A Criminal Group The American Mafia - Essay Example

Introduction Across the world, it is everyone’s desire that people can coexist in atmosphere of peace and stability. Countries that have peace are mostly characterized by increased economic and social activities, people feel free to walk to various places when they are sure that nothing dangerous can harm. Peaceful countries attract investors from other parts of the world, who often with an assurance that the peaceful environment will enable them to benefit from their investments. Countries often strive at creating policies and other regulations that can ensure people live together in harmony. Peace can be described as the occurrence of harmony, which is characterized by the absence of conflict behaviors, violence as well as the freedom resulting from fear of war or other kinds of violence (Miller, 2012). In other words, peace indicates the attempts made at reconciling warring parties and other international relationship. Currently, world peace has become an important agenda across various global forums, with countries striving towards fighting off terrorism and other activities that are claiming peoples live in huge numbers. Terrorism has been the major cause of underdevelopment in many countries that have been deeply affected by it. People fear to walk and undertake their diverse social, political and economic activities because of fear of attacks by terrorists, who often target mass destructions of property and lives of people. Across the world, various examples of damages caused by terrorists’ activities exist; with the issue become a matter of priority among governments of the world. Following this universal concern, this paper presents a case study of one of the renowned criminal groups in the United States. It examines some of the efforts being made by the government to ensure peace and security in the country. The American mafia For a very long time, American police and other security agents have been struggling with some organized criminal gangs, which have been terrorizing people and causing various kinds of harm to people (Reppetto, 2004). Many incidents have been reported about various kinds of injuries and even death, which has been done on innocent people by these criminal gangs. In the past, the country has been forced to create new policies and other regulations in the process of strengthening their security systems for all people. The criminal gangs have not been widespread in the United States, but they have concentrated in some of the states, where they are believed to have started their criminal activities. Most of the incidents about the American Mafia group have been prevalent in Chicago and the New York City. The effects of these criminal gangs have forced the government to improve its surveillance and intelligence towards security issues in the country and also from external organisations The historical background of the American Mafia group The American mafia criminal group, also known as the Italian mafia or Italian mob refers to the organized criminal network that is Italian-American in nature. For a long time, the gang has been effective in terrorizing people, stealing properly and even causing the deaths of most people in the cities which it operates. Most of the activities of this criminal network have been in the cities of Chicago and New York, where they are believed to have emerged from. This American mafia group has a long history, which explains how the group managed to develop and grow its network, become on e of the most feared criminal gangs in the United States. The group is believed to have risen to power following the success of its trade in illicit liquor following the prohibition era of the 1920s. after this prohibition, the mafia group did not have another important income activity that they participated in, forcing them to change their operations, moving into criminal activities. At the initial stages after changing their form of activities, these group started involving in drug trafficking and other forms of illegal gambling that would bring them easy cash. Additionally, they involved in infiltration of labor unions and other kinds of legitimate industries in order to get income. Some of the legal businesses that the group carried out included construction as well as the garment industry in the New York City that was fast growing (Jacobs 2006). A combination of legal and illegal activities made it hard for the public to have a perfect understanding of the activities of this group, this made the group to grow and expand widely. Their recruitment of new entrants was done secretly under carefully planned and executed rituals. The violent activities of this Mafia Group., secret rituals some of the notorious characters like John Gotti, Al Capone are believed to have effectively fascinated the public and managed to become part of the fashionable culture (Bunker, 2013). During the start of the 20th century, the government realized how dangerous this group was and started developing ways of how it would effectively deal with it and restore security and public confidence. The government came up with various kinds of anti-racketing policies in order to convict some of the high-ranking members of the group and other mobsters so that it would weaken the group and crash it completely. It is believed that these strategies were not very successful since the group has managed to regroup and continue with their criminal activities, terrorizing people in the normal aspects of life. Immigrations and prohibitions In the 19th century, the United States was one of the countries that had increased social and economic opportunities because of its good leadership and climatic factors. Many people started moving from other countries to the United States in order to find greener pastures. A large number of the Italians, most of whom included artisans, farmers and other many unskilled laborers filled most of the states in America, in order to improve their financial well being. The New York City is one of the cities that experienced a massive increase in the number of people that visited the country (Dash, 2009). The number of people moving from Italy increased significantly, moving from the initial 200,000 to more than 250,000 between 1880 and 1890 (Reppetto, 2004). By 1920, this number had doubled making up about a tenth of the entire population in the city. Most of these immigrants were noble people that abided by the law, doing all they could in order to earn their income in the most legitimate manner. However, it is important to note that in as much as many of them were law-abiding citizens. Some did not have the moral fabric in them; they wanted to make money in the most illegal way, irrespective of the consequences they would get. Some of these groups involved criminals that later formed neighborhood groups that later developed to become dangerous gangs in order to prey on those people that earned their income legitimately (Kindt, 