Gang, Mafia, Cosa Nostra - Essay Example

Mafia: Cosa Nostra s Submitted by s: Introduction Mafias are networks comprised of organized crime groups that are based in America and Italy that have evolved through time in Sicily, which is an island that had been under the rule of foreign invaders up to mid nineteenth century (Siegel and Nelen, 2008, p. 16). The people of the island formed groups with the aim of protecting themselves and create their own form of justice (Cuda, 2013, p. 91). In the island, the word “Mafioso” refers to a member of a mafia and did not have any association to criminal activities when it was coined as it was used when referring to a person who did not trust the central authority. In the nineteenth century, several mafia croups emerged developed into private armies known as mafie, and they were involved in various activities including extortion of money from people who owned land and ultimately became the violent criminal outfit that is currently referred to as Sicilian Mafia. On the other hand, the American Mafia ascended to power in the twenties and is independent from the Mafia in Italy; however, they have similar traditions including ormeta, which is a code of conduct and loyalty (Sifakis, 2005, p. 453). Theoretical idea of gangs The statement that people decide to act badly is the key principle of the classic theory that was made popular in the eighteenth century that emphasized on agency while claiming that people act on their own free will. This implies that people commit crimes when they think that the potential benefits of the criminal act outweigh the possibility of being punished. Nonetheless, the advancements of new studies in criminology, numerous criminologists started considering and arguing for the importance and the part played by structure and the effect it has on deviant conduct. The causes and materialization of criminal activities of gangs can be assessed using various structural concepts that underscore the importance of the role of economic and social structures as the causative agents of criminal behavior while tending to treat criminal conduct as the consequence of dysfunctional and objectionable structures. John Hagedorn proposes that gangs should be examined in the setting of their communities and seen as a subject of urban policies instead of problems for the police. He develops the idea that the gangs of the present day originate from the black urban underclass-families that have been left behind in the ghettos by the black flight of those considered as upwardly mobile. This thesis is proposed as a new concept of gangs in the eighties but academics have doubts that more theories are required. The typical rationalization for entreating new explanations is discovering new problems and in order to make such justifications, Hagedorn is supposed to be persuasive that the Milwakee hangs that he refers to are actually different from the gangs that existed previously. In this context, he weakens his own perspective through refusing the existence of super-gangs that existed in his city. Hagedorn states that the gang members of the present day are people who have dropped out of school and hailing from poor minority backgrounds. He states that they are involved in legal and illegal activities to earn some money but are typically less criminal than other people in their communities. He further states that gangs have existed for more than a century Cosa Nostra The Cosa Nostra does not exist as one huge entity; instead, it is a loose association of approximately on hundred groups that are considered as families and referred to as borgatas or cosche, and regardless of their names, the members of these groups typically do have any blood relations (De Stefano, 2006,p. 60). Every group in the Cosa Nostra controls a specific territory independently, typically a village or a town, or a section of big cities, even though they never completely conquer or legitimize their monopoly that is characterized by violence (Jacobs, Panarella and Worthington, 1994, p. 225). Through time, the power instruments of specific families have been the only ruling bodies in the associations and have continued to be the principle centres of power subsequent to the creation of superordinate entities in the Cosa Nostra from the late fifties. Clan chain of command In 1984, Tommaso Buscetta, a member of the Mafia who was an informant, enlightened prosecutors on the command structure of an archetypal clan of the Mafia by stating that a clan is usually under the leadership of a “Boss”, assisted by an under-boss and directed several advisors (Chepesiuk, 1999, p. 107). The boss commands groups that are each comprised of around ten soldiers called decina, where every decina is under the leadership of a capodecina (Arnot and Usborne, 1999, p. 260). However, the structures of the clans are not the same and regardless of the term decina, it is not a requirement that they have only ten soldiers, as in some cases they can range from five to more than thirty. On the other hand, some of the clans are too small to have either decinas, or capodecinas, while in some of the larger clans; some soldiers who form the decina might not be in a position to report to the boss directly (Albrecht and Fijnaut, 2013, p. 19). Normally, the soldiers elect the clan’s boss, but there are instances where others come into power through violent successions (Dickie, 2004, p. 70). As a result of the limited size of most of the Sicilian clans, the bosses of the clans on this area have closer interactions with all their members and have no outstanding rewards or privileges in comparison to the bigger organizations like New York’s Five Families (Paoli, 2003, p. 231). The occupancies of power for the bosses of Sicilian clans is also relatively shorter than those of larger clans as election take place on an annual basis or the bosses face disposition even before the end of their terms as a result of ineffectiveness or wrongdoing. Typically, under-bosses are appointed by the bosses and function as the most trustworthy right hand men and second in the perking order. In the event that the boss is not able to exercise his power as a result of death or