The United States is run by a democratic government that has laws in place to ensure order and organization. However, there are certain people and groups that wish to compromise and profit personally from breaking these laws. According to Understanding Organized Crime (2007), organized crime can be defined by the members and the activities of a group. There are many crimes in which organized crime might be involved, but what separates individual crime from crimes committed by groups of people is the term organized or organization. Organization has been described as a group of people who cooperate to accomplish objectives or goals. Organized crime has been around for centuries; from Outlaw gangs in the western days that robbed stage coaches, the pony express, and passengers of trains to today’s Blood and Crip gangs that dominate public streets for power over territories and drug sales. Gangs have been around for a long time imposing on the lives and liberties of law abiding citizens that wish to obey laws. Law abiding citizens have to live in imminent fear that their lives are not disrupted by the actions of these criminal organizations that wish to indulge in crime. In this paper, we will explore the various definitions, perception, characteristics of organized crime, and explore some high profile groups that indulge in different types of crimes.
Perception of Organized Crime
A University of Phoenix student named -------------- was asked how she defined organized crime. -----------’s perception of organized crime has some of the dynamics right such as profit, power, and hatred, but the reading further states that organized crime has no real black and white meaning, besides a group of people uniting for a common goal. Her answer was simple; she stated that organized crime is when a group of people break laws and/or violate others in order to gain power, profit, or promote hatred. Organized crime groups incarcerated