The Relationship between Organized Crime and Politics in America

The Mexican Mafia, or “La Eme”, as they refer to themselves, is one of the most powerful and influential organized crime gangs in the United States. The organization has risen through the decades of mass gang wars and violence to become the power it is today. Their control is limitless and they have ventured far beyond the expectations of what was thought that gangs were capable of. They have infiltrated governments and manipulated politics. They have taken over neighborhoods and attempted to ethnically cleanse them. Innocent people have become caught up in the affairs of La Eme throughout its history and many have faced violence and death at their hands. This paper is a continual of the case analysis of the Mexican Mafia and will attempt to provide explanations for some of the crimes committed by this organization. Researching gangs and organized crime is important because of their large influence and control over many aspects of daily life. The significance of attempting to provide causations of their crimes can better provide the criminal justice system a clearer understanding of problems that lead to gang members committing crimes on behalf of the organization. A clearer understanding of problems can help the system to provide solutions to combat situations that inhibit crimes.

The United States of America is no stranger to corruption and extortion. Gang violence, the mafia, murder for pay and the marijuana industry in un-legalized states are a few examples of organized crime that happen in current day America. There are many different forms and types of organized crime today but where did they arise from? The rise and growth of organized crime in America can be attributed to government intervention in the social lives of the people, the Great Depression, and the jurisdictional limitations set on the authorities at local, state, and federal levels.

dominating the drug industry are the Latin American and majority of Asian, specifically cocaine and heroin production. Global organised crime is evolving and embracing new markets and technologies; moving from the traditional hierarchies towards a more flexible, network based construct of organisation. To a certain extent, the legitimate world is a victim of its own accomplishment; the globalisation of the legal economy has globalised the underworld. This has provided the demands of numerous illicit services, and an improvement of policing ironically forcing criminals to become more organised to continue. The international organised crime groups that are working together and with an effect, dividing the globe amongst them. There is sufficient

What is organized crime, it is a highly organized, disciplined association engaged in supplying illegal goods and services, including gambling, prostitution, loan-sharking, narcotics, and labor racketeering. A lot of times when we hear organized crime, we tend to think or focus only on the mafia. But, it is not just that. There are three major organized crime groups of different nationalities that currently operate here in America. Namely, (1)La Cosa Nostra, Italian organized crime, and racketeering; (2) Eurasian/Middle Eastern organized crime; and (3) Asian and African criminal enterprises.

When I watched movies like “American Gangster” or “The Godfather” or heard about events that occur in the news that they believed to be in association with organized crime, I never gave it much thought. Okay, so I think changing the structure of this first sentence would be best. Something like, "Prior to taking this class, I never gave the association of organized crime in much of what we see in the news as well as in movies like "American Gangster" or "The Godfather" much thought. >>Just a rough idea. Or maybe try splitting it up into two sentences.

Organized crime is a major problem around the world and only grows larger as time goes on. They increase in size and influence daily and become more of a threat to anyone who has the displeasure of interacting with them. These gangs, as they’re often called, deal in weapons, drugs, and human trafficking, selling means to kill people, ruin their lives, or just plainly sell people. Unfortunately actions such as these are commonplace nowadays among gangs as they become more and more ruthless. We need to rid ourselves of gangs, that much is clear. However, nowadays we’re not in a position to do so. Everyone in the country needs to understand the dangers of gangs and how they can grow anywhere despite law enforcement. Because it’s not the police that can do away with gangs for good, it’s the citizen 's’ responsibility to ensure these gangs never grow and prosper.

Political crime is crime drive by a specific philosophical view. In the United States, there isn’t a sanctioned classification of criminal behavior called political crime due to the First Amendment. Our Constitution restricts the government from taking measures against people for voicing their views in a peaceful assembly. Political crime is an act carried out with the intention to harm our federal, state, or local government under certain circumstances. Politics and crime have been linked together since the beginning of time dating back to tribal leadership. “It is virtually impossible to find a history of any society which does not record political criminals. They have always existed, they exist now, and they will exist in the future, in spite of the historical experience that the ideal behind the political crime is often destroyed the moment it becomes reality” (Schafer 1971).) Any crime committed to purposely harm the state government and political system can be viewed as a political crime, but a crime committed by a politician is not automatically deemed a political crime. If a state senator decides to abuse her children, she would be committing the crime of child abuse. In spite of this, if she began taking bribes to back a law to benefit large corporations, then it is considered a political crime. Violence can also be included in political crimes, there can be be non-violent in nature. The U.S does not have a crime class that applies primarily to political crimes,

The American Mafia, an Italian-American organized crime network with operations in cities across the United States, particularly New York and Chicago, rose to power and control through its success in the illegal liquor trade during the 1920s Prohibition era. After Prohibition, the Mafia moved into other criminal missions, from drug trafficking to illegal gambling, while also intruding with labor unions and legal businesses such as construction, and New York’s garment industry. The Mafia’s violent crimes, secret rituals and notorious characters such as Al Capone and John Gotti have captivated the public’s attention and became a part of popular culture. During the final part of the 20th century, the government used anti-racketeering laws to convict high-ranking mobsters and weaken the Mafia. However, it remains in business today (Mafia in the United States).

