Criminal Justice, Organized Crime - Term Paper Example

Criminal Justice, Organized Crime Introduction The Italian Mafia is an organized ethnic group of crime networks with its main operations based in Chicago as well as New York. This ethnic group gained more power after its victory in the unlawful liquor trade activities in the 1920s during the prohibition era. After this prohibition of the Italian government, the ethnic group (mafia) diverted its activities from illegal drug trafficking to other new ventures, illegal gambling. The group’s violent illegal activities, its secret rituals, and some of its notorious leaders such as John Gotti and Al Capone have highly affected the entire Italian public as well as turning out to become one of the popular cultures (Albini 45). This present paper aims at discussing crime, justice and organized crime in Italy and outlining the effects of Italian Mafia o business government. History, traditions, workings, and criminal activities of the “traditional " Italian mafia Back in the 20th century, the Italian government imposed any laws (anti-racketeering laws) to end this illegal activity as well as weakening the Mafia group. Nevertheless, these types of illegal activities still take place in the country’s business currently. During the 19th centuries, a large group of Italian immigrants, most of them farmers, unskilled workers, and artisans moved to American to search for better paying jobs and economic opportunities, as well (Beare and Naylor 34). The number of Italians immigrants was mostly high in the New York town with a maximum of 250,000 immigrants for the year 1880 to 1910. The majority of these immigrants were law-abiders. However, most of the big groups involved themselves with criminal activities, therefore forming neighborhood gangster groups. In the 1920s, the period of the prohibition era, the time when the U.S. government made its 18th amendment to the country’s constitution mainly to ban the production, transportation, and selling of illicit beverages in the country (Finckenauer and Yuri 56). The Italian Mafia group alongside with other ethnic groups unlawfully, started to associate themselves with liquor activities as well as transforming themselves to perform other criminal activities such as money laundering, smuggling, and bribing the police officers as well as any other public officers (Albini 47). Typically, the entire Italian Mafia group had some hierarchies with each hierarchy being headed by its own boss. The boss with a lot of authority and could receive some amount of money from any moneymaking criminal activity performed by the members of his group. The vice chairperson of any group was second-in-commander and below this commander was Capos who controlled a group of ten members of the family. Each group of family had an advisor who was referred to as consigliere (Beare and Naylor 37). The chain terminated with associate leaders who were the individuals who coordinated with the families although not fully fledged members. For an individual to become a permanent member of any Mafia family, he or she was to go under initiation ceremony whereby the individual performed some rituals such as drawing blood with his or her figure and lifting up a burning portrait of a patron while taking a loyalty oath. In some of the groups, individuals had to involve themselves with murders activities before becoming a fully recognized member of the group. Becoming a member of the Mafia group meant that you were a full committee member and that you should always follow the rules and regulations of the group according to the loyalty card (Finckenauer and Yuri 59). The members also were supposed to adhere to other forms of rules such as not assaulting a colleague member or involving yourself in any affair with another member’s girlfriend or even a wife. Laws in Italy to end, Mafia and other Mafia-type groups in the country The government implemented various laws to in an attempt to end these illegal activities. For instance, in the year 1970, the congress imposed the RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), which the government termed as its most powerful tool to put the Mafia group to a stop. This Act permitted prosecutors to investigate the criminal families as well as their revenue sources, which included both the illegal and legal sources. In the years 1980 through 1990, the government used these laws to convict several mobsters who were ranked the high-level ones. The courts send some of the high-level criminals to serve long sentences in prisons (Beare and Naylor 42). However, despite all these government efforts, the Mafia group also remained highly active in some of their traditional activities such as illegal gambling; loan sharking and the groups’ involvement in activities such as labor unions were still not fully eliminated (Finckenauer and Yuri 71). The American terrorist attacks of the year 2001 portrayed that there is still a continuation of Mafia survival in the country. It was only in the past few years that the legislation of Italy has started to prepare itself to find means of ending the operations of the Mafia group as well as other forms of organized criminal activities. During the ten years from the year 1982 to the year 1992, the legislation of Italy introduced the 144 Acts to end organized crimes in the country (Albini 53). The legislation introduced all these laws to end all the terrible criminal activities that highly affected both international and the local public sphere. The country considers these laws as offspring during emergencies. That is, these laws could answer only the criminal challenges, and they do not constitute to the other law enforcement programs. The Italian legislation approved the first anti-Mafia law (Rognoni-La Torre law) in the year 1982, which was named after its two proposals after Dalla Chiesa assassination (Beare and Naylor 46). The new introduced a Penal Code (the 416 article), which described the Mafia as a precise form of criminal connection. Effects of Italian Mafia towards business, government and criminal justice system One of the major effects of the Italian Mafia towards the justice system in the country is the influence of EEC fraud and the organized crimes. The organized crimes in the country have a highly influenced increase of EEC fraud interests. The term EEC fraud includes all breaches of a governmental nature that is committed by either an individual or a governmental organization that can cause any negative impacts on the financial budgets of the EEC (Finckenauer and Yuri 76). EEC frauds regard any funds from the budget of the EEC and any funds that are not collected or are due to the institution because of various reasons. In accordance with the official estimates, a maximum of only 0.2 % of the total subsidies is shared out of all proportion. The other resources