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Crim100Lecture6Summer2020R1.pptxCRIM 100: Lecture 6 Organized Crime
When I teach this class face-to-face, I invite Mike Trump (sessional instructor at UFV and former police officer) to deliver this as a guest lecture. He has an extensive background in studying organized crime and teaches our fourth year Organized Crime course here in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
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Please Note…
Warning: slides and hyperlinks include graphic, and sometimes disturbing images & content
Slides are for CRIM 100 internal use ONLY and may not be replicated, distributed or published by any means and are expressly for educational purposes by students officially registered in this course.
At the end of this lecture and after completing the reading, you should be able to:
Define organized crime.
Describe and nature and significance of organized crime.
Discuss the various types of organized crime groups operating in Canada.
Understand the development of organized crime.
Identify the attributes of organized crime.
Learning Objectives
This lecture contains a lot of material on organized crime, organized crime in Canada, and relevant theories and attributes of organized crime. I think you will find this material very interesting, but it may also be overwhelming. As I’ve mentioned before, CRIM 100 is intended to expose you to various topics in the field, and if you are interested, you could explore these topics in more detail, via other courses during your studies. Organized Crime is one of these courses.
So, given that this is a complex lecture, I will provide specific instructions regarding what will/will not be on the next quiz.
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“An organized crime is any crime committed by a person occupying, in an established division of labor, a position designed for the commission of crimes providing that such division of labor includes at least one position for a corrupter, one position for a corruptee and one position for an enforcer”
*Donald Cressey
Definitions of Organized Crime
“all illegal activities engaged in by members of criminal syndicates operative throughout the United States and all illegal activities engaged in by known associates and confederates of such members”
*Department of Justice
Definitions of Organized Crime
“as any group having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities. Such groups maintain their position through the use of actual or threatened violence, corrupt public officials, graft, or extortion and generally have an impact on the people in their locales, region or country as a whole” *current FBI definition
Definitions of Organized Crime
“Organized criminal group shall mean a structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offences established in accordance with this Convention, in order to obtain, directly, or indirectly, a financial of other material benefit
The United Nations Convention
A group, however organized, that is
Composed of three or more people in or outside of Canada
Has as one of its main purposes or main activities the facilitation or commission of one or more serious offences that carry a five year or higher maximum sentence
That if committed would likely result in in the direct or indirect receipt of a material benefit to the group or by any of the persons who constitute the group”
Definitions of Organized Crime Criminal Code of Canada
The Canadian Criminal Intelligence Service (CISC) identified approximately 729 organized crime groups in 2012. These groups were found in all communities, from urban centers to rural areas
The number is constantly changing
Organized Crime in Canada
Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs
Asian Organized Crime
Indigenous organized Crime
Latin American-Mexican organized Crime
East European-Russian Organized Crime
Organized Crime groups in Canada
There are several factors that affect organized crime in Canada:
Geography and size. The patterns of OC in Vancouver differ from that of Toronto.
Numbers. The number depends on how the gangs are counted.
Collaboration among OC groups. What do we know about the connection between traditional OC groups and emerging OC groups?
Groups or markets. Organized crime can either be looked at from the perspective of the groups who are committing the crimes or from the perspective of the markets in which the profits are made.
Groups. There are several reasons why ethnicity continues to play a role in some operations. The main reason is that there is a belief that criminal operations will be harder for the police to penetrate if the participants know each others, are from the same community, and share a distinct language.
Global transitions. Various regions around the world have undergone fairly significant social, economic, and political change during the last few years, and those changes may link to criminal activity within Canada.
Source: CRIM 100 Course Reader.
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Alien smuggling
Armed assault
Car theft
Drug dealing
Fraud
Trafficking humans and weapons
Exploitation through prostitution
Chemical terrorism
Gambling
What kinds of activities are criminal organizations involved in?
Source: Winterdyk, 2020:253.
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The British Columbia Lower Mainland, Southern Ontario and Greater Montreal are the primary criminal hubs with both the largest concentration of criminal groups as well as the most active and dynamic markets.
Where law enforcement successes have disrupted or dismantled specific crime groups, this impact tends to be short term. In general, criminal groups are highly resistant to long-term disruption
Many organized crime groups have the capability to exploit international borders and as a result supply and distribution chains remain strong.
