NCJ Number
86621
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 47 Issue: 8 Dated: (August 1980) Pages: 66-70
Date Published
1980
Length
5 pages
Annotation
An organized crime control program should establish realistic objectives that consider (1) the unintended consequences of random enforcement, (2) priorities in accord with fiscal and legal realities, and (3) the use of police administrative discretion to ensure the achievement of proposed goals.
Abstract
The unintended consequences of random law enforcement efforts against organized crime may include (1) a rise in the cost of the illicit commodity or service, (2) a strengthening of the professional criminal organization as competition is reduced, (3) a strengthening of market stability as fewer criminal entrepreneurs enter it, and (4) the driving of professional criminals to other illicit markets. Because of fiscal and legal limitations, the police administrator should identify the factors underlying the social problems created by organized crime and selectively focus enforcement efforts on these factors. The administrator must then translate policy into operational goals and objectives through the administrative authority vested in the position. Instead of reacting to individual offenders or law violations, police administrators should identify and define types of criminal organizations and the consequences of their operations. Inherent in any organization is the potential for monopoly; however, not all criminal organizations have the ability to monopolize a particular marketplace, since violence and official corruption are often critical to acquiring and maintaining domain. Thus, those criminal organizations which have the capacity to develop monopolies should be identified. Finally, since not all monopolies have an exploitive nature that subverts the economic, political, and social fabric of the community, those having this character should receive the highest law enforcement priority. Nine footnotes are listed.