NCJ Number
96392
Date Published
1984
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper addresses the diversity of State racketeering statutes and describes how they differ from the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Abstract
Although congressional concern with organized crime was the impetus for the enactment of RICO, the Federal drafters made no attempt to define organized crime in the statute. no attempt to define organized crime in the statute. Moreover, in defining 'racketeering activity,' the Federal drafters included offenses that are not committed exclusively or even primarily by organized crime but were said to be characteristics of organized crime. Some States, however, have enacted statutes that define 'organized crime' or confine the concept of 'racketeering' to crimes that fit traditional notions of organized crime. The California Control of Profits of Organized Crime Act, for example, defines 'organized crime' and incorporates that concept into the definition of a pattern, thereby pinpointing offenses of predominant concern to Federal drafters but avoiding the potential overbreadth tolerated by Federal drafters. The Hawaii antiracketeering statute provides a variation of the same basic approach. Further, while Federal RICO leaves to judicial development such issues as the relationship predicate acts must have to one another or to the 'enterprise' involved in the violation, draftsmen of some of the State statutes have tackled these issues with legislative language. Finally, all the State statutes provide for civil remedies that may be sought by public enforcement authorities; in this area, several State statutes' depart radically from Federal RICO. Six references are included.