NCJ Number
125976
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 30 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1990) Pages: 321-340
Date Published
1990
Length
20 pages
Annotation
A comparative study of organized crime in the United States and in Europe would be helpful in understanding the overall problem of organized crime because of the scientific studies that have been conducted in the U.S., the reference to the situation in the U.S., the ongoing debate in Europe on this issue, and the increasingly close relationship between the U.S. and Europe which encompasses not only the phenomenon of organized crime itself, but also the police and judicial efforts made to suppress it.
Abstract
Organized crime in the U.S. has come to represent three types of activity: crimes committed by professional criminals, crimes committed by syndicates operating in major cities, and white-collar crimes committed by exploiting legal instruments available within legitimate trading and industrial sectors to illegally expand the assets of the perpetrator. There have also been three major perspectives on organized crime in the U.S. The official view held by the government is that one organized, but segmented, national syndicate commits most of these crimes in a bid for power and money. The other two views, a neo-Marxist perspective and a functionalistic theory, hold that American society itself perpetuates organized crime. The prevalent U.S. view on organized crime in Western Europe is that the underworlds in the two continents have many elements in common, while the West Europeans themselves have largely failed to conduct an in-depth analysis of the issue. The exception is the work of McIntosh who analyzed the evolution of organized crime in Europe. Following overviews of organized crime in Great Britain, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the article concludes that there are few discrepancies between the more traditional forms of organized crime in the U.S. and Western Europe. However, the article notes that the influence of European syndicates, in contrast to their American counterparts, has not yet reached trade and industry, trade unions, or government agencies. 90 references.