Uitgetypte lecture 1 OC

1. Introduction 2.1. The American roots
Main points:  Probably first used in the 1896 (annual report of the
(1) Law enforcement is more than merely enforcing a NY Society for the Prevention of Crime)
rule/legal act. o Protected gambling and prostitution
 Phenomenon -> legislation -> enforcement? o Illegal business dealings involving politicians,
police officers, lawyers, etc.
(2) The concept of organised crime is a social construct.  1920s and 1930s
 Not a crime, but a criminal phenomenon. o Development of illegal markets due to
 Crimes vs. offenders. Prohibition
o Serious efforts to define and discuss OC by both
(3) Enforcement and policies difficult without a clear view academics and commentators
on the problem: usefulness of the concept ‘organised’? o No specific reference to separate associations
of gangsters (yet)
The concept of organised crime o Often synonymous with ‘racketeering’ (i.e.
Early 20th century extortion, predatory activities and provision of
 Political legitimacy illegal goods and services such as illegal
 Scientific legitimacy gambling, counterfeit documents and
Controversial concept inconsistently incorporating trafficking in drugs and liquor)
two notions:
 Provision of illegal goods and services  ‘The Gang’ (Thrasher, 1927)
 Criminal organisation  First full scale treatment of OC
Temporal mismatch  No hard structures
 United States: peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s  Links with the upper world
 Europe: much later  Indispensable functions played by certain
Past 9/11 specialized persons/groups including doctors,
 Lost some momentum but still lawyers, politicians, etc.
high on the agenda!

2. History of the concept  Between 1929 and 1931
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,  First federal government attempt to study OC understanding of OC
(Wickersham Commission)  1963 (Joe Valachi)
 ‘What’ = more important than ‘Who’ (i.e. based  Testifies before the Senate Permanent
on criminal law categories, not on criminals) Subcommittee on Investigations (Cosa Nostra)
 After Second World War  Enormous public impact
 Wickersham approach (i.e. ‘understanding of OC  Merger of the two concepts of OC and
as a set of criminal entrepreneurial activities with ‘mafia’ fully accomplished
the frequent involvement of legal businesses and
state representatives’) abandoned  1950s and 1960s
 ‘Who ’ = more important than ‘What’  Consolidation of the mafia-centred concept of OC
 From late 1940s onward, focus on foreign career  Focus on NY City, but how ‘true’ and ‘general’ was
criminals constituting well-structured and this picture?
powerful criminal organisations representing a  Proposal to specifically outlaw membership of La
threat to the integrity of American society and Cosa Nostra rejected
politics  Uneasiness with mafia paradigm demonstrated by
 Alien, parasitical corporation many law-enforcement officials at state and local
levels + members of Federal Organised Crime
Strike Forces, established late 1960s and early
1970s
 1970 (RICO Act US Senate)
 New organisation-based approach (alien conspiracy)  Racketeer Influenced and Corrupted Organisations
clearly enunciated by Kefauver Senate Investigation Act
Committee (1950)  Definition of OC in much broader terms than Cosa
 Italian mafia-centred view of OC (La Cosa Nostra) Nostra only to include less structured gangs and
 Remained official standpoint for almost three illicit enterprises.
decades !  https://www.youtube.com/watch?
 Need for increased federal involvement in v=ePzhxMjBBwA
enforcement of gambling and drug laws
 Federal Narcotics Bureau (later DEA) as major  However ….
‘moral entrepreneur’ of organisation-based  Myth of powerful and centralized mafia

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, organisation long continued to be claimed
whenever police budgets had to be raised or new
legislation had to be passed  Beginning the of 1970s: war on drugs.
 New legislation  increased power (e.g.  Instead of Maffia-> illegal enterprise -> also see
wiretapping and eavesdropping, informants, RICO Act
seizing financial assets, …)
 And …  Fighting drugs in the US, while drugs are pouring in
 Public perception dominated by mafia-centred from abroad?
view on OC
 Export of the concept of organised crime as an
instrument to increase international cooperation in
2.2. The rise of the illegal enterprise the fight against drugs and to transfer law
paradigm in the US enforcement techniques to other countries.
 Ethan Nadelman (1994); Peter Luspha (1981)
 Past 1960s
 Idea of alien conspiracy rejected by most
 Law enforcement problems concerning drugs:
American social scientists
case of François (Belgium), but also the
- Ideological
Netherlands (IRT).
- Serving personal political interests
- Lacking in accuracy and empirical evidence
 Scientific attention shifted from ‘Who’ back to
‘What’
 Focus on the supply of illegal products and  Side-effect of OC as a synonym for illegal enterprise!
services  Term ‘OC’ used to refer to both
 Focus on the market place  rise of the • sets of people involved in illegal activities (e.g.
expression ‘illicit’ or ‘illegal enterprise’ Cosa Nostra) and
 The purpose of organized crime is to financially • the sets of activities in itself.
profit through crime and mainly responds to  Thus: confusion between offender and offence,
public demand for services. leading to circular reasoning
 As from the early 1980s, host of other organised
crime entities listed next to La Cosa Nostra, such as :
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