Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Organized Crime in America. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In four pages this paper examines the sociopolitical phenomenon of organized crime in America in an overview that includes definition, its development in the United States, its attempts to influence the government, and the organization of organized crime groups after the Prohibition era. Four sources are listed in the bibliography.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGorgcrime.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
The Godfather and Martin Scorseses GoodFellas. In the 1950s, the televised congressional hearings on organized crime gave many Americans their first glimpse of leading organized crime figures like Frank
Costello. About a decade later, Joseph Valachis testimony before Arkansas Sen. John L. McClellans congressional organized crime subcommittee revealed to the public for the first time the structural hierarchy
and the names of prominent families including those of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino. Because of the secretiveness associated with it, the foundations of organized crime have always been
difficult to determine. Definition has also proven challenging and has evolved over the years. Originally referred to as professional crime in criminologist Edwin H. Sutherlands 1937 text The
Professional Thief, it was defined as "crime as a sole livelihood, involving careful planning, reliance on technical skills, a shared sense of belonging, rules, codes of behavior, and specialized language"
(Hagan, 2006, p. 128). In terms of its foundation, a schema devised in 1969 by Ralph Salerno and John Tompkins revealed two levels of organized crime that on a
lower level moved strategically along a continuum that included bribery, blackmail, counterfeiting, fraud, smuggling, drugs, and arson (Hagan, 2006). The higher level of organized crime is contained within legitimate
businesses including small-scale trucking, automobile sales, and bakeries, and large-scale banking, entertainment, and securities businesses (Hagan, 2006). To further develop a definition of organize crime, sociologists Hagan and Albanese
recently identified characteristics that include an organized hierarchy, profits received from illegal activity, use of violence and threats for intimidation, and government corruption (Hagan, 2006). Organized crime is hardly a
recent phenomenon. Western historians actually trace its origins back to the Middle Ages, when the residents of the island of Sicily were struggling with territorial invasions and widespread poverty
...