A “social institution” is defined as a group of individuals that live in a type of “organized arrangement” for the main purpose of obtaining a certain goal. The definition of “organized crime” is a group of individuals that get involved in illegal acts for the main purpose of making a profit. Many of these organized crime groups are centralized and operated on a local, national, and international level, and can be part of several nations (Shanty, 2007).
How the Social Institution and Organized Crime are the Similar Organized crime and a social institution are similar due to the individuals involved in the criminal activities work in unison to gather as much benefit to the group as possible. Take some terrorist groups for example. Many of them have operated for decades and across nations under a singular leader, for a unified cause (Shanty, 2007).
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The legitimate business often functions as a cover that masks the illegal activities the group performs. Most social organizations are structured in a certain way in which a central leader who makes the decisions as well as gives the orders to be carried out by their followers (Shanty, 2007). Social institutions can be found in every society, and place their focus on the relations, duties, and responsibilities of every member. This is where social institutions and organized crime are most easily recognized. They both share a similarity in that they each have leaders, relations, followers or members, and of course, obligations to someone. One finds its funding through contributions or endowments left by well to do followers and supporters, while the latter receives money through crimes such as kidnapping, hijacking, extortion, human and drug trafficking, murder, among others (Shanty,
Social Institutions are groups of people who have come together for a common purpose. These institutions have formed a common bond. They have done research and have concluded by joining they can achieve more. Some of the social institutions in the local community are the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Cub Scouts, the Girl Scouts. There are generally five different types of social institutions. They are political, educational, religious, economic, and family. Each is filled with members of a common goal. Organized crime organizations have adopted the philosophy of social institutions. They
These things make up for a vast amount of the overall profit made by certain individuals involved with organized crime. The second objective of these individuals is predatory crime. Some examples of this might include assault, arson, kidnapping, or robbery. These are the more socially reprehensible crimes which give organized crime its relative bad reputation. While many citizens would not condone many of these actions, they might unknowingly sponsor their occurrence by indirectly funding them.
Many could argue that organized crime takes place in our society because of the circumstances in which our society has chosen to exist. It could have been started because of rules, regulations, and laws that we have placed upon ourselves that not every person agrees with. It could be a problem because several of the people within our society choose to live differently because they feel they can. Whatever the logic behind the choice organized crime does exist in our society and has for quite some time. In this paper will take a look at the perspective of social organized crime. We will discuss and explain the term social institution and how it applies to organized crime. We will discuss empirical
3. Characterize the initiation ritual. How do you think it compares to the “real” ritual – if such a ritual exists?
Organized crime is found in the United States of America today and the law enforcement agencies are trying to find a way to curb its existence. Even though there are illegal businesses associated with organized crime, they are mixed in with legal businesses to portray a legal front. It also can be called a social institution because it is led by a boss and follows a chain of command much like a pyramid. Empirical and speculative theories have been developed through the years in order for the law enforcement agencies to better understand organized crime and how to deal with it. This paper will examine a social institution as it applies to
This is mainly because of the services the organizations provide, the fear they cause, the indistinct information available about them, and their national level of organization. In order to gain influence in a community, criminal organizations will provide services that the people within that community might want, for a cost: immunity from any actions taken against organized crime. In return for helping fund a politician, help a police officer with the bills, or even help the average citizen or businessperson overcome a problem. The only requirement is that in exchange for that service, the person must be willing to ignore the organization’s illegal actions (Ruth 114). Organized crime also utilizes fear to control the community by selectively fulfilling threats to give the appearance of the ability to fulfill any threats that the organization makes. The organization’s use the appearance of absolute power to cause continued loyalty, adherence to extortion schemes and other activities, and to discourage witnesses, while the selective nature of fulfilling threats keeps law enforcement and the general public from taking notice of the organization. Organized crime also remains hidden from the public eye because the public and the government only focus on one aspect of organized crimes revenues, which allows the organizations to profit from a broad range of criminal activities even while the government or public attempt to stop the revenues from one source, making it very difficult for the government to stop organized crime from being a profitable business (Ruth 115). The criminal organizations have also followed in the footsteps of industrial corporations and have grown to encompass territory throughout the country. The
Criminal gangs are there to rule, they have been there in every community for a long time. Gang's intentions are to commit crimes. Gang leaders oversee extortion, order killings or smuggle drugs. This paper studies gang formation, why individuals join gangs and the negative influence gangs have to the society and the economy. The study focuses on some of the prominent gangs in the world today; it explains the activities of the Russian mafia and other gangs. This paper explains power struggles within gangs and gives out recommendations to solve problems associated with gang operations. This paper puts into perspective a study on factors influencing gang membership; the study employs personal interviews as a method, causal research design and ordinal scale of measurement. Prisoners in California state prison are the sample population. Structured proxy question are used, and observation to study an individual's race. The study focuses male prison gang members. Findings from the study indicate that the less educated an individual is the likely for one join a gang, from the study it is evident that gang members feel disregarded when formulating policies, it is clear that race is not a factor to gang membership and that most of the gang members come from dysfunctional families.