argue that the EEC defrauds an approximately 10% of its annual budget. In the year 1990, cases of fraud in Europe were approximately 525 cases, while in the year 1992 the fraud cases increased to 1030 with Italy is the leading group approximately 366-fraud cases (Beare and Naylor 56). The major influence of these fraud cases in Italy is the mafia group and organized crimes taking place in the country. For instance, southern Italy is termed as the part with the highest number of fraud cases. This region, as well has the highest number of organized crimes, hence influencing fraud activities in the region as well as the entire country (Albini 76). An approximately 20% of all the fraud cases in the southern region are associated with organized crimes, drug trafficking, extortion, as well as other criminal activities of the organized crimes between the years 1990 to 1992 (Finckenauer and Yuri 81). Various cases of fraud in the country are associated with the famous criminal members of the organized crime groups. With the introduction of a common market in the country and removal of boundaries, the number of organized crimes in Ital is significantly increased at a faster rate especially cigarette smuggling. The increase of illegal criminal activities as well as propagation of mafia and other criminal groups has brought many effects and contradictions in the current business government of Italy. The main effects and contradictions brought by illegal activities and organized crimes in Ital are the following. To begin with, mafia crime activities and organized crimes have caused reality and legality contradiction in the business government of Italy (Beare and Naylor 67). The efforts to stop drug trafficking in the country have achieved nothing so far since this type of crime is widely spread with those involved accruing huge amounts of profits. The governmental efforts to end criminality will not abolish mafia group in the country. These activities have highly contributed to paralyzing of the country’s judicial system (Paoli 65). Secondly, there is a contradiction between fight to end money laundering and financial system opacity. The global financial systems are disreputably not taking any action to end this due to tax havens, banking secrecy, innovations as well as anything that can favor the contradiction between legal and illegal capitals (Finckenauer and Yuri 85). The introduction and implementation of global markets have led to the demolishment of all borders, thus favoring distribution of all forms of capital such as illegal capitals. This contradiction has highly affected the business government and justice system of the country. The last type of contradiction that mafia groups have caused in Italy is the contradiction between developmental politics and capital reforming. Currently, the developed countries are drastically advancing increasing the gap between the developed and undeveloped countries. However, the gap between the rich and the poor is still increasing with many people living below the poverty line (Albini 78). This increased unbalanced as well as the growing social gaps between the poor and the rich has highly influenced most people, especially the members of the mafia group to involve themselves in illegal activities such as drug trafficking, which is now becoming the only chance to improve the economic status (Beare and Naylor 69). This social gap has highly influenced the increase of illegal activities, hence causing many effects towards the business government and justice systems in Italy. Other types of ethnic groups Other organizations composed of other ethnic and social groups have come up to take up the slack left by the many successful Mafia prosecutions and convictions. These groups include Calabrian mafia, united sacred crown, Neapolitan mafia, and La Cosa Nostra among others (Paoli 67). These criminal groups have highly succeeded to spread the illegal activities of the Italian mafia such as money laundering and drug trafficking. One of the international alliance criminal groups is La Cosa Nostra. The members of this group are linked together by blood covenants as well as conspiracy, which dedicated to carrying out criminal activities as well as protecting the group’s members (Finckenauer and Yuri 96). The LCN group further forms other groups that operate in different geographical areas engaging in criminal activities such as organized racketeering activities. United sacred crown is another mafia type group that started its operations in the year 1980. Like most of the other groups, this group developed from prison gangsters. After the release of the group’s members from prison, this group settled in Italy where it established connections with other mafia type groups in the country (Beare and Naylor 78). The headquarters of this group is at Brindisi, which is at Puglia. The members of this group concentrate on criminal activities such as drug trafficking, arms, cigarettes, and illicit beverages. Calabrian mafia is another criminal group, which formed in back 1980s after the government of Italy banished Sicilians from the island. The Sicilians afterwards settled in Calabria whereby they a formed the criminal group. The group has an approximately six thousand members with its main criminal activities being loan sharking, alien smuggling, racketeering, gambling, drug trafficking, booming and many others. Another group, which was formed by prison gangs, is the Neapolitan mafia. The group comprises over hundred clans with approximately 8,000 members, hence being the biggest organized crime groups in Italy. Conclusion In conclusion, the government of Italy must come up with strict anti-mafia laws to enable the abolishment of the mafia type groups. This is because the majority of these groups activities is severely harmful, hence causing social, economical, and political impacts in the country (Albini 45). The groups have highly increased the rate of organized crimes in the country affecting the well of both local internal people. The citizens of Italy should also work hand in hand with the governmental agencies to ensure that all the members of the mafia group are in custody. This effort will highly contribute towards abolishment of the mafia group in the country. Work cited Albini, Joseph L. "Donald Cresseys contributions to the study of organized crime: An evaluation." Crime & delinquency 34.3 (2008): 338-354. Beare, Margaret E., and Naylor, R.T. Major Issues Relating to Organized Crime: Within the Context of Economic Relationships: Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption. Law Commission of Canada, 2009. Finckenauer, James O., and Yuri A. Voronin. The threat of Russian organized crime. Vol. 2. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, 2007. Paoli, Letizia. The decline of the Italian Mafia. 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