Organized Crime

Paper Summary:

This paper introduces, discusses and analyzes the topic of organized crime in America. Specifically, it compares and contrasts an Italian and an Asian organized crime group active in America. The paper focuses on the Genovese Crime Family and the Chinese Big Circle Gang, which are two of the most notorious organized crime groups. It describes their goals, outlooks and organizational structure.

Table of Contents:
The Genovese Crime Family
The Big Circle Gang

From the Paper:

"Like their Italian counterparts, the Big Circle deals primarily in drug trafficking, loansharking, and counterfeiting currencies and goods. They also deal in human smuggling and trafficking, and exporting stolen vehicles, which differs from most Italian operations, including the Genovese family. Unlike their Mafia cousins, the Big Circle is made up of very small units called "cells," in each location, and this makes it extremely difficult for law enforcement to find or infiltrate them (Hall, 2005). In contrast, the Genovese and other Mafia families are extremely large. Author Paoli continues, "The sheer size of the American mafia families has long prevented their members from interacting informally with each other, as is instead the case in most Sicilian mafia groups, and has favored internal stratification and segmentation" (Paoli, 2003, p. 7). Thus, most Asian gangs like the Big Circle are harder to control because they are smaller, less conspicuous, and less likely to accept new, unknown members."

Sample of Sources Used:

• (1994). Handbook of organized crime in the United States (R. J. Kelly, K. Chin, & R. Schatzberg, Ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Hall, N. (2005). Big Circle Boys born of Red Guards: Drugs, loansharking among Asian gang's specialties. Retrieved from the Canada.com Web site: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/specials/websterawards/story.html?id=56ca11d5-f4e6-455a-b686-f7cc9b668c12 5 May 2007.
• Mahlmann, N. (2007). Chinese criminal enterprises. Retrieved from the U.S. State Department Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov/eap/Archive_Index/Chinese_Criminal_Enterprises.html 5 May 2007.
• Paoli, L. (2003). Mafia brotherhoods: Organized crime, Italian style. New York: Oxford University Press.

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