trafficking, smuggling of weapons and
nuclear material and money laundering.
Official reports from Russia express that approximately 8,200 criminal organizations
exist in Russia with their members numbering some 32,000 people(1).
Origin and Development:
Organized crime has existed in Russia since the days of the Czars and Imperial
Russia, taking on the form of banditry and thievery. However, the real breakthrough
for mordern criminal organizations began in 1988, when the Soviet Union legalised
private entrepreneurship but said nothing about regulations of market economy. Thus,
crude markets started forming.
The fall of Soviet Union helped the booming of Mafia. As the Soviet Union headed
for its collapse, so too did the economy. Desperate for money, many former
government workers turned to crime and the Russian Mafia became a natural
extension of this trend. Former KGB agents, sportsmen and veterans of the Afghan
and First and Second Chechen Wars, joined the increasing crime wave(2). Widespread
corruption, poverty and distrust of authorities only contributed to the rise of organized
crime. Contract killings, bombings and kidnappings reached an all-time high with
many gangland murders taking place. The new criminal class of Russia took on a
more Westernized and businesslike approach(3).
The opening up to the world and the internationalization of its economy also gave the
Russian mafia connections to other criminal organizations around the world. Russian
organized crime has spread to many other countries, including Israel, India, Hungary,
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3. South Africa, Spain, Thailand (4)and the United Kingdom. For example, there is a
gang called Armenian Power, or AP-13, a California based street gang and crime
syndicate tied to Russian and Armenian organised crime
Political and Economical Influence:
Louise Shelley, the professor at Georges Mason's University, the author of many
books about the organized crime, had an interview about the political infulence of
Russian mafia. According to him, the popular idea that Russian mafia is patriotic and
even helps the state to struggle with enemies of people is right. Just like Japanese
yakudza cooperated with authority before the Second World war, the American mafia
during the same the Second World helped authorities to provide trouble-free work of
ocean ports, the Russian mafia also have close connections with the authorities. Due
to it the organized crime also survives, pleasing authorities - otherwise, authorities
will try to get rid of it. And it’s probably a distinctive feature of Russia where people
with the criminal past easily become politicians. Leaders of criminal groupings aspire
to authority because the law provides protection against the criminal liability with that
who borrows the high-ranking posts(5).
As for the economy respective, according to James Ruth , organized crime has
worked its way through openings provided by the transition economy to become a
setback to the Russian society and economy(6). Its existence disables successful
economic reform by influencing important issues such as competition,
entrepreneurship, capital flight, the shadow economy, and violence. Moreover, Russia
has beaten world records on consumption of drugs per capita, which will certainly
badly influence the health of the nation; trade in women deprives Russia of its future
for the birth rate will likely to decrease, also promotes distribution of AIDS(7) . To all
other, Russian mafia has huge negative influence on economy. It is estimated that
there are some 50,000 companies in Russia that are controlled by organized crime
groups and that these groups control 40% of Russia's gross national product in
2005(8).
Italian gangs
Introduction:
Among all the gangs in the world, Italian mafia is the largest and the most notorious
one which has the most rigorous organization and the deepest influence.
Origin and Developments:
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4. The gang was first created in Sicily in feudal times to protect the estates of landlords
who were out of town. Over time, the organization gradually turned to sinister
gangs(9).
Despite its notorious reputation in reality, the term ‘Italian mafia’ gradually developed
into a dramatic as well as an attractive phenomenon in modern culture. As the desire,
need, brutality, wisdom, and style of what we know as the ‘Italian mafia’ start to
attract literary and normal audiences, the mafia members themselves start to change
because of the society’s opinions about the ‘cultural mafia’. In a sense, the mafia
phenomenon in popular culture was formed by people and intended to serve as the
public’s entertainment, in the meantime, people’s mixed views of the real mafia and
the imaginary version of them enable the mafia members to change.
Popular culture on Italian gangs:
Popular culture today can be divided into two main branches: literature and movies.
Accordingly, the cultural mafia can be divided to its part in literature and its part in
the movies. But how was the cultural mafia created? Most literary works concerning
mafia are based on real mafia members, quite a proportion of them are biographies of
the lives of notable figures in the history of mafia.
