Discussion Post- Due today 11:59 ET

 Answer these two questions 

 Utilize a paragraph structure. Each question should have its own paragraph with    

complete sentences. 

1. summarize, in your own words, the four different types of organized crime and provide an example of each.
2. What is the RICO statute? How effective has it been in the war on organized crime?

The four different types of organizing crimes are:

1. Political-Social Organized Crime. This category best fits into the political criminal activity discussed in the previous chapter. It refers to crime by guerilla and terrorist groups and various militant social movements that use violence, such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Molly Maguires, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
2. Mercenary (Predatory) Organized Crime. This category refers to crimes committed by groups for direct personal profit, crimes that prey on unwilling victims, such as juvenile and adult criminal gangs who engage in larceny, burglary, and robbery. The Mano Nera (Black Hand) is an example of the last of these. These 1880s extortionist gangs (there was no one Black Hand) in the United States sent threatening notes to fellow Italian immigrants requesting money. The notes usually contained a sinister mark or sign of a black hand. Often erroneously identified as a forerunner of the Mafia, the Black Hand was more a method of crime than an organization. It provided no illicit services and could not ensure immunity for its own operators through political corruption.
3. In-Group–Oriented Organized Crime. This refers to crimes committed by groups, such as motorcycle gangs and some adolescent gangs, whose major goals are psychological gratification, “kicks,” “rep,” “highs,” “bopping,” and “trashing,” rather than financial profit. Motorcycle gangs—the post–World War II prototype is Hell’s Angels—have branched out since Hollywood portrayals such as Marlon Brando’s in The Wild One. These gangs are sometimes used as “muscle” (enforcers) and for low-level jobs by larger syndicate groups (see Abadinsky, 2012). Such groups are involved in narcotics distribution, prostitution, extortion, bribery, contract murders, pornography distribution, and other activities. The Hell’s Angels have also moved extensively into drug trafficking, allegedly controlling as much as 90% of the “speed” market in northern California. Hopper’s (1991) field study of outlaw motorcycle gangs documented their transition from hedonistic hell-raisers to economic entrepreneurs. He also noted that females had lost status in such gangs and have come to play the dual roles of sex objects and money makers. Perhaps an apt concept to apply to such gangs is that of semi-organized crime because they lack at least one of the key features of our definition of organized (syndicate) crime.
4. Syndicate Crime. This category of organized crime is the subject of this chapter and to which most writers refer when speaking of organized crime. Syndicate crime (henceforth a synonym for organized crime) may be defined as having three key features, as suggested by Albini (1971):
   • A continuing group or organization that participates in illicit activity in any society by the use of force, intimidation, or threats
   • The structuring of a group or organization whose purpose is to provide illicit services for which there is a strong public demand, through the use of secrecy on the part of associates
   • The assurance of protection and immunity necessary for its operation through political corruption or avoidance of prosecution (pp. 47–48