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{{Short description|Structured criminal groups}}
{{Other uses}}
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{{Criminology and penology|crimes}}

'''Organized crime''' refers to [[transnational organized crime|transnational]], national, or local groups of centralized enterprises that engage in illegal activities, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally considered a form of illegal business, some criminal organizations, such as [[terrorist organizations|terrorist group]]s, [[rebel group]]s, and [[Separatism|separatist]]s, are politically motivated. Many criminal organizations rely on fear or terror to achieve their goals and maintain control within their ranks. These groups may adopt tactics similar to those used by [[authoritarianism|authoritarian]] regimes to maintain power. Some forms of organized crime exist simply to meet demand for illegal goods or to facilitate trade in products and services banned by the state, such as illegal drugs or firearms. In other cases, criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as when gangs extort [[protection racket|protection money]] from shopkeepers.<ref>{{interlanguage link|John Macionis (sociologist)|lt=Macionis, John|ru|Масионис, Джон (социолог)}}, Gerber, Linda (2010). Sociology 7th Canadian Ed. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Canada Inc. p. 206.</ref> [[Street gangs]] may be classified as ''organized'' crime groups under broader definitions, or may develop sufficient discipline to be considered organized crime under stricter definitions.

A criminal organization can also be referred to as an [[Chicago Outfit|outfit]], a [[gangster]]/[[gang]], [[Crime|thug]], [[crime family]], [[mafia]], [[mobster]]/mob,<ref>{{cite book |title=Random House Unabridged Dictionary |date=2019 |publisher=Random House |quote=a criminal gang, especially one involved in drug trafficking, extortion, etc.}}</ref><ref name="test">{{cite web |url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mob?q=mob |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130104152934/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mob?q=mob |archive-date=January 4, 2013 |title= Definition of Mob in the Oxford Dictionary online, see meaning 2 |website=Oxforddictionaries.com |quote=The Mafia or a similar criminal organization}}</ref> (crime) ring,<ref>{{cite book |title=Random House Unabridged Dictionary |date=2019 |publisher=Random House |quote=a group of persons cooperating for unethical, illicit, or illegal purposes, as to control stock-market prices, manipulate politicians, or elude the law}}</ref> or syndicate;<ref>{{cite book |title=Random House Unabridged Dictionary |date=2019 |publisher=Random House |quote=a group, combination, or association of gangsters controlling organized crime or one type of crime, especially in one region of the country}}</ref> the network, subculture, and community of criminals involved in organized crime may be referred to as the underworld or gangland. Sociologists sometimes specifically distinguish a "mafia" as a type of organized crime group that specializes in the supply of extra-legal protection and quasi-law enforcement. Academic studies of the original "Mafia", the [[Sicilian Mafia]], as well as its [[American Mafia|American counterpart]],<ref>[[Diego Gambetta|Gambetta, D.]] (1996). The Sicilian Mafia: the business of private protection. Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|9780674807426}}</ref> generated an economic study of organized crime groups and exerted great influence on studies of the [[Russian mafia]],<ref>Varese, F. (2001). The Russian Mafia: private protection in a new market economy. Oxford University Press.</ref> the Indonesian [[Preman (Indonesian gangster)|preman]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Afrianto |first=Dedy |date=2020-09-20 |title=Preman: Dari Pialang Kuasa hingga Tertib Sosial |url=https://www.kompas.id/baca/riset/2020/09/21/preman-dari-pialang-kuasa-hingga-tertib-sosial |access-date=2025-03-20 |website=kompas.id |language=id}}</ref> the Chinese [[triad (organized crime)|triads]],<ref>Wang, Peng (2017). The Chinese Mafia: Organized Crime, Corruption, and Extra-Legal Protection. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|9780198758402}}</ref> the Hong Kong triads,<ref>Chu, Y. K. (2002). The Triads as Business. Routledge. {{ISBN|9780415757249}}</ref> the Indian [[thuggee]], and the Japanese [[yakuza]].<ref>Hill, P. B. (2003). The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State. Oxford University Press</ref>

Other organizations—including states, [[Place of worship|places of worship]], [[militaries]], [[police forces]], and corporations—may sometimes use organized-crime methods to conduct their activities, but their powers derive from their status as formal social institutions. There is a tendency to distinguish "traditional" organized crime such as [[gambling]], [[loan shark]]ing, [[Illegal drug trade|drug-trafficking]], [[prostitution]], and [[fraud]] from certain other forms of crime that also usually involve organized or group criminal acts, such as [[white-collar crime]], [[financial crimes]], [[political crime]]s, [[war crimes]], [[state crime]]s, and [[treason]]. This distinction is not always apparent and academics continue to debate the matter.<ref>Tilly, Charles. 1985. "State Formation as Organized Crime". In Evans, Peter, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol, eds.: ''Bringing the State Back In''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref> For example, in [[failed state]]s that can no longer perform basic functions such as education, security, or governance (usually due to fractious violence or to extreme poverty), organized crime, governance, and war sometimes complement each other. The term "[[oligarchy]]" has been used to describe democratic countries whose political, social, and economic institutions come under the control of a few families and [[business oligarch]]s that may be deemed or may devolve into organized crime groups in practice.<ref>Interview with Panos Kostakos: {{cite web |last1=  Alic |first1=  Jen |title="Is Oil Smuggling and Organized Crime the Cause of Greece's Economic Crisis?" |url=https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Greece-Oil-Smuggling-Helps-Define-the-Parliamentary-Mafiocracy.html |website=OilPrice.com |language=en |date=2012}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=April 2020}} By their very nature, [[kleptocracies]], [[mafia state]]s, [[narco-state]]s or [[narcokleptocracy|narcokleptocracies]], and states with high levels of [[clientelism]] and [[political corruption]] are either heavily involved with organized crime or tend to foster organized crime within their own governments.<ref>[https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/organized-crime/origins-of-organized-crime/#:~:text=Organized%20crime%20as%20we%20recognize,street%20gangs%20of%20the%201800s.Origins of Organized Crime] Retrieved 6 October  2023</ref><ref>[https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-rise-of-organized-crime/the-mob-during-prohibition/#:~:text=Prohibition%20practically%20created%20organized%20crime,hard%20liquor%20on%20the%20slyProhibition Profits Transformed the Mob] Retrieved 6 October  2023</ref>

In the United States, the [[Organized Crime Control Act]] (1970) defines organized crime as "[t]he unlawful activities of [...] a highly organized, disciplined association [...]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atf.gov/pub/fire-explo_pub/xcomplete.htm |title=Atf - Federal Explosives Law |access-date=June 19, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017144515/http://www.atf.gov/pub/fire-explo_pub/xcomplete.htm |archive-date=October 17, 2008 }}</ref> Criminal activity as a structured process is referred to as [[Racket (crime)|racketeering]]. In the UK, police estimate that organized crime involves up to 38,000 people operating in 6,000 various groups.<ref>{{cite news |last1= Casciani |first1=  Dominic |title=Organised crime strategy promises 'tougher approach' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14318162 |work=[[BBC News]]  |date=28 July 2011}}</ref> Historically, the largest organized crime force in the United States has been Cosa Nostra ([[Italian-American Mafia]]), but other transnational criminal organizations have also risen in prominence in recent decades.<ref name=Ott>{{cite journal|url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/usao/legacy/2012/10/31/usab6006.pdf|journal=United States Attorneys' Bulletin|date=November 2012|pages=2–3|author=Thomas P. Ott|title=Responding to the Threat of International Organized Crime: A Primer on Programs, Profiles, and Practice Points}}</ref> A 2012 article in a [[U.S. Department of Justice]] journal stated that: "Since the end of the Cold War, organized crime groups from Russia, China, Italy, Nigeria, and Japan have increased their international presence and worldwide networks or have become involved in more transnational criminal activities. Most of the world's major international organized crime groups are present in the United States."<ref name=Ott/> The US [[Drug Enforcement Administration]]'s 2017 ''National Drug Threat Assessment'' classified Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) as the "greatest criminal drug threat to the United States," citing their dominance "over large regions in Mexico used for the cultivation, production, importation, and transportation of illicit drugs" and identifying the [[Sinaloa Cartel|Sinaloa]], [[Jalisco New Generation Cartel|Jalisco New Generation]], [[Juárez Cartel|Juárez]], [[Gulf Cartel|Gulf]], [[Los Zetas Cartel|Los Zetas]], and [[Beltrán-Leyva Cartel|Beltrán-Leyva]] [[Drug cartel|cartel]]s as the six Mexican TCO with the greatest influence in [[drug trafficking]] to the United States.<ref>{{cite report|url=https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-07/DIR-040-17_2017-NDTA.pdf|pages=vi, 2|publisher=[[Drug Enforcement Administration]]|title=National Drug Threat Assessment|date=October 2017}}</ref> The United Nations [[Sustainable Development Goal 16]] has a target to combat all forms of organized crime as part of the [[Sustainable Development Goals|2030 Agenda]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Doss|first=Eric|title=Sustainable Development Goal 16|url=https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/sdg-16/|access-date=2020-09-25|website=United Nations and the Rule of Law|language=en-US}}</ref>

In some countries, [[football hooliganism]] has been linked to organized crime.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ellis |first=Anthony |date=2016-06-22 |title=Football hooliganism's links to organised crime |url=http://theconversation.com/football-hooliganisms-links-to-organised-crime-61346 |access-date=2024-04-23 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref>

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==Models of organized crime==
Various models have been proposed to describe the structure of criminal organizations.

===Organizational===
[[File:Sam Giancana.jpg|thumb|200px|[[American Mafia]] mobster [[Sam Giancana]]]]

====Patron–client networks====
Patron–client networks are defined by fluid interactions. They produce crime groups that operate as smaller units within the overall network, and as such tend towards valuing significant others, familiarity of social and economic environments, or tradition. These networks are usually composed of:

* Hierarchies based on 'naturally' forming family, social and cultural traditions;
* 'Tight-knit' focus of activity/[[Employment|labor]];
* Fraternal or nepotistic value systems;
* Personalized activity; including family rivalries, territorial disputes, recruitment and training of family members, etc.;
* Entrenched belief systems, reliance of tradition (including religion, family values, cultural expectations, class politics, gender roles, etc.); and,
* Communication and rule enforcement mechanisms dependent on organizational structure, social etiquette, history of criminal involvement, and collective decision-making.<ref name="Albini 1995"/><ref name="Albini 1988"/><ref name="Albini 1971"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Abadinsky|title=Organized Crime|date=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJ8gAAAACAAJ&q=abadinsky}}{{Dead link|date=April 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lyman & Potter|title=Organized Crime|date=2010|publisher=Pearson Prentice Hall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5wCkRAAACAAJ&q=lyman+potter+organised+crime|isbn=978-0-13-245777-4}}</ref>

====Bureaucratic/corporate operations====
Bureaucratic/corporate organized crime groups are defined by the general rigidity of their internal structures. They focus more on how the operation works, succeeds, sustains itself or avoids retribution, they are generally typified by:

* A complex authority structure;
* An extensive division of labor between classes within the organization;
* Meritocratic (as opposed to cultural or social attributes);
* Responsibilities carried out in an impersonal manner;
* Extensive written rules/regulations (as opposed to cultural praxis dictating action); and,
* 'Top-down' communication and rule enforcement mechanisms.

However, this model of operation has some flaws:

* The 'top-down' communication strategy is susceptible to interception, more so further down the hierarchy being communicated to;
* Maintaining written records jeopardizes the security of the organization and relies on increased security measures;
* Infiltration at lower levels in the hierarchy can jeopardize the entire organization (a '[[house of cards]]' effect); and,
* Death, injury, incarceration or internal power struggles dramatically heighten the insecurity of operations.

