Issue of importance, personal - Essay Example

Organized Crime Crime is a term which can be defined as some activity which is illegal and will result in a possible conviction. Organized Crime is basically an organization of crime which is being run for the sole purpose of profit. These organizations basically have certain attributes which ascertain that they are functioning as a broad organization. The organized crime groups have certain rules regarding their structure because of which their membership is limited. They give membership to individuals based on ethnicity, kin and race.

Violence is an integral part of these crime organizations through which they get most of their work done. These organized crime groups try to legitimize their business as much as possible. These organized crime groups also bribe officials for their safety all over their vicinities (United States 2007; Finckenauer 2005). It was in the early twentieth century that organized crime started to emerge in United States. It is presumed that it was the Italian Mafia that entered the US in the very beginning.

The immigrants who entered United States usually made their own ‘families’ and then fought with each other to cause problems for the civilians of the United States. It was then that the situation worsened and police officials entered the arena to wipe out the organized crime from United States. Organized crime in United States at first established themselves by pursuing illegal activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution, gambling and bootlegging. It was through these activities that organized crime established itself in the United States (Repetto 2004; US Congress 1968).

Organized crime groups had their own methods and strategies to influence the government in such a way that the civilians did not even come to know. At the first instance the organized crime groups established legitimate businesses which would run as a cover for their illegal activities. Gambling and liquor trade gave them enough money to become millionaires from which they bribed the government officials who would then take sides of these crime groups. The government officials knew the power of these crime groups because of which they could not stand against them.

The organized crime groups established power all over the states because of which they could influence the government in many ways (Repetto 2004; United States 2007). The post prohibition era is marked by the amendment in the constitution which legalized the liquor trade in United States. This came as blow to organized crime as many of them were dependent on the illegal trade of liquor. At this instance it was seen that organized crime in United States was declining. It was then that the organized crime resorted to other means of doing illegal activities.

Some of the offenders started relying on gambling while most of them heavily became dependent on the illegal trade of heroin and marijuana. Organized crime now has taken different grounds and is carrying out different activities which are not even known to the government officials. Some of these activities are related to legitimate businesses from the outside because of which they are still unknown. However it is believed that organized crime has declined tremendously in United States because of the efforts of the intelligence agencies (United States 2007; Repetto 2004).

ReferencesTop of FormUnited States. (2007). Mafia: The governments secret file on organized crime. New York: Collins.Bottom of FormRepetto, Thomas. 2004. American Mafia: A History of its Rise to Power. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.U.S. Congress, House Government Operations, Legal and Monetary Affairs, Federal Effort Against OrganizedCrime: Report of Agency Operations, committee print, 90th Cong., 2nd sess., June 1968.James O. Finckenauer, “Problems of Definition: What is Organized Crime?

” Trends in Organized Crime, vol. 8, no. 3(Spring 2005), pp. 63-82.