The legislative recreation of RICO: Reinforcing the ``myth' of organized crime

This paper uses historical content analysis to examine the implementation ofthe Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). It is argued thatthe historical events leading to the definition of organized crime as an alienconspiracy still affect RICO's use some 30 years after its passage. This paper applies state-centered theory to the theoretical frameworks of sociology of knowledge and innovation diffusion. This approach is used to relate the current implementation and controversy of RICO to the alien conspiracy view. Thought of in this context, legal implementation is the result of a knowledge creation and diffusion process. This paper demonstrates how one knowledge diffusionprocess (the acceptance of organized crime as a national conspiracy in 1970) leads to a new knowledge diffusion process (the use of RICO).     

The Black Mafia: African-American organized crime in Chicago 1890–1960

The historical role of African-Americans in organized crime in the UnitedStates has been greatly ignored by the academic community. What researchthat does exist argues that black Americans played a minor role in theethnic gambling and vice industries that existed in many American citiesat the beginning of the Twentieth Century. This view is supported by the alien conspiracy theory, which argues that the participation of African-Americansand other minorities in syndicated vice and crime followed the decline oftraditional Italian American organized crime groups. This research arguesthat sophisticated African-American organized crime groups in Chicago existedindependently of Italian American organized crime and that African-Americans eventually played an important role in the activities of the Chicago Outfit,the traditional Italian American organized group in Chicago.     

Ascent of the corporate model in environmental-organized crime

Since the mid-1980s, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (RICO) has been used against traditional organized criminals (i.e., Mafia) operating within various waste-trade industries. Recent civil and criminal RICO cases brought in New York City and State, provide current examples of the overall limited success of using RICO against criminal actors situated within the waste-trade industries. Although the traditional form of organized crime (i.e., Mafia) appears to be on the wane, corporate forms of organized crime have already entered into the waste-trade industries to fill the void created by the extraction of their predecessors. These corporate racketeers closely mimic the old traditional form of crime they have replaced, but may prove to be even more intractable, because, as the literature on corporate crime has clearly shown, corporate entities are extremely resistant to labeling as illegitimate organizations. One result of addressing “environmental-organized crime” as strictly organized crime, rather than as environmental crime, is that little change will be forthcoming in our current environmental regulations, laws, strategies and policies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The hegemonic narrative and the social construction of deviance: the case of the Black Hand

This essay examines Black Hand crime in the city of Chicago from 1892 to 1931. The Black Hand was a crude method of crime in which Italian immigrants and others were extorted for money. This research argues that much of what we know about Black Hand crime is a media construction. The method of analysis used to conduct this investigation involved the content analysis of 280 newspaper accounts of Black Hand crime. This essay also examines the institutional legacy of the Black Hand phenomenon and argues that the inappropriate linking of Black Hand crime to the Sicilian Mafia led to the development of the alien conspiracy theory, forever linking organized crime in American society to the Italian immigrant. This essay concludes that the media play an important role in defining the societal construction of crime. The findings also support the social constructionist argument that definitions of deviance are subjectively determined.     

The creation of Ohio’s ethnic intimidation law: Triggering events, media campaigns, and interest group activity

The majority of the research being conducted on hate crime laws deals with civil liberties issues; however, there has been little research conducted on the creation of these laws. In 1986, Ohio joined a growing number of states in enacting hate crime legislation. This article involves a historical analysis of the creation of Ohio’s ethnic intimidation law. Through the use of interviews and archival data, it was found that interest group activity, media campaigns, and a specific triggering event were all influential in the process of enacting this legislation in Ohio. While these findings cannot be generalized to the creation of laws in general, or hate crime laws in other states, this study does fill a gap in the knowledge about the process of enacting laws.     