While bureaucratic operations emphasize business processes and strongly authoritarian hierarchies, these are based on enforcing power relationships rather than an overlying aim of protectionism, sustainability or growth.<ref>{{cite book |last=Abadinsky|title=Organized Crime|date=2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Schloenhardt | first1 = Andreas |title=Organized crime and the business of migrant trafficking|journal=Crime, Law and Social Change|date=1999|volume=32|issue=3|doi=10.1023/A:1008340427104|pages=203–233 |s2cid=151997349| issn = 0925-4994 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Passas | first1 = Nikos |title=Anomie and corporate deviance |journal=Crime, Law and Social Change |date=1990 |volume=14 |issue=2 |doi=10.1007/BF00728269 |pages=157–178 |s2cid=144676017  | issn = 0378-1100 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Hagan | first1 = Frank E. |title=The Organized Crime Continuum: A Further Specification of a New Conceptual Model |journal=Criminal Justice Review |date=1983 |volume=8 |issue=52 |pages=52–57 |url= http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/crmrev8&div=24&id=&page= |doi=10.1177/073401688300800209 |s2cid=144389146 | issn = 0734-0168 }}</ref>

====Youth and street gangs====
{{main|Gang}} 
[[File:Christopher Coke.jpg|thumb|upright=0.65|Jamaican gang leader [[Christopher Coke]]]]
An estimate on youth street gangs in the United States provided by Hannigan, et al., marked an increase of 35% between 2002 and 2010.<ref name="HenniganKolnick2015">{{Cite journal | last1 = Hennigan | first1 = Karen M. | last2 = Kolnick | first2 = Kathy A. | last3 = Vindel | first3 = Flor | last4 = Maxson | first4 = Cheryl L. |date=2015-09-01|title=Targeting youth at risk for gang involvement: Validation of a gang risk assessment to support individualized secondary prevention|journal=Children and Youth Services Review|volume=56|pages=86–96|doi=10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.07.002| issn = 0190-7409  }}</ref> A distinctive gang culture underpins many, but not all, organized groups;<ref>{{cite book |last=Wright|first=A|title=Organized Crime|date=2006| publisher=Willan| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P4naAAAAMAAJ&q=wright+organised+crime|isbn=978-1-84392-141-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gangwar.com/dynamics.htm |title=Street Gang Dynamics |work=The Nawojczyk Group, Inc. |access-date=2017-07-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427202435/http://www.gangwar.com/dynamics.htm |archive-date=2006-04-27 }}</ref> this may develop through recruiting strategies, social learning processes in the corrective system experienced by youth, family or peer involvement in crime, and the coercive actions of criminal authority figures. The term "street gang" is commonly used interchangeably with "youth gang," referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet "gang" criteria. Miller (1992) defines a street gang as "a self-formed association of peers, united by mutual interests, with identifiable leadership and internal organization, who act collectively or as individuals to achieve specific purposes, including the conduct of illegal activity and control of a particular territory, facility, or enterprise."<ref>Miller, W.B. 1992 (Revised from 1982). Crime by Youth Gangs and Groups in the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of JusticePrograms, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.</ref> Some reasons youth join gangs include to feel accepted, attain status, and increase their self-esteem.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pesce|first1=Rosario|last2=Wilczynski|first2=James|date=2005|title=Gang Prevention - National Association of School Psychologists|journal=Student Counsiling|pages=11–15}}</ref> A sense of unity brings together many of the youth gangs that lack the family aspect at home.

"Zones of transition" are deteriorating neighborhoods with shifting populations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rex|first=J|title=The sociology of a zone of transition|date=1968|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Burgess | first1 = Ernest W.  |title=Residential Segregation in American Cities |journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|date=November 1928|volume=140|pages=105–115|jstor=1016838 |doi= 10.1177/000271622814000115 |s2cid= 144829665 | issn = 0002-7162 }}</ref> In such areas, conflict between groups, fighting, "turf wars", and theft promote solidarity and cohesion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thrasher|first=F|title=The gang: a study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago|date=1927|publisher=University of Chicago Press|url=https://archive.org/details/gangstudyofi313g0000unse|url-access=registration|quote=thrasher 1927.}}</ref> Cohen (1955): working class teenagers joined gangs due to frustration of inability to achieve status and goals of the middle class; Cloward and Ohlin (1960): blocked opportunity, but unequal distribution of opportunities lead to creating different types of gangs (that is, some focused on robbery and property theft, some on fighting and conflict and some were retreatists focusing on drug taking); Spergel (1966) was one of the first criminologists to focus on ''evidence-based practice'' rather than intuition into gang life and culture. Participation in gang-related events during adolescence perpetuate a pattern of maltreatment on their own children years later.<ref name="HenniganKolnick2015" /> Klein (1971) like Spergel studied the effects on members of social workers' interventions. More interventions actually lead to greater gang participation and solidarity and bonds between members. Downes and Rock (1988) on Parker's analysis: strain theory applies, labeling theory (from experience with police and courts), control theory (involvement in trouble from early childhood and the eventual decision that the costs outweigh the benefits) and conflict theories. No ethnic group is more disposed to gang involvement than another, rather it is the status of being marginalized, alienated or rejected that makes some groups more vulnerable to gang formation,<ref>{{cite journal  | last1 = Klein | first1 = Malcolm W. | last2 = Weerman | first2 = Frank M. | last3 = Thornberry | first3 = Terence P.  |title=Street Gang Violence in Europe|journal=European Journal of Criminology|date=2006|volume=3|issue=4|pages=413–437|url=http://www.angelfire.com/planet/crimeandsociology/StreetGangViolenceinEurope.pdf |doi= 10.1177/1477370806067911 |s2cid=9727289 |access-date=2011-06-08|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190805195906/http://www.angelfire.com/planet/crimeandsociology/StreetGangViolenceinEurope.pdf |archive-date=2019-08-05| issn = 1477-3708  }}</ref><ref name="Klein et al 2001">{{cite book   | first1 = Jody   | last1 = Miller | first2 = Cheryl Lee | last2 =Maxson | first3 = Malcolm W.  | last3 =Klein |title=The modern gang reader |date=2001 |publisher=Roxbury |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4LaAAAAMAAJ&q=klein+et+al+2001+gang |isbn=978-1-891487-44-6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book  | first1 = Malcolm  | last1 =Klein  | first2 = Hans-Jürgen | last2 = Kerner  | first3 = Cheryl  | last3 =Maxson  | first4 = E. | last4 =Weitekamp |title=The eurogang paradox: street gangs and youth groups in the U.S. and Europe |date=2001 |publisher=Springer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=trTHT_qv-osC&q=klein+et+al+2001+gang |isbn=978-0-7923-6844-1}}</ref>  and this would also be accounted for in the effect of [[social exclusion]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Young|first=J|title=The exclusive society: social exclusion, crime and difference in late modernity |date=1999|publisher=SAGE|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Jn1SasTM4wC&q=young+1999+social+inclusion|isbn=978-1-4462-4072-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Finer| first=C|title=Crime and social exclusion|date=1998 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfBzMuLL6wQC&q=social+inclusion+crime| isbn=978-0-631-20912-6}}</ref>  especially in terms of recruitment and retention. These may also be defined by age (typically youth) or peer group influences,<ref>{{cite book |last=Decker & Van Winkle|title=Life in the gang: family, friends, and violence|date=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=shmK3PaaT_UC&q=decker+van+winkle+1996|isbn=978-0-521-56566-0}}</ref> and the permanence or consistency of their criminal activity. These groups also form their own symbolic identity or public representation which are recognizable by the community at large (include colors, symbols, patches, flags and tattoos).

Research has focused on whether the gangs have formal structures, clear hierarchies and leadership in comparison with adult groups, and whether they are rational in pursuit of their goals, though positions on structures, hierarchies and defined roles are conflicting. Some studied street gangs involved in drug dealing - finding that their structure and behavior had a degree of organizational rationality.<ref>{{cite book |last=Skolnick|title=GANG ORGANIZATION AND MIGRATION -- AND -- DRUGS, GANGS, AND LAW ENFORCEMENT|date=1993|publisher=National Youth Gang Information Ctr|url=https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/gang-organization-and-migration-and-drugs-gangs-and-law-0 |id={{NCJ|142659}}}}</ref> Members saw themselves as organized criminals; gangs were formal-rational organizations,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sanchez-Jankowski|first=M|title=Gangs and Social Change|journal=Theoretical Criminology|date=1991|volume=7|issue=2|url=http://www.observatoriodeseguranca.org/files/191.pdf|access-date=2011-06-08|archive-date=2018-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301044325/http://www.observatoriodeseguranca.org/files/191.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sanchez-Jankowski|first=M|title=Ethnography, Inequality, and Crime in the Low-Income Community|date=1995|publisher=Stanford University Press|pages=80–94|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGIR4xzyuqkC&q=Sanchez-Jankowski+%281991%29+gang&pg=PA80|isbn=978-0-8047-2404-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sanchez-Jankowski|first=M|title=Islands in the street: gangs and American urban society|date=1991|publisher=University of California Press|url=https://archive.org/details/islandsinstreetg00sn|url-access=registration|quote=Sanchez-Jankowski (1991) gang.|isbn=978-0-520-91131-4}}</ref>  Strong organizational structures, well defined roles and rules that guided members' behavior. Also a specified and regular means of income (i.e., drugs). Padilla (1992) agreed with the two above. However some have found these to be loose rather than well-defined and lacking persistent focus, there was relatively low cohesion, few shared goals and little organizational structure.<ref name="Klein et al 2001"/> Shared norms, value and loyalties were low, structures "chaotic", little role differentiation or clear distribution of labor. Similarly, the use of violence does not conform to the principles behind protection rackets, political intimidation and drug trafficking activities employed by those adult groups. In many cases gang members graduate from youth gangs to highly developed OC groups, with some already in contact with such syndicates and through this we see a greater propensity for imitation. Gangs and traditional criminal organizations cannot be universally linked (Decker, 1998),<ref>{{cite book |last=Curry & Decker|title=Confronting Gangs: Crime and Community|date=1998|publisher=Roxbury|url=http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/abstractdb/AbstractDBDetails.aspx?id=171548  |id={{NCJ|171548}} }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Decker | first1 = Scott H. | last2 = Bynum | first2 = Tim | last3 = Weisel | first3 = Deborah   |title=A tale of two cities: Gangs as organized crime groups |journal=Justice Quarterly |date=1998 |volume=15 |issue=3 |doi=10.1080/07418829800093821 |pages=395–425 | issn = 0741-8825}}</ref>  however there are clear benefits to both the adult and youth organization through their association. In terms of structure, no single crime group is archetypal, though in most cases there are well-defined patterns of [[vertical integration]] (attempting to control all or part of the supply chain), as is the case in arms, sex and drug trafficking.

===Individual difference===

====Entrepreneurial====
The entrepreneurial model looks at either the individual criminal or a smaller group of organized criminals, that capitalize off the more fluid 'group-association' of contemporary organized crime.<ref name="Smith1978"/>  This model conforms to social learning theory or differential association in that there are clear associations and interaction between criminals where knowledge may be shared, or values enforced, however, it is argued that rational choice is not represented in this. The choice to commit a certain act, or associate with other organized crime groups, may be seen as much more of an entrepreneurial decision - contributing to the continuation of a criminal enterprise, by maximizing those aspects that protect or support their own individual gain. In this context, the role of risk is also easily understandable,<ref name="Albanese2008"/><ref name="Albanese2000"/> however it is debatable whether the underlying motivation should be seen as true entrepreneurship,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Carter | first1 = David L.  |title=International Organized Crime: Emerging Trends in Entrepreneurial Crime|journal=Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice|date=1994|volume=10|issue=4|pages=239–266 |doi=10.1177/104398629401000402 |s2cid=153563199 | issn = 1043-9862 }}</ref>  or entrepreneurship as a product of some social disadvantage.

The criminal organization, much in the same way as one would assess pleasure and pain, weighs such factors as legal, social and economic risk to determine potential profit and loss from certain criminal activities. This decision-making process rises from the entrepreneurial efforts of the group's members, their motivations and the environments in which they work. Opportunism is also a key factor – the organized criminal or criminal group is likely to frequently reorder the criminal associations they maintain, the types of crimes they perpetrate, and how they function in the public arena (recruitment, reputation, etc.) in order to ensure efficiency, capitalization and protection of their interests.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Galemba|first=R|title=Informal and Illicit Entrepreneurs: Fighting for a Place in the Neoliberal Economic Order|journal=Anthropology of Work Review|date=2008|volume=29|issue=2|doi=10.1111/j.1548-1417.2008.00010.x|pages=19–25|pmc=3819937|pmid=24223472| issn = 0883-024X }}</ref>

===Multi-model approach===
Culture and ethnicity provide an environment where trust and communication between criminals can be efficient and secure. This may ultimately lead to a competitive advantage for some groups; however, it is inaccurate to adopt this as the only determinant of classification in organized crime. This categorization includes the [[Sicilian Mafia]], [['Ndrangheta]], [[Triad society|ethnic Chinese criminal groups]], Japanese [[yakuza]] (or [[Boryokudan]]),  [[Illegal drug trade in Colombia|Colombian drug trafficking groups]], [[Organized crime in Nigeria|Nigerian organized crime]] groups, [[Corsican mafia]], [[Kkangpae|Korean criminal groups]] and [[Jamaican posses]]. From this perspective, organized crime is not a modern phenomenon - the construction of 17th and 18th century crime gangs fulfill all the present day criteria of criminal organizations (in opposition to the Alien Conspiracy Theory). These roamed the rural borderlands of central Europe embarking on many of the same illegal activities associated with today's crime organizations, with the exception of money laundering.
When the French revolution created strong nation states, the criminal gangs moved to other poorly controlled regions like the Balkans and Southern Italy, where the seeds were sown for the Sicilian Mafia - the linchpin of organized crime in the New World.<ref>{{cite web|last=Morrison|first=S|title=Approaching Organized Crime: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?|url=http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/6/B/2/%7B6B21C915-591C-4478-AEB6-ED58E6241D86%7Dti231.pdf|publisher=[[Australian Institute of Criminology]]|access-date=2011-06-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110329192011/http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/6/B/2/%7B6B21C915-591C-4478-AEB6-ED58E6241D86%7Dti231.pdf|archive-date=2011-03-29}}</ref>

