Compare and contrast - Essay Example

It involves a group of people, who do the crime in a professional manner. These are criminals who depend on illegal or unlawful activities as their way of life, (Albanese, 2010). These crimes are coordinated and preplanned from a centralized syndicate. It happens to be an ongoing conspiracy where groups engage in illegal or illicit ventures with a sole aim of generating income. These groups have structures which resemble business with a pyramid hierarchy. It involves practicing heinous acts so as to maintain the external and internal control, (Albanese, 2010).

These groups can go to the extent of committing murder. These tend to have political wings where they contribute to election campaigns with an aim of securing immunity from arrests. They engage in credit card frauds, gambling and narcotics. Racketeering and smuggling is also common with these groups, (Albanese, 2010). How my perception compares with the definition. My perception of organized crimes does compare with that of the definitions. This is because; in the definitions given here it is clear that planning is involved in the organized crimes.

This is the same case in the readings. This also suggests that, in both cases, the nature of crime is not impromptu. It takes a lot of deliberations and sometimes diplomacy can be involved just to secure their interests, (Albanese, 2010). . This is because activity that leads to violence, theft or even murder are unpopular and by all definitions they are terrible crimes. The idea of having professional criminals is intriguing by itself. It is difficult to imagine that there are people who specialized in crime as a way of living, (Albanese, 2010).

However, it is not entirely shocking because there are people who have an uncontrollable desire to do crime. My perception of organized crime is that these are crimes done with a coordinated approach. The same definition appears in the readings. However, the readings reveal that this organization can get quit sophisticated because it is got training involved, and the coordinator are extremely intentional and often technological experts. Characteristics of organized criminal behavior Intimidation and violence Organized criminal gangs always use intimidation and violence to accomplish their goals and intentions.

The nature of violence portrayed by these groups can be put into two categories, (Albanese, 2010). They are the tactical and the strategic categories of organized crimes. The strategic category of organized crime involves the use of groups with higher criminal capabilities. This includes careful planning and execution of well coordinated multiple crimes. This could be a way of retaliation against other groups or paralyzing government activates, (Albanese, 2010). On the other hand, tactical category is opportunistic in nature.

It is clearly based on short-term goals like retention of a group share in the criminal market. Diversification of criminal activities. Most of these organized groups deal with: narcotics, vehicle thefts and other large-scale crimes, (Albanese, 2010). Their crimes are none—random in nature. Organized