Organized Crime

Organized crime is often described similarily by groups like government, the press and popular opinion. This similar definition is described through the knowledge people have gained from pop-culture movies, television shows, magazines, novels and stories from newspaper articles. Often these newspaper articles are written by authors who have little more knowledge on the structure of organized crime then what their favorite Sopranos episode dictates. It is extremely rare in today's society that somone who has an opinion on organized crime (which is almost everyone) has gained this opinion through first-hand experience (Finckenauer, p. 63). The problem with this narrow view of organized crime is that it fails to encompass the real issues/problems that truly define organized crime, therefore not allowing us as a society to fix the problems of and associated with organized crime. Stereotypes that have been made about organized crime through these pop-culture icons must be addressed and challenged by researchers as they aim to fix the definition of organized crime in the minds of the public, press, and government. Fixing society's understanding of organized crime is, as we have learned, the first and possibly most important step in controlling organized crime in our society.

The view of organized crime including acts such as, international drug smuggling, for example, is organized crime often being described as a; "highly structured and organized operation with verticle lines of responsibility and communication." (Cromwell, p.251) These views are based on the idea that when large amounts of money are involved there must be a high level of organization. This however is not always the case as studies have found very little ...

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... such criminal acts. By broadening our definition to not only support our out-dated and pop-culture influenced view we can better understand how organized crime has been functioning and flourishing as a group practice, and not as a hiearcial organized structure. Organized crime has been functioning and flourishing and is estimated to bring in over $1 trillion dollars annually (Galeotti, p.2). By changing our definition of organized crime we can better understand the people involved, viewing them as part of our society, and come to a better solution of how to stop organized crime groups from forming, and committing serious crimes. This will allow governments and law enforcement groups to better tackle the problem of organized crime, and not waste countless resources searching for answers and basing their actions in a narrow definition that is no longer valid.