Organized Crime

            Organized crime is the illegal activities aimed at gaining monetary profits conducted by groups of people within a certain area. These groups of people are usually controlled by individual or individuals who head the group. Thus, there is hierarchy within the group and the one who controls everyone and is above everyone is the organized crime boss. In the Sicilian and American Mafia for instance, the capo di capi or capo di tutti is the crime boss.

Organized crime has been a part of the society since ancient history and will always be a part of it for as long as man lives in its societal form. In fact, even the history of the Roman Catholic Church is not complete without mentioning the Borgia crime family headed and created by Pope Alexander himself. That the first crime family was born from the walls of the Vatican and from the powers of the great Holy Roman Catholic Church show that even the supposedly most sacred and holy place is not immune to organized crime. 

The main reason for the birth or establishment of an organized crime, whether within the church or in another totally different culture and civilization, is not immorality but the existence of resources within the area. In modern times, these resources come in the form of money, such as money available in racketeering and illegal gambling. As there are abundant resources, man by nature is tempted in acquiring and controlling these resources. Thus, although others may see that immorality playing a significant role in organized crime, the moral degradation comes later on as the members became more and more involved in protecting these resources from being taken away by other groups and in acquiring other sources of income or resources. This is also the reason why organize crime succeeds. Since there are enough resources or money, the members of the organized crime can afford to pay others to be in their service. This leads to corruption of government officials and use of civilians.

Thus, from the available resources or money ready to be exploited, we see the emergence organized crime or Mafia. The Italian Mafia emerged from the unification of Italian states in the late 1800s; the American Mafia gained its strength and learned perfect organization from bootlegging; and of the Russian Mafia grew after the collapse of the USSR.

In modern times, organized crime is a part of the more affluent society. In third world countries, there are gangs which take advantage of the poor citizens. These gangs have the same characteristics of the organized crime groups, such as in bribing of political officials and extorting money from the poor. But these gangs are not the same as organized crime groups, such as the mafia. The activities of organized crime groups, such as the mafia, are larger in scale and are now more globalize. Their activities now involve international drug trafficking, human trafficking and other similar high profile activities. This shows how much organized crime has evolved from the mere gangsterism to the highly sophisticated group they are today. In fact, organized crime is now so deeply rooted that it is virtually impossible to rid the society of them.

            It is quite disturbing that organized crime has been viewed with fascination by the society today. Since the media has portrayed organized crime in several films and books decades ago, organized crime has been elevated into an object of admiration and interest. Although some may say that this has no significant effect in the operation of these organized crime groups, for the society it has created a misguided inspiration among its followers and among the youth. In the long run however, this misguided inspiration may indirectly add to the success of organized crime in terms of corrupting the society, beginning with the political officials, peace officers and civilians. Moreover, by glorifying organized crime, the society’s moral integrity is slowly deteriorating and we see a slow social moral degradation.