Public Policy Agenda for Combating Organized Crime (From Crime and Public Policy: Putting Theory to Work, P 269-295, 1995, Hugh D Barlow, ed. - See NCJ-163416)

• NCJ Number: 163431
• Author(s): D J Steffensmeier
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 17 pages
• Sale Source: Westview Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

Organized crime is discussed in terms of its nature, the four major forms with the greatest impact on the United States, and proposals for an effective public policy based on accumulated theory and research.

Abstract

Organized crime is fundamentally about the exploitation of business or market opportunities. Criminal organizations can be identified and compared with respect to their size, degree of formal structure, scope of criminal activities, and scale of impact on the public and the economic structure of a country or countries. Organized crime in the United States include La Cosa Nostra, a variety of ethnically organized criminal groups in metropolitan areas, local racketeering syndicates and transnational criminal organizations. An effective public policy should be multifaceted; consistent with mainstream criminological theories; focused on the political, social, and economic underpinnings of organized crime; and composed of both immediate and long-term strategies. Strategies must take into account the complexity and variety of organized crime. The four components of law enforcement approaches should include a vigilant media and an informed public that demand accountability of law enforcement and public officials; a research and intelligence program; efforts to strengthen weak or complicitous governments, reduce poverty and social disintegration, and change cultural frameworks that support organized crime; and improved research as well as its use in policymaking. Notes and 45 references