Organized Crime

Organized Crime

Organized crime is very serious in the United States. It seems as though once law enforcement cracks down on one organized crime ring another is born. It is hard to tell who is actually in an organized crime ring today. In early years you had Al Capone who acted and looked like he was part of an organized crime ring. Now you have individuals in their fifties and sixties who are running organized crime rings and are not being caught by law enforcement. Organized crime is believed to be any type of criminal activity that is wide spread. Some examples of this would be drug trafficking, prostitution, and gambling rings.

There are so many different characteristics that can be identified with organized crime. The first characteristic of organized crime is the gathering of more than two people. An example of this would be drug dealers standing on the corner in your community. If a drug dealer is standing alone they believe that it looks suspicious to law enforcement. If they have one or more people with them it looks like they are just "hanging out". The second one would be operating at a large level. An example of this would be operating state wide or international. The third one would be the use of violence. An example of this would be using violence to intimidate others to show power or to gain control. The fourth one would be using headquarters that are not obvious to law enforcement. This could mean using an office building, barbershop, or a restaurant. The fifth one would be money laundering. The reason why they would engage in this is because they don't want their money to be tracked or accounted for. The last characteristic of organized crime would be the want for power and money. Many individuals who participate in organized crime tend to give themselves away because they want to show others that they have some type of status. This could go from their clothes to their cars.

The reason why I believe these six characteristics fit the profile of an organized crime ring is because I have grown up in an area where organized crime occurs. Growing up I would watch everything and observe everything. This helped me recognize what organized crime really was. I use to ask many question to my parents about prostitution and the drug dealers on the corner. As I grew older I started to notice many of my friends turning to organized crime. They first started of selling nickel bags of weed and then moved on to kilos of cocaine or crack. The first thing that was apparent to me was that there attitudes change and so did their

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