Exploitation and infiltration of legitimate business by organized crime groups plays a critical role in undermining public confidence in some legitimate markets while contributing to the resilience on many organized crime groups
The expression “organized crime” was not commonly used until the 1920s
Prohibition provided Irish , Jewish and Italian immigrants the unparalleled opportunity to climb the “queer ladder of social mobility”
Development of Organized Crime
Immigration from 1820-1850 grew dramatically in the United States
Immigrants found employment in the most dangerous, monotonous and poorly paid industries
Roots of organized crime can be found in the politics of urban America before Prohibition in the form of the political boss
Development of Organized Crime
In Canada, 39% of the national prison population is made up of members of street gangs
Aboriginal Gangs - 26%
Predominantly weighted in the Prairie region
Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs – 17%
Traditional Organized Crime – 8%
Asian Gangs – 3%
Legitimate businesses
Violence and intimidation
Technology
Identity fraud
Money laundering
Consortium
The union of fortunes or joining of several persons for one purpose
Cartel
Combination of producers to control sale and price
Syndicate
Association of individuals who wish to carry out a business
Organization
Tow or more persons forming an association to conduct business
Gang
A company of persons who act in concert for a criminal purpose
Investigative Definitions
Has no political goals
Is hierarchal
Has limited or exclusive membership
Constitutes a unique sub-culture
Perpetuates itself
Exhibits a willingness to use illegal violence
Is monopolistic
Is governed by explicit rules and regulations
Attributes of Organized Crime
Bureaucratic/Corporate Model
Patron-client Network
Structure of Organized Crime
The Bureaucratic Model:
“The bureaucracy model of organized crime became widely known by the public confessions
of Mafia defectors, such as Joe Valachi, during interrogations of U.S. Senate committees in
the 1960s, and the scientific work of Donald Cressey for the Federal Task Force on Organized
Crime. In his frequently-cited book, ‘Theft of the Nation’, Cressey (1969) describes organized
crime as a more or less formal bureaucracy: pyramid-shaped, with a strict hierarchy, a clear
division of tasks, codes of conduct, and internal and external sanctions. Basically, organized
crime is viewed as a distinct organization and equated with a specific organizational form.
This bureaucracy model of organized crime is very popular in criminal justice circles and
turns up regularly in the media and in public debate, with frequent reference to godfathers
being in charge and lieutenants controlling certain specialized divisions.”
The Patron-Client Network:
“Patron-client networks are defined by fluid interactions. They produce crime groups that operate as smaller units within the overall network, and as such tend towards valuing significant others, familiarity of social and economic environments, or tradition.”
Source: Kleemans, E.R. (2014). Theoretical perspectives on organized crime. In: L.
Paoli (ed.). Oxford Handbook on Organized Crime. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
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A complicated hierarchy
An extensive division of labor
Positions assigned on the basis of skill
Responsibilities carried out in an impersonal manner
Extensive written rules and regulations
Communication from the top-down
Communication from the top to operational level personnel can be intercepted
Written records endanger the entire operation
Successful infiltration at the lower end can jeopardize the entire operation
Death or incarceration leaves dangerous gaps in operations
Bureaucratic/Corporate Model
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The patron provides economic aid and protection against both the legal and illegal exaction of authority
The client pays back in more intangible assets (esteem and loyalty) and may offer political or other important support
Patron-Client Network
Networks can vary in size
Capable of considerable expansion
Have the capacity to extend across borders
They have the capacity to develop safeguards against infiltration
They develop a high degree of redundancy and duplication that make them resilient to disruption
Flexible and adaptable
Respond quickly to market opportunities and /or law enforcement strategies
Patron-Client Network
Lack of victims to initiate prosecution
Cloak of secrecy
Cultural morality
The permissive society
Social Acceptance and Organized Crime
Organized crime is a normal response to pressures exerted on certain persons by the social structure
Robert Merton
Social and Cultural Explanation of Organized Crime
Strain theory argues that “crime results from the lack of opportunity coupled with desire for conventional success that produces strain and frustration.” (Siegel and McCormick, 2016:215).
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The North American preoccupation with economic success
End result is coveted; not the means
Pathological Materialism
All behavior-including criminal behavior-is learned
In the environment where organized crime thrives the strain is intense and coupled with easy access to criminal opportunity
As a result some people conform to the norms established by criminal or delinquent subcultures
Differential Association
Differential association theory is defined as the principle that criminal acts are related a person’s exposure to an excess amount of antisocial attitudes and values (Siegel and McCormick, 2016:245).