In a sense, the appearance of numerous books about mafia starts to reveal the real
mafia to the audience, who, before this period had only been put in touch with the
lives of mafia members through news reports from crime scenes or rumors spread by
the police which intend only on capturing the mafia members. And when people start
to grow interests on mafia, the real and limited descriptions about them cannot satisfy
their curiosity, thus people begin to add on some features which they think would
make the mafia more charming and culturally commercial, in this way, the cultural
mafia gradually evolved from mere literary figures to figures in the theatre. The
Godfather, for example, opens a door for more people to know the world of Italian
mafia. The movie picked out some shining points of the godfather(wisdom, courage,
calmness, honesty, love of the family, fond of honor, even the enchanting dressing
style ) and applied artistic styles to magnify them, in the meantime tried to ignore
even optimized his dark sides(brutality, contempt on the law and social rules),
therefore successfully creating an popular image of mafia in its cultural sense.
Now, since we already talked about how the cultural mafia is formed and how it
succeeded in attracting audiences, what about the audience’s or the popular beliefs of
mafia’s influence on real mafia? As the businesses of Italian mafia are still mainly
operated underground, we cannot tell what change has taken place in the inside of its
organization, but as the audience is more a fan of the elegancy, wisdom of Italian
mafia, modern mafia members are gradually changing: the modern underworld crime
of today consists of business men and women with a strong knowledge of computers.
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5. Old world ways such as killing, riots, and vendetta have been done away with(10).
‘Mobsters’ at present are highly educated extortionists dressed in fine suites.
However, no matter how attractive and innocent the Italian mafia seems in popular
belief today, their image of wisdom, elegancy and honor is only one part of them. The
difference between literature and real life is the difference between people’s
imagination and the intricate reality. While admiring Al Pacino’s performance on the
screen, we still need to realize and accept every side of the Italian mafia: they are not
completely monsters, but they are also not entirely innocent.
American gangs
Introduction:
Immigration
There have been a large number of immigrants in the United States knowns as
"melting pot"(11). Among the immigrants, in order of priority, the Irish, Italian,
African, Mexican, and Chinese have their own gangs in America, which have taken
up a large proportion of all the gangs.
Problems
After many European migrated to the East coast of America for a better life, the
savings of them was quickly depleted and many were forced to take out loans with
local merchants and colonization companies, who charged steep interest rates. Life for
the migrants was more difficult than they imagined. Many of them died due to
poverty and disease. And there were also many who died orphaning their children. It
became a common problem in many cities that there is no money to send the children
back to their homeland and not any relative to care for them in America.
At the same time, some immigrants formed some certain kind of clubs as a means of
self-protection. Then lots of immigrants and the orphaned children got involved in the
clubs. And the clubs began bigger and bigger.
Characteristics
One of the earliest and most frequently definition of a gang is made by Thrasher
(1927). Thrasher(12) defined a gang as a group that forms spontaneously and without
any special attachment to existing parts of the society.
Gangs tend to have many common characteristics. Residence is a common
component. Most gangs will be formed in cities. Another common characteristic in
gangs is the age of their members. Gangs are mostly comprised of teenagers or young
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6. adults in their early twenties. Gender can be considered among the common
characteristics as well. Gangs tend to male dominated. Millen's (1975) (13) national
study found that over 90% of gang members were male. At last, gangs reflect their
ethnic composition quite often. There are gangs that formed on the basis of their
ethnicity such as the Latin Kings and the Chinese gangs.
Three Major Cities
Brief Views
Gangs are usually found in large cities. They have been flourished as well as the large
cities. New York, Chicago and Los Angeles are most typical among the cities. The
number of gangs in the three cities has been always ranked on the top. For example, in
1900s, there were approximately 2,000 gangs in the whole country while there were
about 1,500 gangs in the three cities. That is to say, the number of gangs in the three
cities took up about 75% of the country.
New York
As the place of origin, New York has an important position in America gang history.
