Controlling Organized Crime Paper

What is the Homeland Security research question? The Homeland Security research question is identifying the basic information we are seeking in a research project. This research question is a question that in every research the basis question is asked and can be answered throughout the research being conducted in Homeland Security. If this basic question is asked before the research is started then the objective of the specific research will answer itself and would give the individual a starting point after he identifies what the research is about and gives him/her something to achieve while doing the research. All research needs some good hypothesis questions and in this research my first question would be how do we determine or provide suggestions about how to control organized crime you must first understand what it is? It is a network of people who work together to usually make monetary gains and assist each other in their criminal activities. This is what is known as organized crime in the World.

Another one would be why organized crime has a vibrant history in America’s past and it is currently present in society? Back in what they would call the good old day’s organized crime groups focused their crimes to a certain targeted areas while in today’s society organized crime groups is both national and global problems. They structure their illegal networks after the hierarchal structure of the traditional organization and run businesses that disguise their illegal deeds behind a mask of legitimacy. These organizations had increased drastically during the prohibition of the early days and became a part of the Western society. The rapid urbanization of most major cities has provided the atmosphere needed for organized crime to thrive. The considerable population within the major cities have provide a critical mass of criminal, customers, and victims and thus the facilitation of the development of profitable markets in prohibited goods and services. Lawmakers have begun to make available the legislation to control organized crime activities and started to reduce the threat from the American society.

There have been many laws like the (RICO) Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization that has been placed and enforced to assist law enforcement officials and help prevent these activities. As hard as law enforcement tries the technological advancements of criminals have created modernized crime methods that have created international problems. Currently organized crime organization is not confined to a certain area and has the means for an international reach if they need to. They can also generate a more potent threat to society as well as causing a wider range of criminal activity. Using existing statistics organized crime organization is structured in a bureaucratic manner in which there is a hierarchal structure to the group beginning with something like a criminal boss, their advisors and confidants, captains, and soldiers. There is a very clear chain of command to be followed and an administrative action must be cleared before a low ranking member can perform an act.

There is another model of which organized crime follows and it is called the patron client crime group. With this criminal organization group the organization is also structured in a hierarchal manner with the same type leadership ranking but with one major difference; lower ranking members of the group in the patron client model can act without first receiving permission from the upper command. As with both of these organizations the primary goal to be obtained is to infiltrate legitimate social process in order to hide their illegal activities behind a front of legitimacy. Both types of criminal organizations use violence and coercion as well as take advantage of the lesser in order to profit and gain. The long-established crime organizations can consist of any ethnicity and have a broad area of coverage. Their approaches have all aspects of control and can function internationally with no problem.

Some thought the banishment of prohibition organized crime groups would disappear but in fact it began to flourish more. It is a fact that prohibition was a major factor in the development of organized crime in America but another major factor were the urban areas that were poverty stricken and neglected by police and politicians. The organized crime groups would emerge in a particular society and would be made up of the individuals from the same ethnic or cultural groups (Limbaugh, 2010). Within the United States, the first efforts to controlled organized crime began to come into view in the 1960’s (Finkle, 2010). The government of the United States formed commissions that’s sole purpose was to study organized crime and to help form methods that could reduce organized crime appropriately. These studies showed a growing concern within the country about the inspiration of organized crime groups. These concerns were those of criminals working together to perform illegal businesslike drug movement, sells, and trafficking, or to gain access to legit businesses.

To combat organized crime The Organized Crime Control Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in the year 1970. This crime prevention law was a piece of legislation that was established in order to help fight organized crime in America. This bill was intended to launch a war on organized crime itself and shake it to its core. This bill created new procedures for investigating organized crime and it also created new modes of criminal punishment for these crimes. According to Lyman and Potter (2007), the act was designed to “which granted greater powers to the grand juries, permitted the detention of unmanageable witnesses, and authorized the attorney general to protect cooperative federal and state witnesses and their families. Simply put the organized crime control act most sought after purpose was to seek the eradication of organized crime in the United States by strengthening the legal tools in the evidence-gathering process, by establishing new penal prohibitions, and by providing enhanced sanctions and new remedies to deal with the unlawful activities of those engaged in organized crime.

There are Organized Crime Control Act is broken down into 13 different titles that have special specifications for the organized crime criminal activities. The Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act is a part of this new legislation and the goal of it is to stop the menace of organized crime and to prevent it from financial infiltration of legitimate business operations affecting interstate commerce. RICO in turn makes it illegal for criminal organizations groups to profit from any legitimate business operations that they may have under their control while also doing illegal crimes at the same time. Many of these laws allow for the confiscation and seizure of the criminal organizations legitimate enterprise assets, and are typically used against known organized crime groups. It works to cripple the operation money, and cut off all sources of cash that support the ongoing criminal activity in question. The Mafia Bosses who did not help to engage in activity that was criminal did not make them less responsible for the crimes.