imprisonment, he is supposed to take over as the new boss. Apart from the boss, the consigliere, is elected annually, with is responsibilities including supervision of the boss’s actions as well as those of his immediate subjects, especially in regards to finances, acting as the unbiased advisor of the boss and mediating in the event that internal disputes arise (Allum and Gilmour, 2012, p. 61). In order to carry out this role effectively, it is necessary that the consigliere practice impartiality so that he can avoid any conflicts of interest. Apart from its immediate members, the Cosa Nostra utilizes its associates extensively (Kontos and Brotherton, 2008, p. 30). The associates are individuals who perform some duties on behalf of the clan or in some instances more than one clan but are not considered as actual clan members including corrupt public officers as well as those seeking to be admitted into the clans. The members of a clan perceive associates as nothing more than instruments or someone they can utilize. More often than not, the media has referred to the capo di titti capi who supposedly is at the top of the command of all the Cosa Nostra (Rosman, Rubel and Weisgrau, 2009, p. 226). Various people including Salvatore Riina and Calogero Vizzini were extremely influencing bosses who have been considered by law enforcement as well as the media as capo di titti capis of their era (Paoli, 2003). Even though the powerful bosses may have a huge impact upon his neighbors, the position of capo di titti capi has never been formally created and the emphasis that the media has put on this position has not been proven to have solid basis (Hendley, 2010, p. 238). Violence Through numerous years, the Cosa Nostra has become reputed for using violence ruthlessly in the form of assault that some time results in deaths. Individual violence and destruction to property using bombs, fire and explosions is a characteristic pattern of the regular use of violence to conduct the business of the Mafia. Violence, as well threats of violent actions was the main instrument that was used by the Cosa Nostra to gain monopolistic control over its criminal entities. Through violence, competitors and discourages and ultimately eliminated, therefore reinforcing the group’s authority and standing. The use of violence has also been employed as a means of imparting internal disciple and experts in law enforcement have indicated that the threat of violent actions is at the centre of Cosa Nostra’s activities. Additionally, conspiracies to commit murder, or murder have in most cases appeared among the predicate common crimes in the prosecutions of organizations that are corrupt on influenced by racketeering. The use of violence in the activities of the Cosa Nostra is demonstrated in various cases in the past few two decades, where the first two occurrences took place at the command of the previous leader of the Gambino crime family, John Gotti, in New York. During trial in 1997, one member of the Gambino family gave a testimony about a torture killing, which had been done under Gotti’s orders to a victim who had supposedly shot at Gotti (Minetor, 2010). The victim was tortured using lit cigarettes and a knife, carried in a car’s truck, shot in the backside and eventually shot five times in the head. In another instance, when John Gotti was locked up in a federal prison, he had two members of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist group, murder the Gambino crime family’s previous consigliere, who had made threats of murdering Gotti (Ciment, 2015, p. 1330). Additionally, a 1997 case shows the methods of Cosa Nostra in regards to using violence as intimidation and retribution, as the Cosa Nostra was planning to assassinate a federal judge who was presiding over the trials of some of the biggest mobs in New York City. Lastly, a member of the New York based Lucchese crime family and other people were charged in 1999 were charged with instigating terror against the people they considered as their competition their business that dealt with private sanitation. Charges against them included burning trucks and buildings of their rivals, destroying the businesses that hired their competitors and killing the salespersons who worked for their rivals. This history of using violence by cartels such as the Cosa Nostra shows the significance of reputation and Cosa Nostra has personified the aspect of using violence as an instrument of commanding respect. Economic resources It is believed that among the main assets of the Cosa Nostra is its broad acumen in business as they operate in an opportunistic, entrepreneurial and adaptable manner (Tonry, 1998, p. 170). They are able to identify ways of exploiting vulnerabilities in the market while simultaneously maintaining the required stability and expectedness that is integral to the success of businesses. One means of achieving this is through taking over a section of legitimate businesses and providing services in return instead of taking over the entire business. Taking over an entire business would necessitate a management responsibilities that the Cosa Nostra does not want to handle or may not have the capacity to handle, additionally; this would have a likelihood of upsetting the business environment that is needed for success. Cosa Nostra is associated with a broad variety of illegal activities that include drugs and gambling that have remained their biggest source of money. The Cosa Nostra is also involved in loan sharking, which has exemplified the part played by the reliable use of violence and is often connected to drugs and gambling (Eterno and Das, 2010, p. 14). It also applies for extortion, but the groups is also involved in other more conventional criminal activities including theft of air cargo, murder as well as hijacking among others. Moreover, some crimes have become a specialty for the Cosa Nostra and have remained unique to them, especially in the US. Even though some of the crimes have had an impact in the entire country, they have been conducted mainly by New York City’s five crime families, as Cosa Nostra’s control of the legitimate economies in other areas of the US is