Anatomy of a dark network: the case of the Turkish Ergenekon terrorist organization

Dark networks refer to organizations that are covert and illegal in nature. Terrorist networks, organized crime groups, arms smugglers, and conspiracy organizations can all be classified as dark networks. This paper analyzes Turkey??s Ergenekon Terrorist Organization (ETO) which is a political conspiracy network that has played a significant role in the terrorist activities within the country in the last few decades. It has features of organized crime enterprises, terrorist organizations, and Gladio type clandestine armies, but it exceeds the scope of these three. This study examines the structure of the ETO using network analysis tools and court documents as the data source. Findings indicate that the network has a concentrated structure which consists of a core and periphery group of actors. The core group has a strong connectedness with each other while the density of the relationship gets lower in the periphery group. Peripheral actors are separated into subgroups which are necessary for operational purposes and also prevalent in the literature of dark networks. An efficiency-security tradeoff, which is also widely discussed in the literature, does not take place in the ETO network because the political and legal conditions of the country allow members of the network to act comfortably as opposed to being under the threat of counter-terrorism or law enforcement efforts.     

Scrutinizing RICO

Past studies on the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (criminal RICO) are merged with research on organized crime and recently collected information on the presence of informants in appellate cases. After identifying problems associated with the statute since its enactment in 1970, attention is directed toward the place of informants within court proceedings applying criminal RICO. The central finding points to a relatively high presence of informants in such cases. The explanation that follows accounts for the prevalence of informants in RICO cases by combining: (1) the statutes liberal construction, (2) an increasing acceptance amongst government and law-enforcement officials that the use of informants is essential to the fight against the apparent organized crime threat, and (3) the rationalization that extends from the prosecutorial success that has been documented within the United States and in other countries that have adopted similar forms of legislation.We would like to thank Pierre Tremblay and Marie-Andrée Bertrand for their comments and suggestions on past versions of this paper. We also show our gratitude to Gerard Lynch for his help during early phases of this research.     

犯意之于美国刑法中的共谋

从构成美国刑法中犯罪横向典型样态的共谋的发展历史和构成角度出发,围绕共谋当中的犯意规定加以研讨,主要考察了美国刑法实践对于意图以及明知的选择,在此基础上分析了针对随附情状的犯意,并且考察了动机在共谋犯罪当中的相关性的有无。     

Holding Organized Crime Leaders Accountable for the Crimes of their Subordinates

Criminal law doctrine fails to provide an adequate solution for imputing responsibility to organized crime leaders for the offenses committed by their subordinates. This undesirable state of affairs is made possible because criminal organizations adopt complex organizational structures that leave their superiors beyond the reach of the law. These structures are characterized by features such as the isolation of the leadership from junior ranks, decentralized management, and mechanisms encouraging initiative from below. They are found in criminal organizations such as the American Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, and even outlaw motorcycle gangs. The paper offers a doctrine that may transcend this shortcoming. Referred to as “leaders’ liability,” this doctrine will be assessed and appraised through a comparison with competing theories such as accomplice liability, Organisationsherrschaft, and conspiracy.     

The Black Hand: A Study in Moral Panic

This analysis reviews the history of Black Hand extortion in the City of Chicago and argues that the societal response to Black Hand activity constituted a moral panic. In addition, special emphasis is given to the institutional legacy of society's response to Black Hand crime. It is argued that the moral panic created by the Black Hand contributed to the social construction of the alien conspiracy theory, which has dominated beliefs about the Mafia and organised crime for almost a century     