RICO authorized the government to charge the whole organization and everyone affiliated to it. If the offender was found guilty of racketeering or any pattern of criminal activity then the offender could also be charged under the RICO act. The number one problem with erasing organized crime groups is that with all today’s technology advances it is so much easier for these organizations to engage in crime both nationally and internationally. Law enforcement officials have their hands full investigating crime group activities due to the problems with jurisdiction and have the lack of ability to pursue these criminal organizations activities wherever they go. These groups expand over the globe and the effects are felt worldwide. Legislation cannot keep pace with the new tech that is emerging for everyone in society so the organized crime groups also take advantages of these new tools to help remain anonymous while operating their illegal activities.

They use the World Wide Web and other communication tools to conduct global crimes which make major jurisdictional issues for law enforcement and federal agents. These organized crime groups do not limit their activity to the boarders of America, an international response needs to be created but so far nothing of the sort has occurred. Organized crime groups are a great opponent for anyone who tries to enforce justice to get rid of the organized crime groups and their criminal deeds. There has even been proof that this organized crime groups activity has reached as far as with any legitimate business and the terrorist groups. Organized crime groups are at their best when they are in an atmosphere where there is an abundance of social and legal disorganization. Purely defined social disorganizations happens when a community or area does not laws enforced or do not have adequate institutions in place that would help the community to better protect itself from manipulation from organized crime groups as well as the lack of proper controlling methods.

A society that has had stability in preventing crime groups are the ones that has the proper social institutions that are already in place. This is somewhat of a guide to its citizens as well as provides them with opportunities in life. In some factions or groups it is a popular belief that organized crime is not that big of a problem in America anymore; it is believed that most of the organized crime organization has gone underground lately. It is also believed that these organized crime groups will only come from pacific ethnic groups and cultures. Organized crime is portrayed as the underworld corporate enterprise that is consist of ethnic or cultural groups of aliens that can corrupt the primarily good political organizations (Buscalgia, 2003), when in fact organized crime groups that are in America can be structured businesses like and seem legitimate. In order to prevent these crime groups form increasing controls such as law enforcement, uncorrupt political leaders, and opportunities for its residents.

The best option to curbing organized crime groups is to put in place legislation that enables the government to have the same capabilities and tools at their disposables as the criminal groups they are tracking down. Also give them all and unlimited jurisdiction over organized crime groups and its members that originate in America to be subject to the jurisdiction of the law regardless of what nation the crime was committed in or what country they live in. When you work to stop these issues at international borders and create a somewhat like international cyber police force and court system employed to handle organized crime groups that operate globally. In order for America to track criminals internationally, the United States must form a partnership with the multiple other countries that are experiencing the same exact problems and coming up with the short falls. The efficiency of such a system depends on information and information exchange only if the requested information is available and can be made use of is exclusion or disqualification possible.

Organized crime groups will continue to exist in society until the proper controls are put into place to prevent this type of criminal behavior. Sub-culture like this cannot be destroyed until the United States society as a whole no longer accepts the existence of organized crime groups and stop protection for these organized crime organizations. Everyone who has a desire to stop this would have to work with a partnership to help to develop solutions to help to eradicate the organized crime groups within the community. Community residents can help by being more observant and reporting acts that seem suspicious to law enforcement, so they can act on the reports. Ordinary citizens should learn more about organized crime and how it affects everyday lives. Express your concerns to policy and decision makers so that this truly global threat is considered by politicians to be a top priority among the public’s major concerns.

Consumers also have a key role to play: know what you are purchasing, do so ethically and make sure that you do not fuel organized crime. Organized crime does not consist of gang members controlling the neighborhood and businesses within their community. If one was to simply look at the facts they would see that most of these modernize criminal organized organization groups do their work in remote locations and they use any means of both legal and illegal functions. A lot of organized crime groups use many loopholes within the written laws to help effectively organize their businesses and they have the understanding that the law enforcement faces difficulties investigating their action and activities. There is also a need to develop quickly a new legislation bill to assist and limit the activities of the crime groups that better produce for law enforcement.

Reference

Buscaglia, E. (2003). Controlling Organized Crime and Corruption in the Public Sector. Retrieved October 14, 2011 from http://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/forum/forum3_Art1.pdf LeFrancios, A. (2010). Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. Retrieved October 14, 2011 From http://www.enotes.com/major-acts-congress/organized-crime-control-act Limbaugh, S. (2010). Controlling Organized crime. Retrieved October 14, 2011 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5818988/controlling_organized_crime_pg3.html Buscaglia, E. (2003). Controlling Organized Crime and Corruption in the Public Sector. Retrieved from http://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/forum/forum3_Art1.pdf Find Law. (2011). Racketeering/RICO. Retrieved from http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/a-z/racketeering_rico.html Finkle, K. M. (2010). Organized Crime in the United States: Trends and Issues for Congres. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40525.pdf LeFrancois, A. G. (2011). Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. Retrieved