=== Computational approach ===
While most of the conceptual frameworks used to model organized crime emphasize the role of ''actors'' or ''activities'', computational approaches built on the foundations of [[data science]] and [[artificial intelligence]] are focusing on deriving new insights on organized crime from [[big data]]. For example, novel [[machine learning]] models have been applied to study and detect urban crime<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.takedownproject.eu/|title=TAKEDOWN {{!}} Organized Crime and Terrorist Networks|access-date=2019-09-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Tundis | first1 = Andrea | last2 = Kaleem | first2 = Humayun | last3 = Muhlhauser | first3 = Max  |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333320647|title=Tracking Criminal Events through IoT devices and an Edge Computing approach {{!}} Request PDF|website=ResearchGate|access-date=2019-09-20|doi=10.1109/ICCCN.2019.8846956| s2cid = 199002437 }}</ref> and online prostitution networks.<ref>{{Cite book |doi=10.1109/asonam.2018.8508276|isbn=978-1-5386-6051-5|chapter=Covert Online Ethnography and Machine Learning for Detecting Individuals at Risk of Being Drawn into Online Sex Work|title=2018 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM)|pages=1096–1099 |date=2018 |last1=Kostakos|first1=Panos |last2=Sprachalova|first2=Lucie |last3=Pandya|first3=Abhinay |last4=Aboeleinen|first4=Mohamed |last5=Oussalah|first5=Mourad |s2cid=53080972|chapter-url=http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe201901222703}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://onezero.medium.com/how-artificial-intelligence-is-tracking-sex-traffickers-276dcc025ecd|title=How Artificial Intelligence Is Tracking Sex Traffickers|last=Brody|first=Liz|date=2019-05-08|website=Medium|access-date=2019-09-20}}</ref> Big data has also been used to develop online tools predicting the risk for an individual to be a victim of online sex trade or getting drawn into online sex work.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/rightmesh/girls-in-tech-x-ubc-hack-for-humanity-hackathon-recap-656131e51b9f|title=Girls in Tech x UBC: Hack for Humanity Hackathon Recap|last=MacNeil|first=Brianna|date=2018-02-13|website=Medium|access-date=2019-09-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://devpost.com/software/online-sex-work-risk-prediction|title=Online Sex-work Risk Prediction|website=Devpost|date=11 February 2018 |access-date=2019-09-20}}</ref> In addition, data from Twitter<ref>{{cite book | last1 = S Al Dhanhani | first1 = Safaa | title = Computer Science & Information Technology |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322336420|chapter=Framework for Analyzing Twitter to Detect Community Suspicious Crime Activity|via=ResearchGate| date = 2018 | pages = 41–60 |access-date=2019-09-20|doi=10.5121/csit.2018.80104| isbn = 978-1-921987-79-3 }}</ref> and [[Google Trends]]<ref>{{cite journal |first=Panos |last=Kostakos |date=2018 |title=Public Perceptions on Organised Crime, Mafia, and Terrorism: A Big Data Analysis based on Twitter and Google Trends |journal=International Journal of Cyber Criminology |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=282–299 |url=https://www.cybercrimejournal.com/KostakosVol12Issue1IJCC2018.pdf |doi=10.5281/zenodo.1467919 |issn=0974-2891 |access-date=2019-09-20 |archive-date=2019-08-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190801120121/http://www.cybercrimejournal.com/KostakosVol12Issue1IJCC2018.pdf }}</ref> have been used to study the public perceptions of organized crime.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Model type || Environment || Group || Processes || Impacts
|-
| National || Historical or cultural basis || Family or hierarchy || Secrecy/bonds. Links to insurgents || Local corruption/influence. Fearful community.
|-
| Transnational || Politically and economically unstable || Vertical integration || Legitimate cover || Stable supply of illicit goods. High-level corruption.
|-
| Transnational/transactional || Any || Flexible. Small size. || Violent. Opportunistic. Risk taking || Unstable supply of range of illicit goods. Exploits young local offenders.
|-
| Entrepreneurial/transactional || Developed/high technology regions || Individuals or pairs. || Operating through legitimate enterprise || Provision of illicit services, e.g., money laundering, fraud, criminal networks.
|}

==Typical activities==
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2025}}
Organized crime groups provide a range of illegal services and goods. Organized crime often victimizes businesses through the use of extortion or theft and fraud activities like hijacking cargo trucks and ships, robbing goods, committing bankruptcy fraud (also known as "bust-out"), insurance fraud or stock fraud (insider trading).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Herzlich |first=Taylor |date=2025-05-09 |title=Crime rings attack US supply chain at record rates using this sneaky tactic: report |url=https://nypost.com/2025/05/09/business/crime-rings-attack-us-supply-chain-at-record-rates-using-this-sneaky-tactic-report/ |access-date=2025-05-13 |language=en-US}}</ref> Organized crime groups also victimize individuals by [[car theft]] (either for dismantling at "chop shops" or for export), [[art theft]], [[Metal theft]], [[bank robbery]], [[burglary]], jewelry and gems theft and heists, [[shoplifting]], [[Hacker (computer security)|computer hacking]], [[credit card fraud]], [[Economic Espionage Act of 1996|economic espionage]], [[embezzlement]], [[identity theft]], and [[securities fraud]] ("[[pump and dump]]" scam).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Typical Activities Of Organized Crime |url=https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/organized-crime/typical-activities-of-organized-crime/ |access-date=2025-05-13 |website=Crime Museum |language=en-US}}</ref> Some organized crime groups defraud national, state, or local governments by [[bid rigging]] public projects, counterfeiting money, smuggling or manufacturing untaxed alcohol ([[rum-running]]) or cigarettes ([[illicit cigarette trade|buttlegging]]), and providing immigrant workers to avoid taxes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bid Rigging, Organized Crime, and State Takeover of Cities {{!}} City Ethics |url=https://www.cityethics.org/content/bid-rigging-organized-crime-and-state-takeover-cities |access-date=2025-05-13 |website=www.cityethics.org}}</ref>

Organized crime groups seek out [[Corruption|corrupt]] public officials in executive, law enforcement, and judicial roles so that their [[Racketeering|criminal rackets]] and activities on the [[black market]] can avoid, or at least receive early warnings about, investigation and prosecution.<ref>{{Cite web |last=fromiti |title=Organized Crime Module 4 Key Issues: Links to Corruption |url=https://www.unodc.org/e4j/ru/organized-crime/module-4/key-issues/links-to-corruption.html |access-date=2025-05-13 |website=www.unodc.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Albanese |first=Jay S. |date=2025-03-01 |title=Corruption as the cause, not the effect, of organized crime?: A review and assessment of cases across the world |journal=Journal of Economic Criminology |volume=7 |article-number=100137 |doi=10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100137 |issn=2949-7914|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Activities of organized crime include:
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* loansharking of money at very high interest rates, 
* [[blackmailing]], 
* [[assassination]], 
* [[Backyard breeder|backyard breeding]],
*  [[bombing]]s, 
* [[bookmaking]] and [[illegal gambling]],
* [[confidence trick]]s, 
* [[copyright infringement]],
* [[counterfeiting]] of intellectual property,
* [[metal theft]],
* [[fence (criminal)|fencing]],
* [[kidnapping]],
* [[Corruption]],
* [[Robbery]],
* [[sex trafficking]],
* [[smuggling]],
* [[drug trafficking]],
* [[arms trafficking]],
* oil smuggling,
* [[antiquities| antiquities smuggling]],
* [[organ trafficking]],
* [[contract killing]],
* [[identity document forgery]],
* [[money laundering]],
* [[bribery]],
* [[seduction]],
* [[electoral fraud]],
* [[insurance fraud]],
* [[point shaving]],
* [[price fixing]],
* [[cargo theft]] via fictions pickup,
* [[illegal taxi operation]],
* illegal dumping of toxic waste,
* illegal trading of nuclear materials,
* military equipment smuggling, nuclear weapons smuggling,
* [[passport fraud]],
* providing illegal immigration and cheap labor,
* trading in endangered species, and 
* [[trafficking in human beings]]. 
{{div col end}}

Organized crime groups also do a range of business and [[labor racketeering]] activities, such as [[Skimming (fraud)|skimming]] casinos, insider trading, setting up monopolies in industries such as garbage collecting, construction and cement pouring, bid rigging, getting "no-show" and "no-work" jobs, [[political corruption]] and bullying.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Office of Inspector General - U.S. Department of Labor |url=https://www.oig.dol.gov/laborracprogram.htm |access-date=2025-05-13 |website=www.oig.dol.gov}}</ref>

===Violence===
====Assault====
Violent crime may be one of a criminal organization's tools used to achieve its goals, due to psycho-social factors (cultural conflict, aggression, rebellion against authority, access to illicit substances, counter-cultural dynamic), or it may simply be committed by individual criminals and the groups they form. [[Assault]]s are used for [[coercive]] measures, to "rough up" debtors, competition or recruits, in the commission of [[robbery|robberies]], in connection to other property offenses, and as an expression of counter-cultural authority.<ref>{{cite journal| last1 = Geis | first1 = Gilbert |title=Violence and Organized Crime|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|date=1966|volume=364|issue=1|pages=86–95|doi=10.1177/000271626636400109|s2cid=145170178 | issn = 0002-7162 }}</ref> Violence is normalized within criminal organizations (in direct opposition to mainstream society) and the locations they control.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Finckenauer | first1 = James O.  |title=Problems of definition: What is organized crime? |date=2005 |volume=8 |issue=3 |doi=10.1007/s12117-005-1038-4 |journal=Trends in Organized Crime|pages=63–83|s2cid=144438868 | issn = 1084-4791 }}</ref>

While the intensity of violence is dependent on the types of crime the organization is involved in (as well as their organizational structure or cultural tradition), aggressive acts range on a spectrum from low-grade physical assaults to [[Major trauma|major trauma assaults]]. Bodily harm and grievous bodily harm, within the context of organized crime, must be understood as indicators of intense social and cultural conflict, motivations contrary to the security of the public, and other psycho-social factors.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lynch |last2= Phillips |title=Organized Crime--Violence and Corruption |journal=Journal of Public Law |date=1971 |volume=20 |issue=59 |url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/emlj20&div=10&id=&page= | issn = }}</ref>

====Murder====
[[Murder]] has evolved from the honor and vengeance killings of the [[yakuza]] or [[Sicilian mafia]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Gambetta|title=The Sicilian Mafia: the business of private protection|date=1996|publisher=Harvard University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y3bv3tqWftYC&q=The+Sicilian+Mafia:+the+business+of+private+protection|isbn=978-0-674-80742-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Cottino|first=Amedeo|title=Sicilian cultures of violence: The interconnections between organized crime and local society|journal=Crime, Law and Social Change|date=1 January 1999|volume=32|issue=2|pages=103–113|doi=10.1023/A:1008389424861 | issn = 0925-4994 |s2cid=141221639}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Zuckerman|title=Vengeance is mine: Jimmy "the Weasel" Fratianno tells how he brought the kiss of death to the Mafia|date=1987|publisher=Macmillan|url=http://www.getcited.org/pub/102608708|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118164823/http://www.getcited.org/pub/102608708|archive-date=2011-11-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Radinsky |first1=M |title=Retaliation: The Genesis of a Law and the Evolution toward International Cooperation: An Application of Game Theory to Modern International Conflicts |journal=George Mason Law Review (Student Edition) |date=1994 |volume=2 |issue=53 |url= http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/gmulr2&div=8&id=&page= | issn = }}</ref> which placed large physical and symbolic importance on the act of murder, its purposes and consequences,<ref>{{cite book |last=Salter|first=F|title=Risky transactions: trust, kinship, and ethnicity|date=2002|publisher=Berghahn Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PwdegV06vuwC&q=mafia+vengeance|isbn=978-1-57181-710-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Roots|first=R.|title=Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style|journal=Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews|date=1 January 2005|volume=34|issue=1|pages=67–68|doi=10.1177/009430610503400145|s2cid=197655787 | issn = 0094-3061}}</ref> to a much less discriminate form of expressing power, enforcing criminal authority, achieving retribution or eliminating competition.

The role of the [[hit man]] has been generally consistent throughout the history of organized crime, whether that be due to the efficiency or expediency of hiring a professional assassin or the need to distance oneself from the commission of murderous acts (making it harder to prove criminal culpability). This may include the assassination of notable figures (public, private or criminal), once again dependent on authority, retribution or competition.

Revenge killings, armed robberies, violent disputes over controlled territories and offenses against members of the public must also be considered when looking at the dynamic between different criminal organizations and their (at times) conflicting needs. After killing their victims, the gangsters often try to destroy evidence by getting rid of the victims' remains in such a way as to prevent, hinder, or delay the discovery of the body, to prevent identification of the body, or to prevent autopsy. Criminals have been known to [[Disposal of human corpses#Criminal disposal|dispose of dead bodies]] by hiding the bodies in trash or landfills, feeding them to animals (such as [[pig]]s or [[rat]]s),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ponti |first=Crystal |title=Horrible Ways People Have Used Animals to Commit Murders |url=https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/when-people-use-animals-to-murder |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=A&E |date=24 April 2020 |language=en}}</ref> industrial processes (e.g., chemical baths), injection into the legitimate body disposal system (such as morgues, funeral homes, cemeteries, crematoriums, funeral pyres or cadaver donations), covert killings at health care facilities, disguising as animal flesh (such as food waste or restaurant food), creating false evidence of the circumstances of death and letting investigators dispose of the body, obscuring the victim's identity, or abandoning the body in a remote area where it can degrade significantly. Animal activity, such as consumption by [[scavenger]]s, can contaminate the [[crime scene]] or destroy evidence before being discovered.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1973-02-05 |title=Mob Favors Pinelands for Burials |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/02/05/archives/mob-favors-pinelands-for-burials.html |access-date=2023-03-02 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> However, there are also many instances of gangsters putting the bodies of their victims on display as a form of [[psychological warfare]] against their enemies.

