existence of organized crime until the 1960s when he was forced to admit that there was such an enterprise. Organized crime differs from other types of crime in the goods and services provided and in the relationship between the criminal enterprise and its customers:
Organized crime supplies goods or services wanted by a large number of people--desperately needed cash, narcotics, prostitution, the chance to gamble. These are its principle sources of income. They are consensual crimes for the most part, desired by the consuming public. This fact distinguishes the main activities of organized crime from most other crime (Clark, 1970, 68).
The public creates the demand for the activities of organized crime, and this also means that law enforcement is working against the strong desires of a significant sector of the public. America is a natural culture for organized crime for several reasons. First, Americans try to prohibit things that people want, such as gambling, drugs, money at high rates of interest, prostitution, and liquor. At the same time, we know that we lack the means and the will to enforce these prohibitions fully. Criminal enterprises then develop to supply in answer to the public's demand. Second, we tolerate conditions where millions of people have no significant rights they can enforce. The poor are often hapless victims of crime and so see crime as acceptable and even natural. They do not bother to report it and become the natural prey of organized crime. Third, we make it easy for organized crime to operate by the way we neglect law enforcement (Clark, 1970, 69-70).
The Mafia came to the United States in the nineteenth century and arrived along with immigrants from Sicily. In terms of the power it wields and the size of its membership, it is less significant today than it was in the 1920s, 1930s, or 1940s. Gang wars in the 1920s and 1930s exceeded anything seen since World War II. Millions of I...