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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:36 am
Time: 11:36 am
Results for organized crime (u.s.)
4 results foundAuthor: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Understanding Organized Crime Networks: Evidence Based on Federal Bureau of Narcotics Secret Files on American Mafia Summary: Using unique data on criminal profiles of 800 US Mafia members active in the 50s and 60s and on their connections within the Cosa Nostra network we analyze how the geometry of criminal ties between mobsters depends on family ties, community roots and ties, legal and illegal activities. We contrast our evidence with historical and sociological views about the functioning of the Mafia. Much of our findings are remarkably in line with these views, with interesting qualifications. We interpret some of our results in light of a model of optimal vertical and horizontal connections where more connections mean more profits but also a higher risk of defection. We find that variables that lower the risk of defection, among others, kinship, violence, and mafia culture increase the number of connections. Moreover, there is evidence of strategic endogamy: female children are as valuable as male ones, and being married to a “connected” wife is a strong predictor of leadership within the Mafia ranks. A very parsimonious regression model explains one third of the variability in the criminal ranking of the “men of honor,” suggesting that these variables could be used to detect criminal leaders. An additional prediction of our simple model is a right-skewed distribution of the number of connections, which is remarkably in line with the evidence of an extremely hierarchical organization. Details: Unpublished Working Paper, 2010. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 15, 2011 at: http://www.princeton.edu/chw/lectures-conferences/Mastrobuoni2-Understanding-Organized-Crime-September-2010.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.princeton.edu/chw/lectures-conferences/Mastrobuoni2-Understanding-Organized-Crime-September-2010.pdf Shelf Number: 122389 Keywords: Criminal NetworksMafiaOrganized Crime (U.S.) |
Author: Bucy, Pamela H. Title: RICO Trends: From Gangsters to Class Actions Summary: This article addresses the question: why isn’t RICO used much? RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, both a crime and a civil cause of action, was passed in 1970 with much fanfare. The fanfare was deserved. RICO was an imaginative criminal justice initiative aimed at complex, systemic crime. RICO’s civil cause of action was viewed as a robust tool for plaintiffs and a vital supplement to strained law enforcement resources. After conducting an in-depth analysis of RICO opinions, reported and unreported, rendered by the federal appellate courts during the seven year time period from 2005-2011, this article has an answer to the question. Criminal RICO’s time has come and gone, but civil RICO’s potential has not yet been realized. This article focuses on recent developments in case law that make civil RICO with regard to class actions, and in the pharmaceutical fraud area, newly viable. The data analyzed in this article suggests that criminal RICO is anachronistic. Simpler, more streamlined statutes are now available to achieve, far more easily than RICO, the benefits RICO used to uniquely bestow: providing context for isolated acts, linking far-flung actors, penetrating organizations to reach key players, stiff sentences, obtaining forfeiture of property used to commit crime and reaped from crime. Civil RICO, on the other hand, is an untapped resource. Used properly, civil RICO is an optimal private attorney general tool and a boon for plaintiffs. This is true for two reasons. First, RICO mandates treble damages at a time when, because of court rulings and legislative actions, many plaintiffs are limited to little more than single damages. Second, in light of recent court rulings in RICO cases, RICO’s elements dovetail with class action requirements of commonality and predominance, making RICO class actions newly viable. This article proceeds in eight parts. Part I provides an overview of the RICO statute. Part II explains the methodology used to gather the data in this study. Part III discusses quantitative measurements from the data including how many RICO cases are decided each year and where they are brought. Part IV describes the types of RICO cases brought under both criminal and civil RICO provisions. Part V examines the issues that have dominated RICO court decisions from 2005-2011. Part V discusses how recent court decisions on issues of “enterprise,” proximate causation and “pattern” make civil RICO cases easier than ever to plead and prove. Part VI analyzes the outcome in RICO cases including who wins, who loses, and which circuits favor which side. Part VII focuses on RICO class actions discussing past and future trends, successes, and failures. Part VIII focuses on pharmaceutical fraud cases, noting why they are especially ripe for use of civil RICO. Details: Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama School of Law, 2012. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: U of Alabama Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2179211: Accessed January 17, 2013 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2179211 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2179211 Shelf Number: 127282 Keywords: Business FraudFraudOrganized Crime (U.S.)Pharmaceutical FraudRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ActWhite-Collar Crime |
