NCJ Number
174011
Editor(s)
P J Ryan,
G E Rush
Date Published
1997
Length
263 pages
Annotation
Seventeen papers, authored primarily by members of the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime, examine various aspects of organized crime from an international perspective, including its structure, social organization, operations, and threat.
Abstract
Parts 1 and 2 provide a historical introduction to some theorizing about what organized crime is, which provides the basis for understanding the practical experiences described in the later chapters. The first chapter provides a look at the structure and workings of the Italian version of organized crime, also known as the Mafia, Cosa Nostra, the Mob, or the family. This model presented by Donald Cressey has stood the test of time, but chapters 2 and 3 offer critiques of the model by three of Cressey's colleagues. Two chapters in Part 2 provide alternative views of Cressey's bureaucratic model of Cosa Nostra. Part 3 contains two papers that focus on the character and characteristics of the Mafia. One paper argues that Americans' belief in the presence of organized crime is akin to a belief in the devil. Another paper examines the biographies, the memoirs, of organized crime figures to discern what brought them into organized crime and to identify any common ground that may breed Mob Bosses. Part 4 moves to the product of field research, as four papers consider the social organization of organized crime in Chicago, Asian gangs and Asian organized crime in Chicago, organized crime's involvement in financial services, and the emerging trends in entrepreneurial crime in international organized crime. Part 5 addresses the history, structure, and function of organized crime in Russia, as well as the roles of primitive capitalist dynamics and the security services in Russian organized crime. Part 6 examines organized crime in Hong Kong after 1997 and the evolution and future direction of Southeast Asian criminal organizations. 450 references and a subject index