Org Crime

Organized crime underwrites the bulk of political, social, and economic history in America. What has often been mentioned in passing as legitimate business activities can and often should be reframed as organized crime, such as the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the colonial mercantilism that it supported (Woodiwiss, 2003). When organized crime is taken out of its Hollywood context, which portrays organized crime as an immigrant problem, some patterns emerge that clarify the function and structure of organized crime in America. Organized crime tends to flourish in "societies that experience rapid and intense social change," (Albini et al. 1995, p. 213). This is why the United States has been a hot spring of organized crime in various manifestations throughout the nation's history. In only a few hundred years, the United States has gone from colonial outpost to global superpower. Rapid change and cultural transformation foment organized crime, as do...
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