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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

 A subculture implies that there is a social value system that is apart from a larger value system.

 Subcultural delinquents have learned values that are deviant and that lead to criminal behavior.

 They may view their criminal behavior as morally wrong, but but this is not their controlling attitude.

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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).

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CRIMINOGENIC NEIGHBORHOODS

 Shaw and McKay studied patterns of criminality in Chicago in the 1920s-1930s.

 They found that certain neighborhoods maintained high levels of criminality over time despite changes in ethnic composition.

 Such neighborhoods are characterized by attitudes and values that are conducive to delinquency and crime, particularly organized crime.

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SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION

 Landesco studied organized crime in Chicago in the 1920s.

 He found organized crime could be explained by:

 social disorganization in the wider society (as during Prohibition)

 the social organization of urban slums from which members of organized crime emerge.

 “Once a set of cultural values is established, they tend to become autonomous in their impact.”

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DIFFERENTIAL OPPORTUNITY

 Cloward and Ohlin:

 Illegitimate opportunity for success, like legitimate opportunity, is not equally distributed throughout society.

 Severe deprivation with extremely limited access to ladders of legitimate success results in collective adaptations in the form of delinquent subcultures.

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Entry into organized crime groups is not available to just anyone in the subculture.

There too, is differential opportunity.

DELINQUENT SUBCULTURES

 Cloward and Ohlin (1960) distinguish 3 types: 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.

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SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY

 Social control refers to the processes by which the community influences its members toward conformance with established norms of behavior.

 Why do most people conform to societal norms?  Why do some young people who have the opportunity

to contend for positions in OC, choose not to?

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SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY (CONT.)

 Social control theorists: "Delinquent acts result when an individual's bond to society is weak or broken."

 The strength of the bond is determined by:  External Restraints: Social disapproval linked to

public shame and/or fear of punishment.  Internal Restraints: An unconscious, powerful,

mechanism that provides a sense of guilt.

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ETHNIC SUCCESSION

 According to the ethnic succession thesis, successive immigrant groups experienced strain, and some members innovated, using illegal means to achieve societal goals.

 According to this thesis, persons involved in OC are not committed to a deviant subculture, but are merely using available, if illegal, opportunities to achieve economic success.

 "Big Sal" Miciotta: "Only a real gavone [lowlife] wants for his kids what we got" (Goldberg 1999).

 Critics of ethnic succession theory note some persons rationally choose OC, although they have other options.

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ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN AND THE RATIONALIZATION OF CRIME

 A.R. "The Brain" Rothstein (1882-1928) set new standards in OC. He transformed criminal activity from a haphazard endeavor into a bureaucracy with specialized expertise, administrative hierarchy, and organizational procedure.  "Rothstein's office, in the middle of the midtown

business district, employed a staff comparable to that of any large, legitimate, commercial firm, complete with secretaries, bookkeepers, and legal counsel" (Joselit 1983).

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ZIPS

 The Zips, recent immigrants from the Mezzogiorno, are the connection between the criminal organizations of southern Italy--Mafia, Camorra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita--and the American Mafia.

 Their entry to the U.S. was eased by the reversal of a restrictive immigration statute which had discriminated against southern and eastern Europeans.

 Some were admitted into American Mafia Families; others formed their own criminal organizations.

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"Zip" alludes to their rapid speech in Italian dialect.

ZIPS (CONT.)

 Ties between the American Mafia and the Zips were highlighted during the 1987 "Pizza Connection" case.

 A Mafia group headed by a former Sicilian supplied $1.6 billion of heroin to a Bonanno Family group.

 The Zips and their American counterparts share similar customs, philosophies, and a common heritage. The prototype of the crime Family is identical in each system.

 In criminal and law enforcement worlds, however, their "Old World" ways have earned the Zips more fear and respect than their American counterparts.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ORGANIZED CRIME

 While sociological theories may identify 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 criminals.

 Why do people exposed to the same milieu react differently? Psychology, a discipline that focuses on the individual, provides some answers.

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CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY/ PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

 Persons with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) have a poorly developed superego--the conscience- like mechanism that restrains antisocial behavior.  They suffer little or no guilt; are emotionally

detached.  The most disturbing symptom is aggression,

expressed in shades from from quiet intimidation to explosive violence.

 "We're talking and joking, Greg ('The Grim Reaper') whips out a piece and shoots the guy in the head."

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BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY/ LEARNING THEORY

 Central to behavioral psychology is that all behavior is shaped by its consequences.

 Behavior is acquired through operant conditioning: learning through positive and negative reinforcement that results from interaction with the environment.  If aggressive behavior is rewarded, the person learns

to behave aggressively.  The OC environment is full of reinforcement for

antisocial behavior, while conventional, conforming behavior is often ridiculed.

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BIOLOGY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

 The body consists of cells, organized into tissues. Specialized cells receive information about the environment and translate it into electrochemical signals that we experience as sight, sound, smell, and touch.

 The human brain is at risk from chemical imbalance, particularly as related to antisocial behavior.

 Some such persons regard ordinary environments as boring and unpleasant and seek novel and/or intense sensory stimulation.

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