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A culture refers to a source of patterning human behavior
A sum of patterns of social relationships and shared meanings by which people give order, expression and value to common experiences
Subcultures and Social Disorganization
A sub-culture implies that there are value judgments or a social value system which is apart from the larger or central value system
Ethnic
Occupation
Social classes
Occupants of “closed institutions”
Subcultures and Social Disorganization
Activities where drug usage is the primary focus; the anomic condition leads the sufferer to reject the goal of economic success in favor of a more easily available one-simply getting high
Retreatist Subculture
Gang activities devoted to violence and destructive acting out as a way of gaining status
Conflict Subculture
The methods and processes by which the community influences its members toward conformance with established norms of behavior
Social Control Theory
According to social control theory, all individuals are potential law violators but are kept under control because they fear that illegal behavior will damage their relationships with others (Siegel and McCormick, 2016: 252).
You will learn more about this and other sociological theories when you take CRIM 104: Sociological Explanations of Criminal and Deviant Behavior.
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Gang activity devoted to utilitarian criminal pursuits, an adaptation that begins to approximate organized crime
Criminal/Rackets Subculture
Organized crime provides “a queer ladder to success” for disadvantaged groups who eventually leave organized crime, making way for the next wave
Ethnic Succession
Illegitimate opportunities for success, like legitimate opportunity, is not equally distributed throughout society and access to criminal ladders of success are no more freely available than are non-criminal alternatives
Differential Opportunity
Social disapproval
Public shame
Social ostracism
Fear of punishment
Risk
Reward
External Restraints
Development of the superego
Sense of guilt
A controlling mechanism that develops out of the relationship with, and the influence of, our parents
Internal restraints
The superego takes its form and content from identifications which result in the child’s effort to emulate the parent
Develops out of love and fear of the parent
If the superego does not attain full strength the person is more likely to act on primitive impulses often of a violent nature
Psychology/Psychoanalytic Theory
You do not need to know the specifics of psychology or the Psychoanalytic theory. You will study this in detail when you take CRIM 105: Psychological Explanations of Criminal and Deviant Behavior.
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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.
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The Psychopathic Personality
The psychopath does not experience the normal tripartite structure of id, ego, and superego.
Absence of a superego is the result of “failures of internalization that often begin with imitation of the parents’ behaviors, but then expand to include family, school and community norms and rules.”
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As I mentioned in a previous lecture, you can learn more about psychopathy if you take my second-year course – CRIM 216: Psychopathy and the Criminal Justice System.
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The Psychopathic Personality
Psychopaths are restrained only by the fear of punishment, which alone cannot exercise adequate control over antisocial impulses.
Such persons suffer little or no guilt as a result of engaging in socially harmful behavior.
They are characterized by a combination of antisocial behavior and emotional detachment
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Psychotics and Psychopaths
A psychotic is a person with a psychosis
Debilitating organic mental illness
A psychopath will have a behavioral or personality disorder
Diminished capacity to experience fear and anxiety
Impulsive
Highly manipulative and often very charismatic
No remorse for victims
Lack of shame or guilt
Unable to empathize with others especially victims
Feel they are special and entitled to their actions
The saloon was the center of neighborhood activity and the saloonkeepers became political leaders and power brokers
Able to influence the general voting public
The machine politician influenced the bestowing of important services on his constituents in exchange for votes
The Saloon and The Machine
Began with the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1919
Ended in 1933
Era of corruption in both politics and law enforcement. Noticeable rise in the crime rate
Served as a catalyst for organized crime
It encouraged cooperation on a wide scale between gang leaders in the various regions and led to crime syndication
Prohibition
Irish presence in organized crime was limited and the Jewish heyday was over.
Italians and the American Mafia were now the dominant force
The End of WW II
Hells Angels 1% MC Montreal Canada documentary (Optional Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmaLqtvKG-A
OMGs are often touted as being community activists/contributors, patriots, and seen as following the beat to their own drums. They do toy runs and are very active in their communities, but there is another side to OMGs. Please watch the following documentary from the History Channel on outlaw motorcycle gangs in Canada (with a specific focus on the Hell’s Angels).
Source: Canadian Criminology, Fourth Edition © Oxford University Press Canada, 2020
Internet Protocol Television. (2015). Hells Angels 1% MC Montreal Canada [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmaLqtvKG-A.
Point out what draws people into these gangs and what law enforcement agencies are doing about these gangs.
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CTV Television Network (2019). Investigation of Money Laundering at BC Casinos: The Laundromat (Required Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddsGyJ-7Zw0
This media documentary provides a journalistic examination of significant, long-term, money laundering through casinos in the Province of British Columbia with specific focus on the River Rock casino in Richmond, BC.
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On behalf of Mike Trump, thank you!