RICO: The genesis of an idea

In 1970, the Congress enacted the Organized Crime Control Act. Title IX of the 1970 Act is the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act or RICO. This Act had its origins in legislation going back as far as 1934, but coming forward to 1961. The 1970 Act borrowed ideas from this earlier legislation, principally “enterprise,” but also the use predicate statutes to define “racketeering activity.” The ideas are not new, but their combination affects how prosecutors and law enforcement agents investigate, try, and sanction violations of the Act. RICO’s drafting also reflects organizational theory and economic analysis. The investigation and prosecution of a single crime committed by an individual on a single day and in a single place maybe done using one set of procedural and evidentiary rules. Nevertheless, the investigation and prosecution of patterns of diverse offenses committed by, through, and against licit and illicit enterprises require sophisticated procedures, evidentiary rules, and criminal sanctions. In addition, antisocial conduct is more than a challenge to the administration of criminal justice; it also requires the full panoply of civil sanctions, including public injunctions as well private enforcement of injunctive relief and treble damages. RICO has had a profound effect on the prosecution of organized crime, white-collar crime, and other forms of similar criminal behavior. William J. & Dorothy K. O’Neill Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School; A.B. 1957, University of Notre Dame; J.D. 1960, Notre Dame Law School. Professor Blakey was the Chief Counsel of the Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary in 1969-70 when the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Pub. L. No. 91-542, 84 Stat. 922 (1970) was processed, Title IX of which is the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act or RICO. For a general treatment of the statute from a variety of perceptive, see the collection of law review literature in G. Robert Blakey & Kevin Roddy, “Reflections on Reves v. Ernst & Young: Its Meaning an Impact on Substantive, Accessory, Aiding, Abetting and Conspiracy Liability under RICO,” 33 Amer. Crim. L. Rev. 1345, 1348 n. 3(1996).     

中国刑法语境中的“共谋罪”考辨

共谋罪是英美刑法特有的概念。共谋罪的本质是二人以上就犯罪、不法行为或其他行为的实施达成协议。惩罚共谋罪本质是惩罚不法协议。围绕“共谋罪独立于目标犯罪而具有可罚性”的基础性观念,英美刑法创设了相应的实体法和程序法规则。我国刑法中的阴谋犯、预备犯等与英美刑法共谋罪从根本上说是不同的范畴。我国刑法并不惩罚共谋罪。     

关于跨国有组织犯罪的若干理论问题

跨国有组织犯罪是有组织犯罪的一种特殊形态 ,也是跨国犯罪的一种主要形式 ,具有结构更加严密、能在国际范围内更加迅速调集资金等特点。不同的历史时期 ,跨国有组织犯罪因经济、社会、文化变迁有不同的特点。近几年来 ,国际恐怖主义及国内分裂势力与跨国有组织犯罪的联系日趋紧密成为新的动态。基于跨国有组织犯罪的复杂性及危害性 ,从国内方面来讲 ,需从政治、经济、法律各方面入手加以控制 ,就国际社会来讲 ,各相关国际组织及各个国家集团或地区性组织均应加强国际合作。     

Policing organized crime

Conclusions Recent criminological research in the Netherlands underscores the fact that organized crime is embedded in society and the overall picture makes it clear that police emphasis on a crime fighting model of the police, based solely on criminal law will not be entirely effective. Therefore, the Twente police force developed a new strategy of policing organized crime in their region. This strategy is based on criminological knowledge and on the approach of community policing: preventive, pro-active and integrated actions taken by various partners of the police in order to reduce illegal activities of organized crime groups. This strategy, however, can only succeed when two conditions are satisfied. First, this approach can only function in an open democratic society in which numerous public and private organizations and the public feel responsible for the emergence of organized crime in their environment. Secondly, the police force and their partners must be (relatively) free of corruption. This implies that this strategy can only be effective in societies in which organized crime has not deeply penetrated democratic institutions and business organizations. Respectively Commissioner of Police and head of the Division Organized Crime of the Twente Police force and Professor of criminology and director of the International Police Institute (IPIT) at the University of Twente. PO Box 217, 7500 EA Enschede, The Netherlands. We would like to thank Alexis Aronowitz of the IPIT for her comments on an earlier draft of this paper and for her grammatical corrections, as well as the members of the editorial committee for their suggestions for improvements.     

Of bogus hunters,queenpins and mules: the varied roles of women in transnational organized crime in Southern Africa

