The Rise of Organized Crime from Prohibition

Paper Summary:

While the Great Depression had many economic and political factors behind it, Prohibition, and the organized crime that surrounded it, was certainly a contributing factor. This paper shows that just prior to the stock market crash in 1929, social insecurity was starting to make inroads into all major cities throughout the country. The paper shows that organized crime, born of class conflicts in the early industrial revolution, became entrenched as a result of Prohibition, and the huge profits that it was able to reap supplying the country with liquor.

From the Paper:

"The passage of the Eighteenth Amendment did not create gangsters, and its repeal, which occurred during the heights of the Depression, did not eliminate it. Although the alcoholic beverage industry was legalized after the amendment's repeal, gangsters, still cash-rich from selling illicit liquor, still made valiant and successful attempts to harass law enforcement and the legal liquor industry, while using their ill-gotten profits to move into other, perhaps more dangerous areas."

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