====Vigilantism====
{{main|Vigilantism}}
Criminal syndicates often commit acts of vigilantism by enforcing laws, investigating certain criminal acts and punishing those who violate such rules. People who are often targeted by organized criminals tend to be individualistic criminals, people who committed crimes that are considered particularly heinous by society, people who committed wrongdoings against members or associates, rivals or terrorist groups. One reason why criminal groups might commit vigilantism in their neighborhoods is to prevent heavy levels of [[community policing]], that could be harmful to their illicit businesses; additionally the vigilante acts could help the gangs to ingratiate themselves in their [[community|communities]].

In the US during the roaring twenties, the [[Anti-Catholicism in the United States|anti-catholic]] and [[Antisemitism in the United States|anti-semitic]] [[Ku Klux Klan]] was known to be a staunch enforcer of prohibition, as a result [[American Mafia|Italian]], [[Irish Mob|Irish]], [[Polish-American organized crime|Polish]] and [[Jewish-American organized crime|Jewish]] gangsters would at times have violent confrontations against the KKK. On one occasion FBI informant and mobster [[Gregory Scarpa]] kidnapped and tortured a local Klansman into revealing the bodies of Civil rights workers who had been killed by the KKK.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/ArticleEmail.aspx?id=48173|title=Ex-Klansman Convicted in '64 Slayings Sues FBI - Memphis Daily News|website=www.memphisdailynews.com}}</ref> During World War II, America had a growing number of Nazi supporters that formed the [[German American Bund]], which was known to be threatening to local Jewish people, as a result Jewish mobsters (such as [[Meyer Lansky]], [[Bugsy Siegel]] and [[Jack Ruby]]) were often hired by the American Jewish community to help defend against the Nazi bund, even going as far as attacking and killing Nazi sympathizers during bund meetings.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/but-they-were-good-to-their-people/|title = How Jewish Gangsters Fought the Nazis}}</ref> Vigilante groups such as the [[Black Panther Party]], [[White Panther Party]], and [[Young Lords]] have been accused of committing crimes in order to fund their political activities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |date=2014-09-09 |title=Terrorism, COINTELPRO, and the Black Panther Party: An Interview With Law Professor Angela A. Allen-Bell |url=https://truthout.org/articles/terrorism-cointelpro-and-the-black-panther-party-an-interview-with-law-professor-angela-a-allen-bell/ |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=Truthout |language=en-US}}</ref>

While protection racketeering is often seen as nothing more than extortion, criminal syndicates that participate in [[protection racket]]s have at times provided genuine protection against other criminals for their clients, the reason for this is because the criminal organization would want the business of their clients to do better so that the gang can demand even more protection money, additionally if the gang has enough knowledge of the local [[Fence (criminal)|fencers]], they may even be able to track down and retrieve any objects that were stolen from the business owner, to further help their clients the gang may also force out, disrupt, vandalize, steal from or shutdown competing businesses for their clients.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1155/2018/3568085 |doi-access=free|title=Countering Protection Rackets Using Legal and Social Approaches: An Agent-Based Test|date=2018 | last1 = Székely | first1 = Áron | last2 = Nardin | first2 = Luis G. | last3 = Andrighetto | first3 = Giulia |journal=Complexity|volume=2018|pages=1–16 |article-number=3568085 | issn = 1076-2787 }}</ref> In Colombia the insurgent groups were trying to steal land, kidnap family members, and extort money from the drug barons. As a result the drug lords of the [[Medellín Cartel]] formed a paramilitary vigilante group known as [[Muerte a Secuestradores]] ("Death to Kidnappers") to defend the cartel against the [[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia|FARC]] and [[19th of April Movement|M-19]], even kidnapping and torturing the leader of M-19 before leaving him tied up in front of a police station.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1996/killer2.htm|title=Colombia's Killer Networks: The Military - Paramilitary Partnership and the United States|access-date=2021-05-27|archive-date=2017-10-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012065408/https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1996/killer2.htm}}</ref> During the Medellín Cartel's war against the Colombian government, both the [[Norte del Valle Cartel]] and [[Cali Cartel]] formed and operated a vigilante group called [[Los Pepes]] (which also comprised members of the Colombian government, police and former members of the Medellín Cartel) to bring about the downfall of Pablo Escobar; they did so by bombing the properties of the Medellín Cartel and kidnapping, torturing and killing Escobar's associates as well as working alongside the [[Search Bloc]], which would eventually lead to the dismantling of the Medellín Cartel and the death of Pablo Escobar.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://allthatsinteresting.com/los-pepes|title = The Story of los Pepes, the Vigilantes Who Waged War on Pablo Escobar|date = 20 April 2018}}</ref> Because of the high levels of corruption, the [[Oficina de Envigado]] would do things to help the police and vice versa, to the point where the police and the cartel would sometimes do operations together against other criminals; additionally the leaders of La Oficina would often act as judges to mediate disputes between the various different drug gangs throughout Colombia, which according to some helped prevented a lot of disputes from turning violent.<ref>{{cite news|last=Alsema |first=Adriaan |url=https://colombiareports.com/medellin-police-gave-mafia-boss-radio-access-intelligence-prosecution/ |title=Medellin mafia boss given police radio and access to intelligence: prosecution |newspaper=Colombia News &#124; Colombia Reports |publisher=Colombiareports.com |date=2018-02-13 |access-date=2022-02-14}}</ref>

On Somalia coastline many people rely on fishing for economic survival, because of this [[Piracy off the coast of Somalia|Somali pirates]] are often known to attack foreign vessels who partake in [[illegal fishing]] and [[overfishing]] in their waters and vessels that illegally dump waste into their waters. As a result, marine biologists say that the local [[fishery]] is recovering.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://a24media.com/downloads/pdf/scripts/english/kenyan_fishermen_celebrate_somali_pirates.pdf |title=Archived copy |website=a24media.com |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101025135024/http://a24media.com/downloads/pdf/scripts/english/kenyan_fishermen_celebrate_somali_pirates.pdf |archive-date=25 October 2010 }}</ref> In Mexico a vigilante group called [[Grupos de autodefensa comunitaria]] was formed to counter the [[Illegal logging|illegal loggers]], the [[La Familia Michoacana|La Familia Michoacana Cartel]] and a drug cartel/[[cult]] known as the [[Knights Templar Cartel]]; as they grew, they were being joined by former cartel members and as they got bigger they began to sell drugs in order to buy weapons. The Knights Templar Cartel was eventually defeated and dissolved by the vigilantes' actions but they ended up forming their own cartel called [[Los Viagras]], which has links with the [[Jalisco New Generation Cartel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jornada.com.mx/2016/04/17/politica/012n1pol|title = La Jornada: El cártel Jalisco Nueva generación entregó armas a los Viagras|date = 17 April 2016}}</ref> The [[Minuteman Project]] is a [[Far-right politics in the United States|far-right]] paramilitary organization that seeks to prevent [[illegal immigration]] across the [[US-Mexico border]]; however, doing so is detrimental to gangs like [[MS-13|Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)]], who make money through [[people smuggling]], and as a result MS-13 is known to commit acts of violence against members of the Minutemen, to prevent them from interfering with their illegal immigration activities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050328-125306-7868r.htm|title = Gang will target Minuteman vigil on Mexico border}}</ref> Throughout the world there are various anti-gang vigilante groups, who profess to be fighting against gang influence, but share characteristics and acts similarly to gangs, including [[Sombra Negra]], [[Friends Stand United]], [[People Against Gangsterism and Drugs]], and [[Waray-Waray gangs#Philippine Drug War|OG Imba]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39143 |title=RIGHTS-EL SALVADOR: Death Squads Still Operating |publisher=www.ipsnews.net |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071108233217/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39143 |archive-date=8 November 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/08/16/afraf.adr046.abstract |title = The Politics of Mobilization for Security in South African Townships |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415140528/http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/08/16/afraf.adr046.abstract |archive-date=15 April 2013 }}</ref> Gangs that are involved in drug trafficking often commit violent acts to stop or force out independent dealers—drug dealers with no gang ties—to keep them from taking customers.

In America, there is an [[animal welfare]] organization called Rescue Ink, in which [[Outlaw motorcycle club|outlaw biker gang]] members volunteer to rescue animals in need and combat against people who commit animal cruelty, such as breaking up [[cockfight]]ing rings, stopping the killing of stray [[cats]], breaking up [[Dog fighting in the United States|dog fighting]] rings, and rescuing [[pets]] from abusive owners.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ronproject.com/american-biker-gang-saves-animals/|title=Tough biker gang goes on the hunt for dog fight rings and saves animals from abuse |work=RONProject }}</ref> In the American prison system, [[prison gang]]s are often known to physically harm and even kill inmates who have committed such crimes as [[child murder]], [[serial killing]], [[pedophilia]], [[hate crimes]], [[domestic violence]], and [[rape]], and inmates who have committed crimes against the [[Elder abuse|elderly]], [[Animal cruelty|animals]], the [[Disability abuse|disabled]], the poor and the less fortunate.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2013/08/who-gets-protective-custody-in-jail-or-prison.html|title = Who Gets Protective Custody in Jail or Prison?|date = 7 August 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://litwc.com/2006/09/29/child-molesters-in-prison-dont-get-treated-nice-and-in-one-case-got-marked/ |title=Child Molesters in Prison don't get treated nice, and in one case got marked |access-date=2021-05-29 |archive-date=2009-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090516004452/http://litwc.com/2006/09/29/child-molesters-in-prison-dont-get-treated-nice-and-in-one-case-got-marked/ }}</ref> In many minority communities and poor neighborhoods, residents often distrust law enforcement, as a result the [[Gang|gang syndicates]] often take over to "police" their neighborhoods by committing acts against people who had committed crimes such as [[bullying]], muggings, [[home invasions]], hate crimes, [[stalking]], [[sexual assault]], domestic violence and [[child molestation]], as well as mediating disputes between neighbors. The ways that the gangs would punish such individuals could range from forced apologies, being threatened, being forced to return stolen objects, [[vandalizing]] property, arson, being forced to [[Relocation (personal)|move]], [[bomb]]ings, being [[assault]]ed or [[battery (crime)|battered]], kidnappings, [[false imprisonment]], [[torture]] or being murdered.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/96039.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2021-05-27 |archive-date=2021-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527095929/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/96039.pdf }}</ref> Some criminal syndicates have been known to hold their own "trials" for members of theirs who had been accused of wrongdoing; the punishments that the accused member would face if "found guilty" would vary depending on the offense.

====Terrorism====
{{main|Terrorism}}
In addition to what is considered traditional organized crime involving direct crimes of fraud swindles, scams, racketeering and other acts motivated for the accumulation of monetary gain, there is also non-traditional organized crime which is engaged in for political or ideological gain or acceptance. Such crime groups are often labelled [[List of designated terrorist groups|terrorist groups]] or [[Narcoterrorism|narcoterrorists]].<ref name="terror">[https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/NarcsFundedTerrs_Extrems.pdf A GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF NARCOTICS-FUNDED TERRORIST AND OTHER EXTREMIST GROUPS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215035951/http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/NarcsFundedTerrs_Extrems.pdf |date=2017-12-15 }}, May 2002, Library of Congress – Federal Research Division</ref><ref>Testimony of Victor Comras to the US House Subcommittee on Financial Oversight and Investigations, hearings on Current and Evolving Trends in Terrorism Financing. September 28, 2010.</ref>

There is no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law [[definition of terrorism#In international law|definition of terrorism]].<ref name=Martyn>Angus Martyn, [http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/CIB/2001-02/02cib08.htm The Right of Self-Defence under International Law-the Response to the Terrorist Attacks of 11 September] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524071529/http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/CIB/2001-02/02cib08.htm |date=May 24, 2008 }}, Australian Law and Bills Digest Group, Parliament of Australia Web Site, 12 February 2002.</ref><ref>Thalif Deen. [http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29633 POLITICS: U.N. Member States Struggle to Define Terrorism] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611053853/http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29633 |date=June 11, 2011 }}, [[Inter Press Service]], 25 July 2005.</ref> Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for a religious, political or ideological goal, deliberately target or disregard the safety of [[non-combatant]]s (e.g., [[Neutrality (international relations)|neutral]] [[military personnel]] or [[civilians]]), and are committed by non-government agencies.<ref name="terror"/> Some definitions also include acts of [[Law|unlawful]] violence and war, especially [[crimes against humanity]] (''see the [[Nuremberg Trials]]''), Allied authorities deeming the [[German Nazi Party]], its paramilitary and police organizations, and numerous associations subsidiary to the Nazi Party "criminal organizations". The use of similar tactics by criminal organizations for [[protection racket]]s or to enforce a [[code of silence]] is usually not labeled terrorism though these same actions may be labeled terrorism when done by a politically motivated group.

Notable groups include the [[Medellín Cartel]], [[Corleonesi Mafia]], various [[Mexican cartel|Mexican Cartels]], and [[Jamaican Posse]].

