Crime In The 1920s Essay

Before 1920 the United States was experiencing major rises in crime due to the intoxication of its citizens because of alcohol. So in 1920 the United States government created the 18th amendment, a ban on alcohol, which according to Mark Thornton, an assistant professor at Auburn University, was a “Noble Experiment” by the government to reduce crime in the country. Little did the government know was that the passing of this amendment would do the complete opposite and significantly raise the crime rates in the country by giving gangsters a whole new way to commit crime. The prohibition of alcohol in the United States during the 1920s created a major rise in the amount of crime and homicides, particularly in the city of Chicago. The prohibition

Richard J. Hopkins explains in his article called Prohibition and Crime saying “the liquor traffic has been the dominant cause of crime, misery, and pauperism. Intoxicants directly or indirectly, have sent more people to jails, penitentiaries, and insane asylums than any other cause” (Hopkins, 41). The government saw this as a major problem so they enacted the 18th amendment which banned the consumption, sale, and manufacturing of alcohol in the country. This forced many Americans to illegally get their hands on alcohol and illegally produce alcohol. By making it illegal for people to possess alcohol, it paved the way for gangsters like Al Capone to get involved with the process by bootlegging alcohol and selling it illegally in bars called “speakeasies”. Al Capone and his mob were able to get away with illegally producing and selling alcohol by using newly introduced strategy of organized crime and paying off local government officials and police

This style of crime was created during the prohibition usually between mobs and government officials and police officers. “ordinary criminal groups become organized when they buy off police officers, fix ballot boxes, replace union presidents, call in favors, and bestow generosity upon friends in high places” (Smith and Papachristos). Al Capone was a major participant in these organized crimes in the Chicago area during the 1920s. Capone had a very large number of relationships with politicians and mob members that he used to his advantage to commit many crimes relating to the prohibition. In the article Trust Thy Crooked Neighbor it talks about Capone’s many relations with politicians and explains the relation with one politician named William Thompson who was the mayor of Chicago during the prohibition. The article explains that “given the known connection Al Capone and Mayor Thompson, these appointments generated accusations of Capone buying Serritella’s position with contributions to Thompson’s election fund” (Smith and Papachristos). Capone used his relations with Mayor Thompson to get his politician friend Daniel Serritella a government position which would help him get away with hundreds of crimes. Another major event of Capone using organized crime for his gain was on April 1, 1924. In the book Prohibition Gangsters, it says “April 1, 1924, was election day in Cicero, and Capone