When dealing with organized crime, those working in the criminal justice field that there are plentiful problems that organized crime brings to the table. One such issues that can rise up are the provision of illicit markets is one large problem associated with organized crime. This is an issues because communities that are in a susceptible state and as a result this types of villages can undoubtedly become dependent on what organized crime can supply (Beare & Naylor, 1994). Within at risk environment manipulation and perversion can
A good way of studying the types of organized crimes in the US is by examining organized crime groups that are very prominent in the US. Threats of organized crimes originate from various criminal organizations which include but not limited to Italian, Asian, Middle Eastern, Balkan and African
Crime is a social construction, and behaviour defined as criminal varies across time and place. Crime is an act that violate moral behaviour, but why is that not all behaviours that violate moral behaviour are labelled as crime? This is because crime is defined differently across different societies and different times. Neutralisation and drift theory helps us to explain why people abuse children by showing us how perpetrators rationalise their guilt for these actions before they physically, sexually, emotionally abuse or neglect children. They do this by blaming their actions on other people, higher forces or believing their acts are harmless. In this essay I will begin by talking about crime as a social construction then touch on child abuse in New Zealand followed by a discussion of how my social contract theory helps us to explain this crime.
Deviance is a violation of social norms, behavioral codes or prescriptions, which guide people into actions and self-presentations conforming to social acceptability. There are many forms of deviance. Among the many forms of deviance, organized crime stands out in many aspects of society. Organized crime has been around for many years in America and for centuries in Europe. It is distinguished by its durability over time, expansive interests, hierarchical structure, buildup of profit, investment of profit, access to political protection, and the use of violence as an end to particular means. Organized crime is able to thrive throughout the world by supplying, or appearing to supply, services that the lawful economy is unable to
There are, in fact, similarities between street crime and white-collar crime. Both commit criminal acts (usually in this case it involves stealing or some type of fraud) and they both commit these acts of violence when the opportunity presents itself (Barkan, 2012). But it is the differences that make these two types of crime so distinct.
1. believe that the mafia/ the mob is the most detrimental organized crime group to society, due to their resiliency. In the video we watched over the mafia, over one hundred people spanning multiple states got booked in a bust so large they had to use a military base for booking. This shows me that these organized crime groups are still functioning in the US today and committing crimes such as murder, corruption, racketeering, and extortion. These groups have survived for hundreds of years in the United States and abroad, this shows their power, determination, resiliency, and danger to society. I believe that prison gangs are the most powerful organized crime group to society due to their large criminal network and ability to control crime from inside of a prison. Prison gangs are so powerful and scary because they do not just commit crimes in prison, but also control street gangs. These leaders are so powerful that they can call shots and hots from inside supermax prisons where they are locked in their cells for twenty-three hours a day.
Is the criminal justice system more effective as a method of bringing the guilty to justice or as a deterrent or a method of social control? It is unanimously agreed that the aim of the criminal justice system is to provide equal justice for all according to the law, by processing of cases impartially, fairly and efficiently with the minimum but necessary use of public resources. It is a complex process through which the state decides which particular forms of behaviour are to be considered unacceptable and then proceeds through a series of stages - arrest, charge, prosecute, trial sentence, appeal punishment -' in order to bring the guilty to justice' (Munice & Wilson, 2006 pIX) and is designed for a coherent administration
Exactly what is the Mafia? Mafia, more specifically the Italian-American Mafia, is a group of criminals organized into "families," and operating primarily in North America. Also known as La Cosa Nostra, at one time there were 26 families in the United States - roughly one for each major city. The Mafia composed of bosses of numerous families, mostly New York, was the overseeing authority for all of the other La Cosa Nostra families. New York City is the place of origin for organized crime in the United States. Currently, there are five families in the New York City outfit of the La Cosa Nostra. The five families are, the Gambinos, Genovese, Colombo,