NCJ Number
245099
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2013 Pages: 256-275
Date Published
May 2013
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study examines social capital processes by focusing upon the Chicago Heights "boys," a critical component of the Chicago Outfit since the 1920s.
Abstract
Force and intimidation have always played a significant role in the success of the Chicago Outfit. Yet, violence is a highly inefficient mechanism for running illegal operations. A far more stable resource is social capital. This study examines these social capital processes by focusing upon the Chicago Heights "boys," a critical component of the Chicago Outfit since the 1920s. Drawing upon interviews, newspaper accounts, census materials, and FBI files, the author attempts to demonstrate that for the greater part of the 20th century, Italians in Chicago Heights experienced an abiding social, economic, and political discrimination. This resulted in a social and geographic isolation in Chicago Heights. This isolation inhibited the mobility of Italians along traditional routes but created a store of social capital which Italians used to organize labor unions, mutual aid societies, ethnic enterprisesand an organized crime empire. Specifically, leaders in the Chicago Heights Outfit acquired a social capital advantage because they could draw upon the closed networks in the Italian community and, at the same time, envision a range of illegal opportunities because they occupied a series of "structural holes." Abstract published by arrangement with Sage Journals.