Author: Finklea, Kristin Title: Organized Retail Crime Summary: Organized retail crime (ORC) involves the large-scale theft of everyday consumer items and potentially has much broader implications. Organized groups of professional shoplifters, or “boosters,” steal or fraudulently obtain merchandise that is then sold, or “fenced,” to individuals and retailers through a variety of venues. In an increasingly globalized society, more and more transactions take place online rather than face-to-face. As such, in addition to relying on physical resale markets, organized retail thieves have turned to online marketplaces as means to fence their ill-gotten goods. ORC exposes the United States to costs and harms in the economic, public health, and domestic security arenas. The exact loss from ORC to the retail industry is unknown, but estimates have ranged from $15 billion to $37 billion annually. The economic impact, however, extends beyond the manufacturing and retail industry and includes costs incurred by consumers and taxes lost by the states. The theft and resale of stolen consumable or health and beauty products such as infant formula (that may have been repackaged, relabeled, and subjected to altered expiration dates) poses potential safety concerns for individuals purchasing such goods from ORC fences. In addition, some industry experts and policy makers have expressed concern about the possibility that proceeds from ORC may be used to fund terrorist activities. Current efforts to combat ORC largely come from retailers, online marketplaces, and law enforcement alike. Retailers responding to the 2010 National Retail Security Survey spent an average of 0.46% of their annual sales on loss prevention measures. These loss prevention costs are ultimately borne by consumers in the form of higher prices on goods. Also, online marketplaces report taking various measures to combat the sale of stolen and fraudulently obtained goods on their websites, including educating sellers and consumers, monitoring suspicious activity, and partnering with retailers and law enforcement. Combating retail theft has traditionally been handled by state law enforcement under state criminal laws. Some, however, have begun to question whether state laws—which vary in the quantity of monetary losses that constitute major theft—are adequate to combat ORC. While many agree that ORC is a national problem, there is debate over the federal government’s role in deterring ORC and sanctioning various actors that may be involved in committing or aiding these crimes. One policy issue facing Congress is whether criminalizing organized retail crime in the U.S. Code would allow for more effective investigation and prosecution of these criminals. Congress may also wish to consider whether regulating resale marketplaces (online markets, in particular), to require such entities to increase information sharing with retailers and law enforcement, would strengthen investigations and prosecutions of ORC as well as decrease the prevalence of retail thieves relying on legitimate online marketplaces to fence stolen goods. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2012. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: CRS Report R41118: Accessed January 29, 2013 at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41118.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41118.pdf Shelf Number: 127431 Keywords: Crimes Against BusinessesFencing Stolen GoodsHot ProductsOrganized Crime (U.S.)Organized Retail CrimeRetail TheftShopliftingStolen Goods |
Author: Papachristos, Andrew V. Title: The Small World of Al Capone: The Embedded Nature of Criminal and Legitimate Social Networks Summary: Everyone was guilty of a criminal o ense during U.S. Prohibition, but even the imbibing Chicogoans were concerned by the cozy relationships between politicians, union leaders, businessmen, and mobsters that had made their city infamous. This overlap between the legitimate and criminal words poses several empirical questions: what did such network embeddedness look like, who were the men straddling both words, what was their relationship to Al Capone, and what were their structural signatures within the legitimate and criminal networks? Whereas most of our understanding of this embeddedness problem relies on historical analyses, this paper reexamines organized crime through a new analytical lens| social network analysis. Using a unique relational dataset created by coding more than 4,000 pages of documents, our analysis reveals the precise ways in which the criminal networks associated with Al Capone overlapped with political and other legitimate networks. These new data and the use of social network analysis mark this study as perhaps the rst to (quite literally) map the world of organized crime in Prohibition Era Chicago. The ndings reveal a series of overlapping social networks of more than 1,500 individuals with more than 6,000 ties among and between them. We compare the structural signatures"|i.e., the various network characteristics|of organized crime gures who have been deemed important" from more traditional historical analyses with those deemed important from structural analysis. In short, this paper examines how legitimate and criminal networks coalesce to form the small world of Al Capone. Details: Amherst, MA: Harvard University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2012. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 30, 2013 at: http://www.erdr.org/textes/papachristos_smith.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.erdr.org/textes/papachristos_smith.pdf Shelf Number: 127448 Keywords: Al CaponeCriminal NetworksOrganized Crime (U.S.)Prohibition EraSocial Networks |