====Other====
* [[Arms trafficking]]
* [[Metal theft]]
* [[Arson]]
* [[Coercion]]
* [[Extortion]]
* [[Protection racket]]
* [[Sexual assault]]

===Financial crime===
{{main|Money laundering}}
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2025}}
Organized crime groups generate large amounts of money by activities such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, extortion, theft, and financial crime.<ref>[http://www.fsa.gov.uk/about/what/financial_crime Fighting financial crime] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323113610/http://www.fsa.gov.uk/about/what/financial_crime |date=2019-03-23 }}, FSA.gov.uk, Retrieved November 7, 2013</ref> These illegally sourced assets are of little use to them unless they can disguise it and convert it into funds that are available for investment into legitimate enterprise. The methods they use for converting its 'dirty' money into 'clean' assets encourages corruption. Organized crime groups need to hide the money's illegal origin. This allows for the expansion of OC groups, as the 'laundry' or 'wash cycle' operates to cover the money trail and convert proceeds of crime into usable assets. Money laundering is bad for international and domestic trade, banking reputations and for effective governments and rule of law. This is due to the methods used to hide the proceeds of crime. These methods include, but are not limited to: buying easily transported values, transfer pricing, and using "underground banks,"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.publicpolicy.umd.edu/sites/default/files/reuter/files/levi_and_reuter.pdf|title=Money Laundering|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123160656/http://faculty.publicpolicy.umd.edu/sites/default/files/reuter/files/levi_and_reuter.pdf|archive-date=2018-11-23}}</ref> as well as infiltrating firms in the legal economy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mirenda |first1=Litterio |last2=Mocetti |first2=Sauro |last3=Rizzica |first3=Lucia |date=2022 |title=The Economic Effects of Mafia: Firm Level Evidence |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20201015 |journal=American Economic Review |language=en |volume=112 |issue=8 |pages=2748–2773 |doi=10.1257/aer.20201015 |s2cid=251141537 |issn=0002-8282}}</ref>

Launderers will also co-mingle illegal money with revenue made from businesses in order to further mask their illicit funds.  Accurate figures for the amounts of criminal proceeds laundered are almost impossible to calculate, rough estimates have been made, but only give a sense of the scale of the problem and not quite how great the problem truly is.  The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime conducted a study, they estimated that in 2009, money laundering equated to about 2.7% of global GDP; this is equal to about 1.6 trillion US dollars.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-05-12 |title=Illicit money: how much is out there? |url=http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2011/October/illicit-money_-how-much-is-out-there.html |access-date=2025-05-13 |archive-date=2018-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180512095414/http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2011/October/illicit-money_-how-much-is-out-there.html |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>  The [[Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering]] (FATF), an intergovernmental body set up to combat money laundering, has stated that "A sustained effort between 1996 and 2000 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to produce such estimates failed."<ref name="Reuter2005">{{cite book | date = 2005 | title = Chasing Dirty Money: The Fight Against Money Laundering |chapter=How much Money is Laundered? | publisher = Peterson Institute | pages = 9–24 | isbn = 978-0-88132-529-4 | url =https://www.piie.com/publications/chapters_preview/381/2iie3705.pdf }}</ref> However, anti-money laundering efforts that seize money laundered assets in 2001 amounted to $386 million.<ref name="Reuter2005"/>  The rapid growth of money laundering is due to:
* the scale of organized crime precluding it from being a cash business - groups have little option but to convert its proceeds into legitimate funds and do so by investment, by developing legitimate businesses and purchasing property;
* globalization of communications and commerce - technology has made rapid transfer of funds across international borders much easier, with groups continuously changing techniques to avoid investigation; and,
* a lack of effective financial regulation in parts of the global economy.

Money laundering is a three-stage process:
* Placement: (also called immersion) groups 'smurf' small amounts at a time to avoid suspicion; physical disposal of money by moving crime funds into the legitimate financial system; may involve bank complicity, mixing licit and illicit funds, cash purchases and smuggling currency to safe havens.
* Layering: disguises the trail to foil pursuit. Also called 'heavy soaping'. It involves creating false paper trails, converting cash into assets by cash purchases.
* Integration: (also called 'spin dry): Making it into clean taxable income by real-estate transactions, sham loans, foreign bank complicity and false import and export transactions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Three Stages of Money Laundering: An In-depth Guide & Prevention |url=https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-gb/glossary/money-laundering-stages |access-date=2025-05-13 |website=www.lexisnexis.com}}</ref>

Means of money laundering:
* [[Money transmitter]]s, black money markets purchasing goods, gambling, increasing the complexity of the money trail.
* Underground banking (flying money), involves clandestine 'bankers' around the world.
* It often involves otherwise legitimate banks and professionals.

The policy aim in this area is to make the financial markets transparent, and minimize the circulation of criminal money and its cost upon legitimate markets.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Savona|first=E|title=Globalization of crime: The organizational variable.|journal=15th International Symposium on Economic Crime|date=1997}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal  | last1 = Savona | first1 = Ernesto U. | last2 = Vettori | first2 = Barbara |title=Evaluating the Cost of Organized Crime from a Comparative Perspective|journal=European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research|date=2009|volume=15|issue=4|pages=379–393|doi=10.1007/s10610-009-9111-1|s2cid=143912632 | issn = 0928-1371  }}</ref>

====Counterfeiting====
{{main|Counterfeiting}}
Counterfeiting money is another financial crime.  The counterfeiting of money includes illegally producing money that is then used to pay for anything desired.  In addition to being a financial crime, counterfeiting also involves manufacturing or distributing goods under assumed names.  Counterfeiters benefit because consumers believe they are buying goods from companies that they trust, when in reality they are buying low quality counterfeit goods.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iacc.org/resources/about/what-is-counterfeiting|title=What is Counterfeiting|website=International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition}}</ref> In 2007, the OECD reported the scope of counterfeit products to include food, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, electrical components, tobacco and even household cleaning products in addition to the usual films, music, literature, games and other electrical appliances, software and fashion.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Economic Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy|journal=OECD|date=2007|volume=12|url=http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/13/12/38707619.pdf}}</ref>  A number of qualitative changes in the trade of counterfeit products:
* a large increase in fake goods which are dangerous to health and safety;
* most products repossessed by authorities are now household items rather than luxury goods;
* a growing number of technological products; and,
* production is now operated on an industrial scale.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Customs response to latest trends in Counterfeiting and piracy|journal=Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee|date=2005|url=http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/comm_native_com_2005_0479_3_en_acte.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103214515/http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/comm_native_com_2005_0479_3_en_acte.pdf|archive-date=2012-11-03}}</ref>

====Tax evasion====
{{main|Tax evasion}}
The economic effects of organized crime have been approached from a number of both theoretical and empirical positions, however the nature of such activity allows for misrepresentation.<ref>{{cite journal| last1 = Anderson | first1 = David A. |title=The Aggregate Burden of Crime|journal=Journal of Law and Economics|date=1999|volume=42|issue=2|pages=611–642|doi=10.1086/467436 |pmid= |jstor=10.1086/467436 |doi-access=free | issn = 1040-2446 }}</ref><ref name="Feige & Cebula 2011">{{cite journal  |last1=Feige |first1=Edgar L. |last2=Cebula |first2=Richard | title=Americaʼs Underground Economy: Measuring the Size, Growth and Determinants of Income Tax Evasion in the U.S. Growth  |journal=MPRA Paper |date=January 2011 |issue=29672  |url=https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/29672/1/MPRA_paper_29672.pdf  |language=en | issn =  }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Feige |first1=Edgar L. |last2=Urban |first2=Ivica |title=Measuring Underground (Unobserved, Non-Observed, Unrecorded) Economies in Transition Countries: Can We Trust GDP? |journal=William Davidson Institute Working Papers |date=1 March 2008 |issue=913  |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64384/1/wp913.pdf  |publisher=University of Michigan|hdl=2027.42/64384  |language=en |issn=  }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Feltenstein & Dabla-Norris|title=An Analysis of the Underground Economy and Its Macroeconomic Consequences|url=https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/03-23.html|publisher=IMF|date=January 2003|journal=Ideas.repec}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Fugazza | first1 = Marco | last2 = Jacques | first2 = Jean-François |title=Labor market institutions, taxation and the underground economy. |journal=Journal of Public Economics |date=2004 |volume=88 |issue=1–2 |pages=395–418 |doi=10.1016/S0047-2727(02)00079-8  | issn = 0047-2727  }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Giovannini|first=E|title=Measuring the Non-Observed Economy: A Handbook.|date=2002|series=OECD Publishing|doi=10.1787/9789264175358-en|url=http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/20/1963116.pdf|isbn=978-92-64-19745-9}}</ref> The level of taxation taken by a nation-state, rates of unemployment, mean household incomes and level of satisfaction with government and other economic factors all contribute to the likelihood of criminals to participate in tax evasion.<ref name="Feige & Cebula 2011"/> As most organized crime is perpetrated in the liminal state between legitimate and illegitimate markets, these economic factors must adjusted to ensure the optimal amount of taxation without promoting the practice of tax evasion.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Alexeev | first1 = Michael | last2 = Janeba | first2 = Eckhard | last3 = Osborne | first3 = Stefan  |title=Taxation and evasion in the presence of extortion by organized crime |journal=Journal of Comparative Economics|date=2004|volume=32|issue=3 |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39641/3/wp256.pdf |doi=10.1016/j.jce.2004.04.002 |pages=375–387 |hdl=2027.42/39641 |hdl-access=free | issn = 0147-5967 }}</ref> As with any other crime, technological advancements have made the commission of tax evasion easier, faster and more globalized. The ability for organized criminals to operate fraudulent financial accounts, utilize illicit [[offshore bank]] accounts, access [[tax haven]]s or [[tax shelter]]s,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Masciandaro|first1=Donato|title=The Illegal Sector, Money Laundering and the Legal Economy: A Macroeconomic Analysis|journal=Journal of Financial Crime|date=2000|volume=8|issue=2|pages=103–112|url=http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1650586&show=abstract|doi=10.1108/eb025972|access-date=2011-06-11|archive-date=2012-09-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926181629/http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1650586&show=abstract|issn=1359-0790}}</ref> and operating goods smuggling syndicates to evade importation taxes help ensure financial sustainability, security from law enforcement, general anonymity and the continuation of their operations. Al Capone became a notorious example of tax evasion. In 1931, he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $215,000 in back taxes, along with accrued interest<ref>{{Cite web |title=Al Capone |url=https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/al-capone |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation |language=en-us}}</ref>

===Cybercrime===
{{main|Cybercrime}}

====Internet fraud====
{{main|Identity theft|internet fraud}}
Identity theft is a form of [[fraud]] or cheating of another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name. Victims of identity theft (those whose identity has been assumed by the identity thief) can suffer adverse consequences if held accountable for the perpetrator's actions, as can organizations and individuals who are defrauded by the identity thief, and to that extent are also victims. Internet fraud refers to the actual use of [[Internet]] services to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme. In the context of organized crime, both may serve as means through which other criminal activity may be successfully perpetrated or as the primary goal themselves. [[Email fraud]], [[advance-fee fraud]], [[romance scam]]s, [[employment scams]], and other [[phishing]] scams are the most common and most widely used forms of identity theft,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Choo|title=Organized crime groups in cyberspace: a typology|journal=Trends in Organized Crime|date=2008|volume=11| issue=3|doi=10.1007/s12117-008-9038-9|pages=270–295|s2cid=144928585}}</ref> though with the advent of social networking fake websites, accounts and other fraudulent or deceitful activity has become commonplace.

====Copyright infringement====
{{main|Copyright infringement}}
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under [[copyright]], infringing the copyright holder's [[exclusive right]]s, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make [[derivative work]]s. Whilst almost universally considered under [[civil procedure]], the impact and intent of organized criminal operations in this area of crime has been the subject of much debate. Article 61 of the [[Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights]] (TRIPs) requires that signatory countries establish [[criminal]] procedures and penalties in cases of willful trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy on a commercial scale. More recently copyright holders have demanded that states provide criminal sanctions for all types of copyright infringement.<ref>{{cite book |last=Li & Correa|title=Intellectual property enforcement: international perspectives |date=2009 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bN3o1uwpKF4C&q=copyright+infringement+international+acta|isbn=978-1-84844-925-1 }}</ref> Organized criminal groups capitalize on consumer complicity, advancements in security and anonymity technology, emerging markets and new methods of product transmission, and the consistent nature of these provides a stable financial basis for other areas of organized crime.<ref>[https://legamart.com/articles/guide-on-us-copyright-protection-in-foreign/A Primer on the US Copyright Protection InternationallySneha Solanki]{{Dead link|date=June 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Retrieved 6 October  2023</ref><ref>[https://www.ip-watch.org/2012/03/15/more-foreigners-find-themselves-targets-of-us-copyright-law/More Foreigners Find Themselves Targets Of US Copyright Law] Retrieved 6 October  2023</ref>