marginal. The New York crime families mainly specialize in several forms of racketeering in business, industrial cartels, labour racketeering and rigging of bids. These are the areas where the most successful and aggressive penetration of Cosa Nostra can be demonstrated in the legitimate economy with labour racketeering entailing labour unions being controlled through organized crime. Through control that is achieved via threats and use of violence, a lot of money is siphoned from the pension funds of the unions and there is extortion of businesses so that peace can prevail and strikes avoided, additionally, bribes are solicited in order to award contracts (Siegel and Bunt, 2012, p. 94). Business racketeering, which is the other specialty, has been seen in New York City especially in construction, garbage and music industries and the Cosa Nostra controls strip clubs, trucking firms and bars. New York City’s five families have also at several times controlled the New York Coliseum, the Fulton Fish Market, JFK International Airport’s air cargo operations and the Javits Convention Centre (Pelton and Aral, 1995, p. 576). Once more, the main instruments of control are violence and extortion and one of the best examples of Cosa Nostra cartel was the monopoly they had in the New York City waste hauling industry for almost half a century. The Cosa Nostra exploited its control over the local unions to create a cartel that was involved in monopolistic activities in the industry through threatening to disrupt businesses, creating labour issues as well as violence on individuals. As a consequence of its monopolistic control, the Cosa Nostra forced participants as well as consumers to pay exaggerated fees for hauling waste, which was a practice that was referred to as mob tax. Through the years, mob tax created losses that accumulated into hundreds of millions. Partly as a response to successful actions of law enforcements in numerous areas of criminal activities that were conducted by the Cosa Nostra, it broadened its activities and widened its penetration in the legitimate markets through moving to white-collar crimes. The Cosa Nostra has been involved in multi-million dollar frauds in various areas including prepaid telephone cards, health insurance as well as the victimization of Wall Street brokerage firms. All these frauds demonstrate some degree of professional knowledge, for instance, in one of their health insurance frauds, the members of the mob established Tri-Con Associates in New Jersey to arrange dental, medical and optical care for approximately one million people in the entire country (Hagan, 2011, p. 408). The employees of the company who were not members of the mob were utilized as the managers while the health insurance administrators were intimidated so that they could approve excess payments for the company. In terms of prepaid telephone cards, the Gambino crime family established a company dealing with calling cards, and it swindled more than fifty million dollars from phone companies as well as callers through falsified sales. As far as the stock exchange was concerned, members of Cosa Nostra along with their associates offered loans to stockbrokers who were facing debts or needed capital with the aim of expanding their businesses (Liddick, 2004, p. 4). Subsequently, the members of the mob forced the brokers to sell them majority of the shares in a company that were under-priced prior to its stocks being available to investors via initial public offering. Consequently, they would inflate the shares’ value and sell them at huge profits prior to the plunging of the over-priced stocks. No other criminal group has equalled the monopolistic control of the Cosa Nostra over numerous illegal markets as well as its diversification into the legitimate markets up to this point. This is the case regardless of the fact that it has been significantly weakened on the past decades. Conclusion Organized crime has continued to be a self-perpetuated conspiracy by criminal groups that have a hierarchical structure and function using fear and corruption while being motivated by huge profits and affecting huge regions or countries in general. These groups, including Cosa Nostra, retain their positions by using violence or threatening people with violence, compromising public officials as well as extortion, and similar to multinational companies, they have extended their operations into areas like drug smuggling and other prohibited products. They are also involved in technological and industrial espionage, manipulation of financial markets and control of groups inside and outside the legitimate system of the state. Cosa Nostra is the most prominent organized crime threat in various areas especially the US and when the number of non-member criminal associates is considered for each member of the Cosa Nostra, the scale of the problem posed by Cosa Nostra takes a much bigger dimension. It is approximated that the four main groups that constituted the Cosa Nostra have a membership of more than twenty five thousand along with approximately two hundred and fifty thousand affiliates all over the globe. More than three thousand members along with their affiliates exist in the US alone and are spread largely in the major cities in the South, The Midwest, the Northeast and California. There are mainly cantered in New York, the southern sections of New Jersey as well as in Philadelphia, while taking part in global criminal activities in collaboration with members and affiliates in Australia, South America, Parts of Europe and Canada. Additionally, there is evidence that they work together with international organized crime entities from various regions of the globe in activities such as trafficking of drugs. Bibliography Albrecht, H. and Fijnaut, C. 2013, Crime, criminal law and criminal justice in Europe, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden. Allum, F. and Gilmour, S. 2012, Routledge handbook of transnational organized crime, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon. Arnot, M. and Usborne, C. 1999, Gender and Crime in Modern Europe, Routledge, London. 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