2009). In the 1920, the US made the 18th amendments to the constitution, bringing various changes that were thought to improve the way in which people respected the law and lived in their communities (Reppetto, 2004). The period in the 10920s was later referred to as the prohibition era, because of the many prohibitions that the amendments brought (Dash, 2009). One of the prohibitions enacted in these amendments included the ban on selling, manufacturing as well as transportation of different kinds of alcoholic beverages. Realising the financial implications of these prohibitions, the Italian-American gangs alongside many other criminal gangs decided to carry on with this business. In the process, these gangs managed to change, transforming themselves into bigger and sophisticated criminal gangs. They became highly skilled in the process of smuggling some of the illicit alcohol beverages, money-laundering activities and bribing the police and other law enforcers including public officials, something that led to their growth in New York. During this time, the Italian government was also suffering from the effects of these criminal gangs and Benito Mussolini was dealing fiercely with them, giving them no space to operate in Italy. Because of these reasons, some of the Sicilian Mafiosi managed to make their way into the United States, where they teamed up with the other Italian-American gangs to form a formidable American mafia that was fast burgeoning. However, in the United States, the Mafia group remained separate from the Sicily group that had moved from Italy. The mafia group had adopted some of the Italian traditions because of the initial migrations, which made their founders to team up in various ways (Kemp, 2008). Some of the Italian traditions that this group adopted included maintenance of a high level of secrecy, so that no one would know and understand them. They also parted ways with any kind of cooperation with the government and other authorities, as well as the Ormeta, which was a special form of ethical conduct among the members of the group and partly in the public so that they could easily disguise themselves. Movement into legitimate businesses After the prohibitions that had earlier been ratified in 1933, the Mafia group transformed in the same way, involving in broad range of underworld activities; the gang took part in illegal gambling activities, loan-sharking and operation of prostitution rings. The mafia group also sent its tentacles deeper into other ways of getting income. This saw the group involving in labor unions and various forms of legitimate businesses like garbage collection, construction, trucking, nightclubs and many other restaurants. These activities made the group to rack in millions of money in form of profits through protection shakedowns and kickbacks. These activities had also another important advantage, they made it easier for people to believe that this was an illegal groups. However, it was only a strategy for the group to disguise itself while perpetuating their criminal activities. One of the factors that made the group to be successful was the presence of highly corruptible public officials and the police, who allowed them to operate and perpetuate their criminal activities freely. They bribes also made them get away scot free in most of the court cases. Mid way into the 20th century, approximately24 families of criminal gangs were known to exist and operate freely in the United States, having more than 5,000 members and a countless number of associates distributed across the entire country. Before the 1960s some of the government leaders as well as intelligence reports from the FBI group expressed their skepticism over existence of a wide range of Italian-American criminal gangs. This expression prompted various attempts into ways of combating this criminal groups and creating a secure and peaceful environment in the United States. The congress was made to enact some policies that would be effective in handling these groups and killing the Mafia group completely. Intervention Strategies In 1970, the US Congress was alarmed by the activities of the mafia group, this led to their passing of the new act, that would help combat the activities of the mafia group and other criminal gangs in the United States. Racketeer influenced and corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act became an effective and successful tool that the government employed in waging war over the Mafia group (Reppetto, 2006). This Act allowed court prosecutors to investigate the families of criminals as well as their perceived sources of income in order to get incriminating evidence to prosecute them. The laws outlined in the RICO Act became very effective in convicting many of the high-level mobsters that had continued to operate freely in the United States (Renga, 2011). Because of this development, membership into Mafia group went down significantly. Most of the members became assimilated into the society, renouncing their involvement in criminal gangs and associated criminal activities. Conclusion It is important to acknowledge the efforts that the government undertook in the process of combating the criminal activities perpetuated by the Mafia group and others that had enjoyed operating in the US environment. The residents of the New York and Chicago, where the groups had terrorized and killed most people became quite relieved, praising the government’s efforts and strategies. During the beginning of the 21st century, it was a general observation that the Mafia group had transformed. Become a mere shadow of its past self. However, the group remained operational in some of its activities like construction, loan sharking and some of the illegal gambling since they had not been eliminated (Renga, 2011). However, the government has been developing tougher measures to eradicate all kinds of criminal gangs following the September 11 attacks (Miller, 2012), something that has partly been associated to the criminal groups that existed prior to these attacks. References Bunker, R. (2013). Criminal insurgencies in Mexico and the Americas: The gangs and cartels wage war. London: Routledge. Dash, M. (2009). The first family: Terror, extortion, revenge, murder, and the birth of the American mafia. New York: Random House. Jacobs, J. (2006). Mobsters, unions, and feds the Mafia and the American labor movement. New York: New York University Press. Kemp, R. (2008). Gangs. London: Penguin Books Ltd. Kindt, M. (2009). The world's most threatening terrorist networks and criminal gangs. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Miller, L. (2012). Criminal justice in action. S.l.: Broadman & holman publish. Renga, D. (2011). Mafia movies a reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Reppetto, T. (2004). American Mafia: A history of its rise to power. New York: H. Holt. Reppetto, T. (2006). Bringing down the mob: The war against the American Mafia. New York: H. Holt. Read More