====Cyberwarfare====
{{main|Cyberwarfare}}
{{further|Titan Rain|Moonlight Maze}}
'''Cyberwarfare''' refers to politically motivated [[Computer crime|hacking]] to conduct [[Cyber spying|sabotage]] and [[espionage]].  It is a form of [[information warfare]] sometimes seen as analogous to [[conventional warfare]]<ref name="DOD - Cyberspace">{{cite web |url=http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/doddict/data/c/01473.html |title=DOD - Cyberspace |publisher=Dtic.mil |access-date=2011-12-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118162815/http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/doddict/data/c/01473.html |archive-date=November 18, 2011 }}</ref> although this analogy is [[#Controversy over terms|controversial]] for both its accuracy and its political motivation. It has been defined as activities by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks with the intention of causing civil damage or disruption.<ref name=Clarke>Clarke, Richard A. ''Cyber War'', HarperCollins (2010)</ref> Moreover, it acts as the "fifth domain of warfare,"<ref name=Economist>[https://www.economist.com/leaders/2010/07/01/cyberwar "Cyberwar: War in the Fifth Domain"] ''Economist'', July 1, 2010</ref> and [[William J. Lynn]], U.S. Deputy [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]], states that "as a doctrinal matter, [[the Pentagon]] has formally recognized cyberspace as a new domain in warfare . . . [which] has become just as critical to military operations as land, sea, air, and space."<ref name=Lynn>Lynn, William J. III. [https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66552/william-j-lynn-iii/defending-a-new-domain "Defending a New Domain: The Pentagon's Cyberstrategy"], ''Foreign Affairs'', September/October 2010, pp. 97-108</ref> Cyber [[espionage]] is the practice of obtaining confidential, sensitive, proprietary or classified information from individuals, competitors, groups, or governments using illegal exploitation methods on internet, networks, software or computers. There is also a clear military, political, or economic motivation. Unsecured information may be intercepted and modified, making [[espionage]] possible internationally. The recently established [[Cyber Command]] is currently debating whether such activities as commercial espionage or theft of intellectual property are criminal activities or actual "breaches of national security."<ref name=Clark2/> Furthermore, military activities that use computers and [[satellite]]s for coordination are at risk of equipment disruption. Orders and communications can be intercepted or replaced.  Power, water, fuel, communications, and transportation infrastructure all may be vulnerable to [[sabotage]]. According to Clarke, the civilian realm is also at risk, noting that the security breaches have already gone beyond stolen credit card numbers, and that potential targets can also include the electric power grid, trains, or the stock market.<ref name=Clark2>[http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2010/09/24-11/Clarke-More-defense-needed-in-cyberspace.html "Clarke: More defense needed in cyberspace"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324191031/http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2010/09/24-11/Clarke-More-defense-needed-in-cyberspace.html |date=2012-03-24 }} ''HometownAnnapolis.com'', September 24, 2010</ref>

====Computer viruses====
{{main|Computer virus|denial-of-service attack}}

The term "computer virus" may be used as an overarching phrase to include all types of true viruses, [[malware]], including [[computer worm]]s, [[Trojan horse (computing)|Trojan horse]]s, most [[rootkit]]s, [[spyware]], dishonest [[adware]] and other malicious and unwanted software (though all are technically unique),<ref>{{cite journal |last=Grabowsky|title=The Internet, Technology, and Organized Crime|journal=Asian Journal of Criminology |date=2007 |volume=2 |issue=2 |doi=10.1007/s11417-007-9034-z |pages=145–161|s2cid=144677777|hdl=1885/21260 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> and proves to be quite financially lucrative for criminal organizations,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Williams|title=Organized Crime and Cybercrime: Synergies, Trends, and Responses|journal=Global Issues|date=2001|volume=6|issue=2|url=http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/AbstractDB/AbstractDBDetails.aspx?id=191389   |id={{NCJ|191389}}  }}</ref> offering greater opportunities for [[fraud]] and [[extortion]] whilst increasing security, secrecy and anonymity.<ref>{{cite journal|last=O'Neil |title=Rebels for the System? Virus Writers, General Intellect, Cyberpunk and Criminal Capitalism |journal=Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies |date=2006 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=225–241 |url=http://adsri.anu.edu.au/pubs/ONeil/O%27Neil_VirusWriters.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110407174526/http://adsri.anu.edu.au/pubs/ONeil/O%27Neil_VirusWriters.pdf |archive-date=April 7, 2011 |doi=10.1080/10304310600641760 |s2cid=39204645 |hdl=1885/30644 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>  Worms may be utilized by organized crime groups to exploit security [[vulnerability (computing)|vulnerabilities]] (duplicating itself automatically across other computers a given network),<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Weaver | first1 = Nicholas | last2 = Paxson | first2 = Vern | last3 = Staniford | first3 = Stuart | last4 = Cunningham | first4 = Robert| title = Proceedings of the 2003 ACM workshop on Rapid malcode | chapter = A taxonomy of computer worms|pages=11–18 |date=2003 |chapter-url=http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=948190 |doi=10.1145/948187.948190 |isbn=1-58113-785-0 |s2cid=2298495}}</ref>  while a Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless but hides malicious functions (such as retrieval of stored confidential data, corruption of information, or interception of transmissions). Worms and Trojan horses, like viruses, may harm a computer system's data or performance. Applying the Internet model of organized crime, the proliferation of computer viruses and other malicious software promotes a sense of detachment between the perpetrator (whether that be the criminal organization or another individual) and the victim; this may help to explain vast increases in cyber-crime such as these for the purpose of ideological crime or terrorism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Linden|title=Focus on Terrorism|date=2007|publisher=Nova Publishing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wl-Ds42YMDIC&q=Focus+on+Terrorism+linden|isbn=978-1-60021-709-8}}</ref> In mid July 2010, security experts discovered a malicious software program that had infiltrated factory computers and had spread to plants around the world. It is considered "the first attack on critical industrial infrastructure that sits at the foundation of modern economies," notes the ''New York Times.''<ref>[http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/malware-hits-computerized-industrial-equipment/ "Malware Hits Computerized Industrial Equipment"] ''New York Times'', September 24, 2010</ref>

===White-collar crime and corruption===
{{main|White-collar crime|corruption}}
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2025}}

====Corporate crime====
{{main|Corporate crime}}
Corporate crime refers to crimes committed either by a [[corporation]] (i.e., a [[business entity]] having a separate legal personality from the [[natural person]]s that manage its activities), or by individuals that may be identified with a corporation or other business entity (see [[vicarious liability (criminal)|vicarious liability]] and [[corporate liability]]).  Corporate crimes are motivated by either the individuals desire or the corporations desire to increase profits.<ref name="Social Class and Crime">{{Cite web|url=https://revisesociology.com/tag/corporate-crime/|title=corporate crime|website=ReviseSociology|date=19 July 2021 }}</ref>  The cost of corporate crimes to United States taxpayers is about $500 billion.<ref name="Social Class and Crime"/>  Note that some forms of corporate corruption may not actually be criminal if they are not specifically illegal under a given system of laws. For example, some jurisdictions allow [[insider trading]]. The different businesses that organized crime figures have been known to operate is vast, including but not limited to pharmacies, [[import-export companies]], [[Check-cashing business|check-cashing stores]], tattoo parlors, zoos, online dating sites, liquor stores, motorcycle shops, banks, hotels, ranches and plantations, electronic stores, beauty salons, [[real estate company|real estate companies]], daycares, [[Picture frame|framing stores]], taxicab companies, phone companies, shopping malls, jewelry stores, modeling agencies, dry cleaners, pawn shops, [[pool hall]]s, clothing stores, [[Freight company|freight companies]], [[Charity (practice)|charity foundations]], youth centers, recording studios, sporting goods stores, furniture stores, gyms, insurance companies, [[Security company|security companies]], [[law firms]], and [[private military companies]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.leadershipgirl.com/white-collar-crime-affect-your-company/|title = Business Finances: How White Collar Crime Can Affect Your Company - Leadership Girl|date = 23 May 2017}}</ref>  One example of this is a tequila factory in Mexico collaborating with the organized crime group CJNG.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dalby |first=Chris |date=2020-06-10 |title=Mexico's Criminal Groups and Tequila Industry Continue Thorny Relationship |url=https://insightcrime.org/news/brief/mexico-criminal-groups-tequila/#:~:text=The%20CJNG%20is%20far%20from,this%20may%20not%20be%20enough. |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=InSight Crime |language=en-US}}</ref>

====Labor racketeering<!--'Labor racketeering' redirects here-->====
'''Labor racketeering'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->, as defined by the United States Department of Labor, is the infiltrating, exploiting, and controlling of employee benefit plan, union, employer entity, or workforce that is carried out through illegal, violent, or fraudulent means for profit or personal benefit.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oig.dol.gov/laborracprogram.htm|title=Office of Inspector General - U.S. Department of Labor|website=www.oig.dol.gov|access-date=2019-11-01}}</ref> Labor racketeering has developed since the 1930s, affecting national and international construction, mining, energy production and transportation<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/315/521/|title=United States v. Teamsters Local 807, 315 U.S. 521 (1942)|website=Justia Law}}</ref> sectors immensely.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jacobs & Peters|title=Labor Racketeering: The Mafia and the Unions|journal=Crime and Justice|date=2003|volume=30|pages=229–282|jstor=1147700|doi=10.1086/652232|s2cid=147774257}}</ref> Activity has focused on the importation of cheap or [[unfree labor]], involvement with union and public officials ([[political corruption]]), and [[counterfeiting]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Siegel & Nelen|title=Organized Crime: Culture, Markets and Policies|date=2008|publisher=Springer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9i0bPHB6HdMC&q=organised+crime+nelen|isbn=978-0-387-74733-0}}</ref>

====Political corruption====
{{main|Political corruption}}
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain.<ref>{{cite book |last=Buscaglia, Edgardo|title= On Best and Not So Good Practices for Addressing High-level Corruption Worldwide: An Empirical Assessment. Chapter 16 |date=2011|publisher=Elgar|isbn= 978-0-85793-652-3 |url= https://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781849802512.00027.xml}}</ref> Misuse of [[government]] power for other purposes, such as [[Political repression|repression]] of political opponents and general [[police brutality]], is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties. Forms of corruption vary, but include [[bribery]], [[extortion]], [[cronyism]], [[nepotism]], [[patronage]], [[Graft (politics)|graft]], and [[embezzlement]]. While corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as [[drug trafficking]], [[money laundering]], and [[human trafficking]], it is not restricted to these activities. The activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, certain political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or poorly defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6288400.stm African corruption 'on the wane'], 10 July 2007, [[BBC News]]</ref><ref>[https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/vertical-integration-organised-crime-linked-political-corruption The Vertical Integration of Organised Crime Linked to Political Corruption], 10 December 2017, [[Edgardo Buscaglia]]</ref> A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a [[kleptocracy]], literally meaning "rule by thieves".

===Drug trafficking===
[[File:Drug traffic routes in Mexico.svg|thumb|upright=1.05|Drug trafficking routes in Mexico]]
There are three major regions that center around [[drug trafficking]], known as the [[Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)|Golden Triangle]] (Burma, Laos, Thailand), [[Golden Crescent]] (Afghanistan) and Central and South America. There are suggestions that due to the continuing decline in opium production in South East Asia, traffickers may begin to look to Afghanistan as a source of heroin."<ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/topics/pods/opioid-trafficking-routes|title=Heroin|website=Opioid Trafficking routes from Asia to Europe|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110402040501/http://www.aic.gov.au/crime_types/drugs_alcohol/drug_types/heroin.aspx|archive-date=2011-04-02|access-date=2019-11-01}}</ref>

With respect to organized crime and accelerating synthetic drug production in East and Southeast Asia, especially the [[Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)|Golden Triangle]], [[Sam Gor]], also known as The Company, is the most prominent international crime syndicate based in [[Asia-Pacific]]. It is made up of members of five different triads. [[Sam Gor]] is understood to be headed by Chinese-Canadian [[Tse Chi Lop]]. The Cantonese Chinese syndicate is primarily involved in drug trafficking, earning at least $8 billion per year.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Nicola |title=Drugs investigators close in on Asian 'El Chapo' at centre of vast meth ring |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/14/drugs-investigators-close-asian-el-chapo-centre-vast-meth-ring/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/14/drugs-investigators-close-asian-el-chapo-centre-vast-meth-ring/ |archive-date=2022-01-11 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Telegraph |date=14 October 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Sam Gor is alleged to control 40% of the Asia-Pacific [[methamphetamine]] market, while also trafficking [[heroin]] and [[ketamine]]. The organization is active in a variety of countries, including Myanmar, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China and Taiwan. Sam Gor previously produced meth in Southern China and is now believed to manufacture mainly in the [[Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)|Golden Triangle]], specifically [[Shan State]], [[Myanmar]], responsible for much of the massive surge of crystal meth in recent years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nypost.com/2019/10/14/inside-the-hunt-for-the-man-known-as-asias-el-chapo/|title=Inside the hunt for the man known as 'Asia's El Chapo'|date=October 14, 2019}}</ref> The group is understood to be headed by [[Tse Chi Lop]], a Chinese-Canadian gangster born in [[Guangzhou]], China.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last1=Mavrellis |first1=Channing |last2=Cassara |first2=John |date=October 27, 2022 |title=Made in China: China's Role in Transnational Crime and Illicit Financial Flows |url=https://gfintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/GFI-China-TOC-IFF-Report-FINAL-OCT-22.pdf |access-date=2022-12-21 |website=[[Global Financial Integrity]] |language=en-US}}</ref> Tse is a former member of the Hong Kong-based crime group, the [[Big Circle Gang]]. In 1988, Tse immigrated to Canada. In 1998, Tse was convicted of transporting heroin into the United States and served nine years behind bars. Tse has been compared in prominence to [[Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán]] and [[Pablo Escobar]].<ref name=el>{{cite news |last1=Allard |first1=Tom |title=The hunt for Asia's El Chapo |url=https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/meth-syndicate/ |publisher=Reuters |date=14 October 2019}}</ref>

