CJ 350/Organized Crime

Professor Brown

Unit 7: The Business of Organized Crime

• Unit Overview - This unit explores the business of organized crime, including both legitimate and illegal enterprise. We will also examine the origins and most common activities of Asian organized crime. Because of cultural norms, many instances of organized criminal activity in Asian communities are not readily visible.

What should you learn in this unit?

• The legitimate business interests of organized crime

• The history and evolution of Asian gangs• The origins of Triads and Tongs• How extortion is described as the business of

organized crime.• The connection between organized crime and

the sex industry

Chapter 9: Asian Organized Crime• The term Asian encompasses many unrelated groups, and

Asian OC includes yakuza and Triads. With their elaborate tattoos and clipped fingers, yakuza have a long history in Japan and view themselves as more samurai than criminal. They help police entertainment districts, keeping the � �level of street crime very low. With business cards and clearly marked headquarters, yakuza differ from other OC groups in that they are ideological, their right-wing views endearing them to some in politics and law enforcement. Yakuza activities include gun trafficking, drug smuggling, alien smuggling, prostitution, illegal gambling, extortion, and white-collar crime through infiltration of legitimate businesses. As with OC groups in Italy and Russia, yakuza also offer a shadow system of justice.

Chapter 9: Asian Organized Crime

• American offshoots of Triads, tongs are often national in scope, particularly the Hip Sing, On Leong, and Tsung Tsin, and some are connected to Chinatown gangs such as the Ghost Shadows and the Flying Dragons in New York, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco.

Chapter 12: Gambling, Loansharking, Theft, Fencing, Sex, and Trafficking in

Persons• The business of OC often includes activities that are neither

goods nor services but are clearly parasitic, � � � �although the boundary between providing a good or a service and being parasitic is not clearly delineated. OC may limit competition and provide collection or arbitration services in return for tribute. Bookmakers and numbers operators act as brokers between bettors and may need to lay off bets that are unbalanced OC often provides this �layoff service.

• Though Las Vegas has been able to rid its casinos of OC, and Atlantic City has been able to keep them out, OC still has influence in related and peripheral industries (i.e., unions, hotel supplies, and loansharking). OC also controls miscellaneous gambling such as poker machines.

Chapter 12: Gambling, Loansharking, Theft, Fencing, Sex, and Trafficking in

Persons• Organized crime’s involvement in sex as a

moneymaker has changed with the times. OC members are more likely to be involved in Internet sex cramming than pornography, � �which is such a competitive industry. A related business involves the procuring of women from overseas for the sex industry, women who are often tricked by offers of legitimate employment

Question

• What would be the difference between a legitimate business and illegal enterprise in organized crime?

Question

• Why is extortion described as the “business” of organized crime?

Question

• Because of cultural norms, many instances of organized criminal activity in Asian communities are not readily visible. What is the cultural norm associated with this entity?

Question

• What is the connection between organized crime and the sex industry?

Question

• Gambling, Loansharking, Theft, Fencing, Sex, and Trafficking in Persons and Arms – out of these crimes, which one do you most associate with organized crime and why?