Today, the world is facing an increasing impact from established organized crime, emerging transnational organized crime, and gangs that requires an understanding of who and what these organizations are and how they achieve their goals. Updated to include new and relevant research and statistics, Understanding Organized Crime, Second Edition provides students with a better understanding of how and why these criminal groups continue to dominate the world of crime and what law enforcement must do to address this threat. Written by a leading expert in the field and based on his experience and academic research, Understanding Organized Crime, Second Edition is a comprehensive introduction to the subject and includes coverage of the types of organized crime, definitions of organized crime, why it continues to exist, and how it has evolved throughout history. Material covered includes the structure and hierarchy of each organization, their methods of operation, and the techniques and laws used by law enforcement to address the dynamic nature of domestic and transnational organized crime. Using the author’s unique approach to the topic, students will learn about organized crime through the eyes of the criminal investigator, and how law-enforcement practitioners today are counteracting these criminal organizations. New and Key Features of the Second Edition: • Revised and updated to include new and relevant research, statistics, and case studies to help students understand the true nature of organized crime and the players involved. • Chapter 5 (Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations) has been updated to include the most recent information on new alliances and wars over territories and smuggling routes between established cartels and emerging organizations in Mexico. • A new chapter, The Nexus of Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism, addresses the increasing connections between terrorist groups and transnational organized crime, including new challenges facing governments and law enforcement in identifying and prosecuting these cooperative networks. • Provides information outlining the new age of piracy that has resulted in the creation of task forces that focus on areas around the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia. • Additional and updated information is now included in the chapters on the Russian Mafia, the Italian-American Mafia, the Yakuza, and Outlaw Bikers. Instructor Resources: *Test Bank *Microsoft PowerPoint slides Student Resources: * Companion Website (secure) featuring: -interactive glossary -interactive flashcards -practice exercises -and more!

This book presents a comprehensive history of organized crime in the United States - and how it has been a significant part of the nation's development, rather than an external threat to its political, economic, and social structures.

A compelling introduction to the global impact of organized crime Famous for being ruthless, cruel, and cool, the Mafia has always captured the darker side of the imagination. Here, James Finckenauer debunks the myths surrounding the Mafia to reveal the harsh realities of global organized crime from Japan to Russia to Colombia. Despite popular appeal, these incredibly complex organizations destabilize society on a global scale, perpetuating untold economic, physical, psychological, and societal damage. "Mafia and Organized Crime: A Beginner's Guide" provides vital insight into the real stories behind the world's richest and most successful criminals.

The editors have brought together the latest research on the nature of organized crime, theoretical perspectives on the subject and the ways in which law enforcement agencies respond to such affairs.

Organized Crime: From the Mob to Transnational Organized Crime, Seventh Edition, provides readers with a clear understanding of organized crime, including its definition and causes, how it is categorized under the law, models to explain its persistence, and the criminal justice response to organized crime, including investigation, prosecution, defense, and sentencing. This book offers a comprehensive survey, including an extensive history of the Mafia in the United States; a legal analysis of the offenses that underlie organized crimes; specific attention to modern manifestations of organized crime activity, such as human smuggling, Internet crimes, and other transnational criminal operations; and the application of ethics to the study of organized crime. A new section has been added on threat assessment in organized crime. Chapters are enhanced by updated photos, tables, charts, and critical thinking exercises that help students apply concepts to actual organized crime cases. Every chapter includes two student-friendly special features: Organized Crime Biography and Organized Crime at the Movies. A glossary gives students a quick reference for looking up important definitions of organized crime-related terms, and a Timeline of Organized Crime in the United States highlights important events in the history of organized crime.

This book showcases recent advances in the theoretical and empirical understanding of the economic aspects of organised crime and illegal markets. It provides new insights into defining and quantifying the influence of organised crime by drawing on innovative approaches to studying criminal networks and organisations such as the Hells Angels. The book includes analysis of the structure of illegal drug markets from international leaders in the field. Finally the text includes empirical case studies of the diverse markets where organised crime is currently active including the illegal market for crystal methamphetamine in Australia, tiger products in China and the falcon and fur trades in Russia. This book was based on a special issue of Global Crime.

Provides readers with an understanding of organized crime, including its definition and causes, how it is categorized under the law, models to explain its persistence, and the criminal justice response to organized crime, including investigation, prosecution, defense, and sentencing.

This handbook explores organized crime, which it divides into two main concepts and types: the first is a set of stable organizations illegal per se or whose members systematically engage in crime, and the second is a set of serious criminal activities that are typically carried out for monetary gain.

1. This book is multi-disciplinary and will be of interests to criminologists, legal scholars, and those engaged with security, intelligence, and terrorism studies. 2. This is the first book to offer a network perspective on organised crime and law enforcement.

This book provides a comprehensive sociological explanation for the emergence and continuation of organized crime in Chicago. Tracing the roots of political corruption that afforded protection to gambling, prostitution, and other vice activity in Chicago and other large American cities, Robert M. Lombardo challenges the dominant belief that organized crime in America descended directly from the Sicilian Mafia. According to this widespread "alien conspiracy" theory, organized crime evolved in a linear fashion beginning with the Mafia in Sicily, emerging in the form of the Black Hand in America's immigrant colonies, and culminating in the development of the Cosa Nostra in America's urban centers. Looking beyond this Mafia paradigm, this volume argues that the development of organized crime in Chicago and other large American cities was rooted in the social structure of American society. Specifically, Lombardo ties organized crime to the emergence of machine politics in America's urban centers. From nineteenth-century vice syndicates to the modern-day Outfit, Chicago's criminal underworld could not have existed without the blessing of those who controlled municipal, county, and state government. These practices were not imported from Sicily, Lombardo contends, but were bred in the socially disorganized slums of America where elected officials routinely franchised vice and crime in exchange for money and votes. This book also traces the history of the African-American community's participation in traditional organized crime in Chicago and offers new perspectives on the organizational structure of the Chicago Outfit, the traditional organized crime group in Chicago.