The U.S. supply of heroin comes mainly from foreign sources which include Southeast Asia's [[Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)|Golden Triangle]], Southwest Asia, and Latin America. Heroin comes in two forms. The first is its chemical base form which presents itself as brown and the second is a salt form that is white.<ref name=":3" /> The former is mainly produced in Afghanistan and some south-west countries while the latter had a history of being produced in only south-east Asia, but has since moved to also being produced in Afghanistan. There is some suspicion white Heroin is also being produced in Iran and Pakistan, but it is not confirmed. This area of Heroin production is referred to as the Golden Crescent. Heroin is not the only drug being used in these areas. The European market has shown signs of growing use in opioids on top of the long-term heroin use.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/68371|title=The International Heroin Market|website=The White House|language=en|access-date=2019-11-01}} {{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Drug traffickers produce drugs in [[Clandestine chemistry|drug laboratories]] and drug farms. A drug lab can range in size from small [[workshop]]s to the size of small towns (such as [[Tranquilandia]]). A drug farm is a place where drug crops are grown before being made into illegal narcotics. A drug farm can range in size from [[smallholding]]s to large plantations. In addition to drug crops, it is also not uncommon for drug farms to also host [[livestock]], both to have a legal source of revenue to help disguise the dirty money and so that the livestock can provide a source of [[organic fertilizer]] (such as [[manure]]) for the drug crops.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://leafwell.com/blog/best-fertilizer-for-marijuana/#:~:text=Instead%2C%20utilize%20organic%20fertilizers%20like,lime%20for%20calcium%20or%20magnesium. | title=The 6 Best Fertilizers You Can Buy to Help Grow Marijuana }}</ref> There are multiple instances where traffickers set up some of their drug farms, [[safe house]]s and drug labs in remote [[wilderness]] areas.<ref name="Narco-deforestation">{{cite journal|last1=McSweeney|first1=Kendra|last2=Nielsen|first2=Erik|last3=Taylor|first3=Matthew|last4=Wrathall|first4=David|last5=Pearson|first5=Zoe|last6=Wang|first6=Ophelia|last7=Plumb|first7=Spencer|title=Drug Policy as Conservation Policy: Narco-Deforestation|journal=Science|date=January 31, 2014|volume=343|issue=6170|pages=489–490|url=http://raisg.socioambiental.org/system/files/Science-2014-McSweeney-489-90.pdf|doi=10.1126/science.1244082|pmid=24482468|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222082809/http://raisg.socioambiental.org/system/files/Science-2014-McSweeney-489-90.pdf|archive-date=December 22, 2015|bibcode=2014Sci...343..489M|s2cid=40371211}}</ref> Once produced, the fully processed narcotics are then transported to more populated areas to be sold. Oftentimes the traffickers stationed in these remote criminal settlements, sustain themselves with a combination of [[survival skills]] and with food, supplies and workers being brought to them by associates. The reason that traffickers have been known to establish such remote compounds is so that the surrounding area can help to provide varying degrees of natural cover. Additionally the traffickers may also hope, that the surrounding terrain and local [[wildlife]] might serve to deter or impede either investigative authorities or rival gangs if the location of the clandestine compound were revealed. While usually thought of as an urban issue, drug trafficking is also known to be a problem in both [[suburb]]an and [[rural area]]s as well.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/human-trafficking-americas-schools/trafficking-in-urban-suburban-rural-areas|title=Trafficking in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Areas &#124; National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE)|website=safesupportivelearning.ed.gov}}</ref>

===Human trafficking===
{{Main|Human trafficking}}Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery where people are forced, tricked, or pressured into working or doing sexual acts. It can happen anywhere and affect anyone, no matter their age, race, or background.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What Is Human Trafficking? {{!}} Homeland Security |url=https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=www.dhs.gov |language=en}}</ref>

====Sex trafficking====
{{Main|Sex trafficking}}
[[Human trafficking]] for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a major cause of contemporary sexual slavery and is primarily for prostituting women and children into [[Prostitution|sex industries]].<ref name=voa>{{cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2009-05-15-voa30-68815957/413170.html |title=Experts encourage action against sex trafficking |publisher=.voanews.com |date=2009-05-15 |access-date=2010-08-29 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091223080032/http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2009-05-15-voa30-68815957.html?rss=human%2Brights%2Band%2Blaw |archive-date=December 23, 2009 }}</ref> Sexual slavery encompasses most, if not all, forms of forced prostitution.<ref>[https://www.unodc.org/pdf/traffickinginpersons_report_2006ver2.pdf Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns], the 2006 [[UNODC]] Anti-Human Trafficking Unit report</ref> The terms "[[forced prostitution]]" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions but have been insufficiently understood and inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" generally refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity.<ref name="Reportof1998">{{cite web|url=http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/0/3d25270b5fa3ea998025665f0032f220?OpenDocument |title=Report of the Special Rapporteur on systemic rape |date=22 June 1998 |access-date=10 November 2009 |publisher=The United Nations Commission on Human Rights |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090723190557/http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/0/3d25270b5fa3ea998025665f0032f220?OpenDocument |archive-date=July 23, 2009 }}</ref> Official numbers of individuals in sexual slavery worldwide vary. In 2001 [[International Organization for Migration]] estimated 400,000, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] estimated 700,000 and [[UNICEF]] estimated 1.75 million.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/etc/stats.html Sex Slaves: Estimating Numbers], [[PBS]] "Frontline" fact site.</ref> The most common destinations for victims of human trafficking are Thailand, Japan, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the United States, according to a report by [[United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime|UNODC]].<ref name="BBC-UN-traffic">{{cite news | url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6497799.stm | work=BBC News | title=UN highlights human trafficking | date=26 March 2007 | access-date=6 April 2010}}</ref>

====Illegal immigration and people smuggling====
{{Main|People smuggling}}
{{See also|Snakehead (gang)|Coyotaje}}
[[People smuggling]] is defined as "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/m/ds/hstcenter/90434.htm |title=US Department of State |publisher=State.gov |access-date=2011-12-17 }}</ref> The term is understood as and often used interchangeably with migrant smuggling, which is defined by the [[Convention against Transnational Organized Crime|United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime]] as "...the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a state party of which the person is not a national".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/faqs-migrant-smuggling.html |title=United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime |publisher=Unodc.org |date=2004-01-28 |access-date=2012-04-05}}</ref> This practice has increased over the past few decades and today now accounts for a significant portion of illegal immigration in countries around the world. People smuggling generally takes place with the consent of the person or persons being smuggled, and common reasons for individuals seeking to be smuggled include employment and economic opportunity, personal or familial betterment, and escape from persecution or conflict.

====Contemporary slavery and forced labor====
The number of [[Slavery|slaves]] today remains as high as 12 million<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ilo.org/global/Themes/Forced_Labour/lang--en/index.htm |title=Forced labor – Themes |publisher=Ilo.org |access-date=2010-03-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209072059/http://www.ilo.org/global/Themes/Forced_Labour/lang--en/index.htm |archive-date=February 9, 2010 }}</ref> to 27 million.<ref name="disposable-bales">{{cite book|last=Bales|first=Kevin|title=Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy|publisher=University of California Press|date=1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/disposablepeople00bale_0/page/9 9]|chapter=1|isbn=0-520-21797-7|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/disposablepeople00bale_0|url=https://archive.org/details/disposablepeople00bale_0/page/9}}</ref><ref name=time>{{cite magazine |author=E. Benjamin Skinner |date=2010-01-18 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952335,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111040618/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952335,00.html |archive-date=January 11, 2010 |title=sex trafficking in South Africa: World Cup slavery fear |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=2010-08-29 }}</ref><ref name="un.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.smfcdn.com/assets/pubs/un_chronicle.pdf |title=UN Chronicle &#124; Slavery in the Twenty-First Century |publisher=Un.org |access-date=2010-08-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716093517/http://www.smfcdn.com/assets/pubs/un_chronicle.pdf |archive-date=July 16, 2011 }}</ref> This is probably the smallest proportion of slaves to the rest of the world's population in history.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0901/p16s01-wogi.html |title=Slavery is not dead, just less recognizable |publisher=Csmonitor.com |date=2004-09-01 |access-date=2011-12-17}}</ref> Most are [[debt bondage|debt slaves]], largely in [[South Asia]], who are under [[debt bondage]] incurred by [[Loan sharks|lenders]], sometimes even for generations.<ref>{{cite web |author=UK |url=http://www.newint.org/issue337/facts.htm |title=Slavery in the 21st century |publisher=Newint.org |access-date=2010-08-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527095857/http://www.newint.org/issue337/facts.htm |archive-date=2010-05-27 }}</ref> It is the fastest growing criminal industry and is predicted to eventually outgrow [[illegal drug trade|drug trafficking]].<ref name=voa/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2783655.stm |title=Asia's sex trade is 'slavery' |work=BBC News |date=2003-02-20 |access-date=2010-08-29}}</ref>

==Historical origins==
===Pre-nineteenth century===
Today, crime is sometimes thought of as an urban phenomenon, but for most of human history it was the rural interfaces that encountered the majority of crimes (bearing in mind the fact that for most of human history, rural areas were the vast majority of inhabited places). For the most part, within a village, members kept crime at very low rates; however, outsiders such as [[piracy|pirates]], [[Highwayman|highwaymen]] and [[banditry|bandits]] attacked trade routes and roads, at times severely disrupting commerce, raising costs, insurance rates and prices to the consumer. According to criminologist Paul Lunde, "[[Piracy]] and [[banditry]] were to the pre-industrial world what organized crime is to modern society."<ref name="ReferenceA">Paul Lunde, ''Organized Crime'', 2004.</ref>
{{blockquote|If we take a global rather than a strictly domestic view, it becomes evident that even crime of the organized kind has a long if not a necessarily noble heritage. The word 'thug' dates back to early 13th-century [[Indian subcontinent|India]], when [[Thuggee|Thugs]], or gangs of criminals, roamed from town to town, looting and [[pillaging]]. Smuggling and drug-trafficking rings are as old as the hills in Asia and Africa, and extant criminal organizations in Italy and Japan trace their histories back several centuries...<ref>Sullivan, Robert, ed. ''Mobsters and Gangsters: Organized Crime in America, from [[Al Capone]] to [[Tony Soprano]].'' New York: Life Books, 2002.</ref>}}

As Lunde states, "[[Barbarian]] conquerors, whether [[Vandals]], [[Goths]], the [[Norsemen|Norse]], [[Turkic peoples|Turks]] or [[Mongols]] are not normally thought of as organized crime groups, yet they share many features associated with thriving criminal organizations. They were for the most part non-ideological, predominantly ethnically based, used violence and intimidation, and adhered to their own codes of law."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> In [[Ancient Rome]], there was an infamous outlaw called [[Bulla Felix]] who organized and led a gang of up to six hundred bandits. Terrorism is linked to organized crime, but has political aims rather than solely financial ones, so there is overlap but separation between terrorism and organized crime.

==== Fencing in Ming and Qing China ====
A fence or receiver (銷贓者), was a [[merchant]] who bought and sold [[Possession of stolen goods|stolen goods]]. Fences were part of the extensive network of accomplices in the criminal underground of [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] China. Their occupation entailed criminal activity, but as fences often acted as liaisons between the more respectable community to the underground criminals, they were seen as living a "precarious existence on the fringes of respectable society".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|isbn=978-988-8390-05-2|location=Hong Kong|page=174}}</ref>

A fence worked alongside [[banditry|bandits]], but in a different line of work. The network of criminal accomplices that was often acquired was essential to ensuring both the safety and the success of fences.

The path into the occupation of a fence stemmed, in a large degree, from necessity. As most fences came from the ranks of poorer people, they often took whatever work they could – both legal and illegal.<ref name=":1" />

Like most bandits operated within their own community, fences also worked within their own town or village. For example, in some satellite areas of the capital, military troops lived within or close to the commoner population and they had the opportunity to hold illegal trades with commoners.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bandits, Eunuchs and the Son of Heaven: Rebellion and the Economy of Violence in Mid-Ming China|last=Robinson|first=David|publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press|date=2001|isbn=978-0-8248-6154-4|location=Honolulu|page=58}}</ref>

In areas like [[Baoding]] and [[Hejian]], local peasants and community members not only purchased military livestock such as horses and cattle, but also helped to hide the "stolen livestock from military allured by the profits". Local peasants and community members became fences and they hid [[Crime|criminal activities]] from officials in return for products or money from these soldiers.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bandits, Eunuchs and the Son of Heaven: Rebellion and the Economy of Violence in Mid-Ming China.|last=Robinson|first=David|publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press|date=2001|isbn=978-0-8248-6154-4|location=Honolulu|page=58}}</ref>

===== Types of fences =====
Most fences were not individuals who only bought and sold stolen goods to make a living. The majority of fences had other occupations within the "polite" society and held a variety of official occupations. These occupations included laborers, coolies, and peddlers.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China.|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=175}}</ref> Such individuals often encountered criminals in markets in their line of work, and, recognizing a potential avenue for an extra source of income, formed acquaintances and temporary associations for mutual aid and protection with criminals.<ref name=":2" /> In one example, an owner of a tea house overheard the conversation between Deng Yawen, a criminal and others planning a robbery and he offered to help to sell the loot for an exchange of spoils.

At times, the robbers themselves filled the role of fences, selling to people they met on the road. This may actually have been preferable for robbers in certain circumstances, because they would not have to pay the fence a portion of the spoils.