Organized crime scholars have paid scant attention to gender and stereotyped roles of women in the commission of organized crime activities. Traditionally, organized crime is seen as a form of criminality perpetrated by men only. Women are usually portrayed as victims of organized crime or as “mean girls”, girlfriends, wives, lovers of brides of notorious gangsters and mobsters. In the southern African context, little historical or comparative data is available on the role of women in organized crime. Existing data is basic and proceeds on the assumption of gender-neutrality or the implied male composition of organized crime groups. The link of women to organized crime is one of suffering and exploitation. However, in reality women fulfill varied roles and functions within transnational organized crime networks in the region. In some instances, they are the foot soldiers of drug and human trafficking syndicates. Sometimes they are the intermediaries or powerful matriarchs at the apex of transnational organized crime networks. Reliant on empirical findings undertaken for a regional 3-year project on organized crime trends in southern Africa, this paper will examine the dynamism of the role of women in organized crime in the region and argues that women play a multifaceted role with implications for themselves, their families, society and organized crime. Gender mainstreaming within scholarly literature and policy research is in nascent stages, this paper pleads for a more gender-sensitive approach to organized crime analysis.     

The suppression of black societies in China

Recent events have shifted the way the Chinese state responds to organized crime and corruption. The re-definition of organized crime, improved judicial oversight and the re-assessment of ‘strike-hard’ style police campaigns are key reforms. This paper discusses the recent changes in law, practice and oversight in the context of a brief overview of criminal groups in China and the Chongqing policing model. Revisions to the criminal law are described and the likely outcomes are assessed in the context of the key struggle to contain corruption and organized crime.     

Involvement mechanisms for organized crime

This study aims to illuminate the processes that make individuals engage in organized crime activities. Within the diversity of individual involvement processes, several distinctive mechanisms are discussed. Theoretical ideas are illustrated by empirical data on 15 crime groups, including over 300 offenders. The crime groups differ in size, composition, and the nature of criminal activities. Social capital theory is used to understand the dynamical process of becoming involved in organized crime; on the one hand an individual contributes to a crime group, on the other hand the crime group helps an individual reach certain goals. Case studies reveal several resources, such as knowledge, skills, and equipment, that make offenders suit and contribute to a particular organized crime group. Criminal and conventional histories of organized crime offenders turn out to be diverse. Several joint characteristics that opened doors to organized crime opportunities, like running one’s own business, are discussed. It is confirmed that involvement through family and long-time friends is common; most criminal groups contain at least one or two relatives.     

The Hamdan Case and Conspiracy as a War Crime: A New Beginning for International Law in the US

In the Hamdan decision, Judge Stevens, writing for the majority,addressed the boundaries of the law of war and specificallywhether the conspiracy charge lodged against Hamdan constituteda violation of this body of customary international law. TheSupreme Court persuasively held that conspiracy does not constitutea war crime.     

Traditional Organized Crime in Chicago

For 78 years the Chicago Outfit or Mob has been the focus of the Chicago Crime Commission's1 efforts to combat organized crime. Indeed, the perception of organized crime in Chicago, as well as much of the city's reputation, stems from the notorious, and often inappropriately glamorized, activities of the Outfit from Al Capone in the 1930s through John DiFronzo in the 1990s. While the Outfit is most certainly still alive, much of the organized criminal activity presently targeting Chicago and its suburbs is perpetrated by new and emerging criminal enterprises. These groups range from local burglary rings to highly sophisticated international criminal organizations headquartered in Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and South America, involved in corporate kidnapping and extortion, murder-for-hire, high-tech crime and drug trafficking. All require public attention and relentless law enforcement scrutiny. This paper deals with traditional organized crime in Chicago. Emerging Organized Crime will be dealt with in a forthcoming paper.     

Organized cross-atlantic crime

There is concern about penetration of organized crime in the legitimate business. This penetration can take various forms, ranging from a complete take over to a veritable symbiosis between crime-enterprises and the legitimate industry. This paper describes the interaction between crime-enterprises in the mineral oil market in the Unites States and North-western Europe. It pictures the landscape or moral decay, lack of supervision by law enforcement and the spread of systematic fraud in a branch of industry which has become ripe for infiltration by organized crime. The paper reveals that organized business crime is not just a concern for the United States of Europe alone. If the entrepreneurial landscape has similar features and there are possibilities of personal bridgeheads organized business crime obtains crossborder, transatlantic dimensions. The paper questions the selective attention of law enforcement to easily recognizable crime and the morally dubious attitude of legitimate industry taking advantage of the profitable offers by criminal entrepreneurs.