Strategic Mobsters or Deprived Migrants? Testing the Transplantation and Deprivation Models of Organized Crime in an Effort to Understand Criminal Mobility and Diversity in the United States

• NCJ Number: 249667
• Journal: International Migration Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2016 Pages: 160-175
• Author(s): J. Arsovska
• Date Published: November 2015
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2012-IJ-CX-0004
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
• Publication Format: Article; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the emergence and mobility of organized crime in the United States.

Abstract

Focusing on Albanian organized crime in New York City, this study determined whether organized crime groups move abroad easily and reproduce their territorial control in a foreign country. This research explores the relevance of two perspectives on organized crime: the transplantation/importation model, and the deprivation model. Findings are based on analysis of court documents, interviews with law enforcement officials, Albanian immigrants, and Albanian offenders. The study did not find strong support for either the transplantation or the deprivation model of organized crime. There is no evidence of strategic organized crime transplantation. The findings suggest that the mobility of organized crime groups is functional and varies across criminal markets, and that not only economic foundations but also social forces and symbolic rewards of criminal migration need to be examined for better government policies. (Publisher abstract modified)