NCJ Number
72389
Date Published
1980
Length
291 pages
Annotation
This report, a product of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, documents the sophistication and monolithic, expansive nature of organized crime in the State of Pennsylvania, as well as its pervasive influence throughout the State's economy.
Abstract
The report documents how thousands of Pennsylvanians are engaged in either managing or assisting the licit and illicit businesses of organized criminals. It shows that hundreds of businesses in the State have been influenced by organized criminals and that all 67 of the State's counties have felt the influence of organized crime since 1970, as have over 225 of Pennsylvania's towns, cities, and townships. The report states that organized criminals' two main goals--huge profits and the evasion of punishment--have been achieved again and again. Criminal activities such as drug sales, illegal gambling, fraud, theft, bribery, extortion, pornography, and prostitution will generate about $200 billion in gross revenue in 1980 nationwide, with net profits as high as $80 billion. Public apathy toward, or tolerance of, organized crime in Pennsylvania is seen as amounting to public acceptance. Accordingly, the commission recommmends the following actions to alleviate this situation: (1) the consolidation and restructuring of local law enforcement agencies; (2) sentencing for organized crime figures that takes into account their long involvement in criminal activities; (3) the development of a close relationship between the 67 Pennsylvania District Attorneys and the State's prosecution, investigation, and enforcement activities; and (4) increased use of the Pennsylvania Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970. Other recommendations are to use wiretapping more extensively and effectively, but within careful legal safeguards, and to make the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the audit staff of the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue more efficient and effective against organized crime targets. Individual chapters discuss the motives and methods of organized crime; various organized crime groups operating in Pennsylvania; La Cosa Nostra; crime in the workplace; neutralizing government; and drugs, porn, and prostitution. Other chapters cover gambling and loansharking, professional crime, white-collar crime, and business ventures of organized crime. Photographs, tables, charts, and chapter notes are provided, along with an interim report and an index. (Author abstract modified)