There are at least two competing definitions: one that focuses on particular groups of people, and one that focuses on particular types of crime. Both definitions have some validity, and neither is sufficient to completely describe the global reality. Understanding the way that real-life organized crime situations fit these two definitions makes a big difference in the ways we might go about solving these problems. When most people say “organized crime”, it is often a shorthand way of referring to groups of people, usually “the mafia” and similar groups. Understood in this way, organized criminal activity is simply whatever these organized crime groups do. The people are consistent across time, although what they do may change: today maybe extortion, tomorrow maybe heroin trafficking, or check kiting, or procurement fraud, or all of the above. The emphasis is on the group, not the nature of the crime. This is an important distinction, because it implies a number of assumptions about the way that organized crime works. Law enforcement agencies use this definition almost as a matter of course, because the criminal justice system is designed to deal with specific offences committed by specific people. Police arrest suspects and seize their property, prosecutors secure convictions one-by-one, and only individual people can be sent to prison. When actors in such a system plan proactively, they are limited by the tools at hand, and this affects the way they conceptualize the

Violence changes how a person acts, thinks and lives. It all comes down for the people to decide whether they will stand up and live tomorrow or simply become an accomplice living in fear. Fear causes desperation for a clear majority of people who cannot perform their jobs because they or their families are in high risks of being targeted and threatened to death. The lack of employment in the youth is drowning certain small rural communities with criminals. Young men opt to join different illegal organizations to maintain their families and take them out of the poor. Corruption is ultimately the cancer of all these problems. The penetration of criminal organizations in the Federal Mexican government facilitates access to important and reliable

When one thinks about organized crime, what come to mind? Why do people feel the need to form such criminal groups and networks? Is it due to lack of economic status? Or is it because of the will to receive what one cannot have? There are many reason that can be inserted into reasons why organized crime is formed. The main reason could be money and power. With the everyday innovations of technology, organized crime has been expanded and including as many people as they can in their networks. Some organized crime groups are brought together by ethnic background while other are brought together by the willingness to be included. There are many organized crime groups as of date that are operating from one side of the country all the way back across

Cosa Nostra, has been around for hundreds of years and means “our thing when translated from Italian. Italy is where Cosa Nostra has most of its origins but we will focus on the branch of the Mafia that operates in the US. The American mob, also known as the American Mafia, is a criminal organization in America. They originated from the Sicilian Mafia who came to America during the late 19th century and early 20th century by emigration. New York is known for housing the highest activity of organized crime . There are five crime families in New York. These consist of the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese.

The mafia is known for being apart of organized crime, but over the years their crimes have widened. The main thing they were known for was bootlegging, but they were also involved in prostitution, gambling, labor racketeering, loan-shark operations, and now even narcotics (Cortell, 2000). During the 1880’s to 1890’s the Irish was in control of criminal street gangs (“Crime 1920-1940”, 2002). During the prohibition era the St. Valentine's Massacre transpired at the north side of Chicago, killing seven Irish gang members, in order for Al Capone to dominate organized crimes in Chicago (“Crime 1920-1940”, 2002). Organized crimes took off vigorously only a couple of months before the Great

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

Bono, an Irish venture capitalist and philanthropist, once stated, “The biggest disease is corruption. The vaccine is transparency.” Unfortunately, Latin American and Caribbean states became infected after the end of colonialism in the 1800’s, and not a single Latin American or Caribbean state has cured itself. On 25 January 2017, Transparency International, an anti-corruption NGO, released its 2016 edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index, which revealed that the average score on the Index for the Latin American and Caribbean region (LAC) was a meager 44 out of 100. Anything below a 50 out of 100 indicates that governments are failing to tackle corruption. There are two principal reason for the rampant corruption witnessed in the LAC: the relationship between organized crime and corruption and the region’s skewered political system that creates a breeding ground for powerful oligarchies that misappropriate power and funds to satisfy their own desires. First, the correlation between organized crime and corruption is both a cycle and geographical. Organized crime cannot exist without corruption, but corruption is, in part, briberies by criminal organizations or simple businesses looking to bypass government regulations. Moreover, Central America, due to its geographical location, is a hub of drug trafficking and criminal gangs. With regard to the LAC’s crooked political system, during the region’s colonial days it was ripe with corruption, and that trend persisted after