Besides the Five Point Gang, there was another big gang at the same time. That is the
Forty Thieves Gang operated as professional murders, smugglers, burglars and
pickpockets. In 1985, the Forty Thieves Gang(14) and many other youth gangs caused
New York City officials to announce their city had a gang problem.
By the 1850s, gangs such as the Plug Uglies Gang(15), the Dead Rabbits and the
Chichesters Gng were formed which were established by the Irish and Italian. At the
same time, the gang problem was virtually described as an Irish and Italian problem.
Then the gangs in New York spead and influenced other cities like Chicago.
Since 1900s, because the Irish and Italian have not considered second-class citizens
and the government has taken some strong actions, the gang problem in New York
seems less serious. But there are still some African, Chinese and Mexican gang crimes
heard in New York.
Chicago
Chicago is referred to as the largest gang cities in America. Gangs have been
classically viewes as a by-product of social disorganization, the weakness of
traditional institution, like the school, to replace the lost primary networks of the
traditional world.
Race profoundly shaped the history and contours of Chicago's gangs. While other
ethnic groups were on the ladder of assimilation, African American were crowed into
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7. the south side "Black Belt"(16). As WWI brought an increasing number of African
American into Chicago to find work, tensions rose. In 1919 a rare riot broke out
spearheaded by Irish gangs. In the following years, African American would stay
segregated, while European did not. Violence met attempts by Black families to move
out of apartheid conditions into White areas. Mexican immigrants also came at this
time.
In the 1920s, Italian replaced the Irish on the top of the rackets. The Irish ran the legal
politics and the Italians ran the illegal one. They worked together just fine. In 1950s,
the spaces of the city began to be more sharply contested, as the number of African
American had grown so large. At the same time, most White gangs faded away. And it
can be seen both an involvement of Black and Latin gangs in the background
economy nowadays.
Chicago is a gang city. Form the European immigrant gangs to African and Mexican
gangs, the Chicago's gangs have institutionalized.
Los Angeles
Compared with New York and Chicago, Los Angeles is a young gang city but it is the
new warm bed for gangs to grow. And it has become increasingly significant in the
development of the American gangs. Its history of gangs began and Mexican street
gangs began to be formed and became major gangs in Los Angeles. Because there
were no Irish and Italian gangs' influence in the new city, the city has come to become
the base for Black and Mexican gangs.
Conclusion
The origin of the gangs were colsely related to the political and economical events, so
did the developments of them. Certainly the gangs have negative influence on the
people of the country, but that does not explain all of them. The influence of Italian
gangs in the cultural respective shows a different role of the gangs. And how are the
gangs in big cities? The description of the three major America gang cities potrays a
close picture of it. The complexity keeps us from make a prediction of the gangs
through a 2000 words paper reserch, but for sure we will keep an eye on them through
what we have collected.
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8. Reference:
(1) http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/Sidebar/RussianMafia.html
(2) BBC News - The Rise and rise of the Russian mafia
(3) Vory v Zakone has hallowed place in Russian criminal lore.
(4) Foreign Mafia in Thailand Thomas Schmid, Thailand Law Forum
(5) http://sungat.ru/eng/taxonomy/term/3
(6) http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/Sidebar/RussianMafia.htm
(7) http://smu.edu/ecenter/discourse/ruth.htm
(8) http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/Sidebar/RussianMafia.html
(9) ‘Italian Mafia’ in Reports & Essays: History - European History, 18, Jan, 2010
http://www.studyworld.com/newsite/reportessay/History/European
%5CItalian_Mafia-322057.htm [accessed 22, 05, 2012].
(10) ‘Italian Mafia’ in Reports & Essays: History - European History, 18, Jan, 2010
http://www.studyworld.com/newsite/reportessay/History/European
%5CItalian_Mafia-322057.htm [accessed 22, 05, 2012].
(11)http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2008-01/26/content_6422353.htm
(12)http://www.thrashermagazine.com/
(13)http://www.zhantai.com/gy/53/10/378743.html
(14)http://www.answers.com/topic/forty-thieves
(15)http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=KQkSAQAAIAAJ&lr=&hl=zh-CN
(16)http://www.blackbeltmag.com/
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