Butchers were also prime receivers for stolen animals because of the simple fact that owners could no longer recognize their livestock once butchers slaughtered them.<ref name=":2" /> Animals were very valuable commodities within Ming China and a robber could potentially sustain a living from stealing livestock and selling them to butcher-fences.

Although the vast majority of the time, fences worked with physical stolen property, fences who also worked as itinerant barbers also sold information as a good. Itinerant barbers often amassed important sources of information and news as they traveled, and sold significant pieces of information, often to criminals in search of places to hide or individuals to rob.<ref name=":2" /> In this way, itinerant barbers also served the role as a keeper of information that could be sold to both members of the criminal underground, as well as powerful clients in performing the function of a spy.

Fences not only sold items such as jewelry and clothing but was also involved in [[human trafficking|trafficking]] hostages that bandits had kidnapped. Women and children were the easiest and among the most common "objects" the fences sold. Most of the female hostages were sold to fences and then sold as [[Prostitution|prostitutes]], wives or [[concubinage|concubines]]. One example of human trafficking can be seen from Chen Akuei's gang who abducted a servant girl and sold her to Lin Baimao, who in turn sold her for thirty parts of silver as wives.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=156}}</ref> In contrast to women, who required beauty to sell for a high price, children were sold regardless of their physical appearance or family background. Children were often sold as servants or entertainers, while young girls were often sold as prostitutes.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China.|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=160}}</ref>

===== Network of connections =====
Like merchants of honest goods, one of the most significant tools of a fence was their network of connections. As they were the middlemen between robbers and clients, fences needed to form and maintain connections in both the "polite" society, as well as among criminals. However, there were a few exceptions in which members of the so-called "well-respected" society became receivers and harborers. They not only help bandits to sell the stolen goods but also acted as agents of bandits to collect protection money from local merchants and residents. These "part-time" fences with high social status used their connection with bandits to help themselves gain social capital as well as wealth.

It was extremely important to their occupation that fences maintained a positive relationship with their customers, especially their richer gentry clients. When some members of the local elites joined the ranks of fences, they not only protected bandits to protect their business interests, they actively took down any potential threats to their illegal profiting, even [[government officials]]. In the [[Zhejiang|Zhejiang Province]], the local elites not only got the provincial commissioner, Zhu Wan, dismissed from his office but also eventually "[drove] him to suicide".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Murakami, Ei. "The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Pirates: from Initiators to Obstructors of Maritime Trade." The Sea in History - The Early Modern World, edited by Christian Buchet and Gérard Le Bouëdec|last=Murakami|first=Ei|publisher=The Boydell Press|date=2017|isbn=978-1-78327-158-0|location=Woodbridge, UK|page=814}}</ref> This was possible because fences often had legal means of making a living, as well as illegal activities and could threaten to turn in bandits to the authorities.<ref name=":1" />

It was also essential for them to maintain a relationship with bandits. However, it was just as true that bandits needed fences to make a living. As a result, fences often held dominance in their relationship with bandits and fences could exploit their position, cheating the bandits by manipulating the prices they paid bandits for the stolen property.<ref name=":1" />

===== Safe houses =====
Aside from simply buying and selling stolen goods, fences often played additional roles in the criminal underground of early China. Because of the high floating population in public places such as inns and tea houses, they often became ideal places for bandits and gangs to gather to exchange information and plan for their next crime. Harborers, people who provided safe houses for criminals, often played the role of receiving stolen goods from their harbored criminals to sell to other customers.<ref name=":1" /> Safe houses included inns, tea houses, brothels, opium dens, as well as gambling parlors and employees or owners of such institutions often functioned as harborers, as well as fences.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China.|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=171}}</ref> These safe houses were located in places with high floating populations and people from all kinds of social backgrounds.

Brothels themselves helped these bandits to hide and sell stolen goods because of the special Ming Law that exempted brothels from being held responsible "for the criminal actions of their clients." Even though the government required owners of these places to report any suspicious activities, lack of enforcement from the government itself and some of the owners being fences for the bandits made an ideal safe house for bandits and gangs.

Pawnshops were also often affiliated with fencing stolen goods. The owners or employees of such shops often paid cash for stolen goods at a price a great deal below market value to bandits, who were often desperate for money, and resold the goods to earn a profit.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China.|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=177}}</ref>

===== Punishments for fences =====
Two different Ming Laws, the ''Da Ming Lü'' 大明律 and the ''Da Gao'' 大诰, drafted by the [[Hongwu Emperor]] Zhu Yuanzhang, sentenced fences with different penalties based on the categories and prices of the products that were stolen.

In coastal regions, illegal trading with foreigners, as well as smuggling, became a huge concern for the government during the middle to late Ming era. In order to prohibit this crime, the government passed a law in which illegal smugglers who traded with foreigners without the consent of the government would be punished with exile to the border for military service.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://roger.ucsd.edu/search~S9?/Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ/Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&extended=1&SUBKEY=ming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+/1,70,70,E/frameset&FF=Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&1,1,|title=Ming dai li fa yan jiu|last=Yang|first=Yifan|date=2013|publisher=Zhongguo she hui ke xue chu ban she|isbn=978-7-5161-2717-9|edition=Di 1 ban|series=Zhongguo she hui ke xue yuan xue bu wei yuan zhuan ti wen ji = Zhongguoshehuikexueyuan xuebuweiyuan zhuanti wenji|location=Beijing|page=42|oclc=898751378|access-date=2021-12-31|archive-date=2021-03-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306025533/http://roger.ucsd.edu/search~S9?%2FXming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ%2FXming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&extended=1&SUBKEY=ming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+%2F1%2C70%2C70%2CE%2Fframeset&FF=Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&1%2C1%2C}}</ref>

In areas where military troops were stationed, stealing and selling military property would result in a more severe punishment. In the Jiaqing time, a case was recorded of stealing and selling military horses. The emperor himself gave direction that the thieves who stole the horses and the people who helped to sell the horses would be put on [[cangue]] and sent to labor in a border military camp.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://roger.ucsd.edu/search~S9?/Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ/Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&extended=1&SUBKEY=ming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+/1,70,70,E/frameset&FF=Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&1,1,|title=Ming dai li fa yan jiu|last=Yang|first=Yifan|date=2013|publisher=Zhongguo she hui ke xue chu ban she|isbn=978-7-5161-2717-9|edition=Di 1 ban|series=Zhongguo she hui ke xue yuan xue bu wei yuan zhuan ti wen ji = Zhongguoshehuikexueyuan xuebuweiyuan zhuanti wenji|location=Beijing|page=326|oclc=898751378|access-date=2021-12-31|archive-date=2021-03-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306025533/http://roger.ucsd.edu/search~S9?%2FXming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ%2FXming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&extended=1&SUBKEY=ming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+%2F1%2C70%2C70%2CE%2Fframeset&FF=Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&1%2C1%2C}}</ref>

In the [[Salt in Chinese history|salt]] mines, the penalty for workers who stole salt and people who sold the stolen salt was the most severe. Anyone who was arrested and found guilty of stealing and selling government salt was put to death.

===Nineteenth century===
During the [[Victorian era]], criminals and gangs started to form organizations which would collectively become London's criminal underworld.<ref name="Victoria 1">{{cite web|url=http://surrey-shore.freeservers.com/VicCrime.htm|title=MENACE, MAYHEM, AND MORIARTY! CRIME IN VICTORIAN LONDON|publisher=Surrey Shores|author=Barton, William A.}}</ref> Criminal societies in the underworld started to develop their own ranks and groups which were sometimes called ''families'' and were often made up of lower-classes and operated on pick-pocketry, prostitution, forgery and counterfeiting, commercial burglary and even money laundering schemes.<ref name="Victoria 1"/><ref name="Victoria 2">{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Victorian-Roots-of-Organized-Crime-2954000.php|title=THE VICTORIAN UNDERWORLD|newspaper=SF Gate|author=Thomas, Donald}}</ref> Unique also were the use of slang and argots used by Victorian criminal societies to distinguish each other, like those propagated by street gangs like the [[Peaky Blinders]].<ref name="Halls">{{cite news|url=http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/peaky-blinders-real-story|work=GQ|title=The Peaky Blinders are a romanticised myth|last=Halls|first=Eleanor|access-date=30 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="Peak">{{cite news|author=Larner, Tony|title=When Peaky Blinders Ruled Streets with Fear|work=Sunday Mercury|date= 1 August 2010|page= 14}}</ref> One of the most infamous crime bosses in the Victorian underworld was [[Adam Worth]], who was nicknamed "the Napoleon of the criminal world" or "the Napoleon of Crime" and became the inspiration behind the popular character of [[Professor Moriarty]].<ref name="Victoria 1"/><ref>Macintyre, Ben (1997). ''The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth'', Master Thief. Delta. p. 6-7. {{ISBN|0-385-31993-2}}</ref>

Organized crime in the United States first came to prominence in the [[Old West]] and historians such as Brian J. Robb and Erin H. Turner traced the first organized crime syndicates to the [[Cochise County Cowboys|Coschise Cowboy Gang]] and the [[Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch|Wild Bunch]].<ref>Robb, Brian J. ''A Brief History of Gangsters''. Running Press (January 6, 2015). Chapter 1: Lawlessness in the Old West. {{ISBN|978-0762454761}}</ref><ref>Turner, Erin H. ''Badasses of the Old West: True Stories of Outlaws on the Edge''. TwoDot; First edition (September 18, 2009). p. 132. {{ISBN|978-0762754663}}</ref> The Cochise Cowboys, though loosely organized, were unique for their criminal operations in the Mexican border, in which they would steal and sell cattle as well smuggled contraband goods in between the countries.<ref>Alexander, Bob. ''Bad Company and Burnt Powder: Justice and Injustice in the Old Southwest (Frances B. Vick Series)''. University of North Texas Press; 1st edition (July 10, 2014). p. 259-261. {{ISBN|978-1574415667}}</ref> In the Old west there were other examples of gangs that operated in ways similar to an organized crime syndicate such as the [[Innocents (gang)|Innocents gang]], the [[Jim Miller (outlaw)|Jim Miller gang]], the [[Soapy Smith|Soapy Smith gang]], the [[Belle Starr|Belle Starr gang]] and the Bob Dozier gang.

===Twentieth century===
[[File:Yakuza at Sanja Matsuri.jpg|thumb|upright=1.05|Tattooed [[yakuza]] gangsters]]
[[Donald Cressey]]'s [[Cosa Nostra]] model studied [[American Mafia|Mafia]] families exclusively and this limits his broader findings. Structures are formal and rational with allocated tasks, limits on entrance, and influence on the rules established for organizational maintenance and sustainability.<ref name="Cressey & Finckenauer 2008">{{cite book|last=Cressey & Finckenauer|title=Theft of the Nation: The Structure and Operations of Organised Crime in America|date=2008|publisher=Transaction Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o5TaAAAAMAAJ|isbn=978-1-4128-0764-7}}</ref><ref name="Cressey & Ward 1969">{{cite book |last=Cressey & Ward|title=Delinquency, crime, and social process|date=1969|publisher=Harper & Row|url=https://archive.org/details/delinquencycrime00cres|url-access=registration|quote=DELINQUENCY, CRIME, AND SOCIAL PROCESS'.}}</ref> In this context there is a difference between organized and professional crime; there is well-defined hierarchy of roles for leaders and members, underlying rules and specific goals that determine their behavior and these are formed as a social system, one that was rationally designed to maximize profits and to provide forbidden goods. Albini saw organized criminal behavior as consisting of networks of patrons and clients, rather than rational hierarchies or secret societies.<ref name="Albini 1995">{{cite journal|last=Albini|title=Russian Organized Crime: Its History, Structure and Function|journal=Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice|date=1995|volume=11|issue=4|pages=213–243|doi=10.1177/104398629501100404|s2cid=142455283  | issn = 1043-9862 }}</ref><ref name="Albini 1988">{{cite journal|last=Albini|title=Donald Cressey's Contributions to the Study of Organized Crime: An Evaluation|journal=Crime and Delinquency|date=1988|volume=34|issue=3|pages=338–354|doi=10.1177/0011128788034003008|s2cid=143949162 | issn = 0011-1287 }}</ref><ref name="Albini 1971">{{cite book|last=Albini|title=The American Mafia: genesis of a legend|date=1971|publisher=Appleton-Century-Crofts |isbn=978-0-390-01520-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A6bsAAAAIAAJ&q=albini+patron+client}}</ref>

The networks are characterized by a loose system of power relations. Each participant is interested in furthering his own welfare. Criminal entrepreneurs are the patrons and they exchange information with their clients in order to obtain their support. Clients include members of gangs, local and national politicians, government officials and people engaged in legitimate business. People in the network may not directly be part of the core criminal organization. Furthering the approach of both Cressey and Albini, Ianni and Ianni studied Italian-American crime syndicates in New York and other cities.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ianni|first = FAJ|title=The search for structure: a report on American youth today|date=1989|publisher= [[Free Press (publisher)|Free Press]]|url=https://archive.org/details/searchforstructu00iann|url-access=registration|quote=ianni ianni gang.|isbn = 978-0-02-915360-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ianni & Ianni|title=The Crime society: organized crime and corruption in America|date=1976|publisher=New American Library|isbn=978-0-452-00450-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwhBAAAAIAAJ&q=ianni+ianni+crime}}</ref>

Kinship is seen as the basis of organized crime rather than the structures Cressey had identified; this includes fictive godparental and affinitive ties as well as those based on blood relations and it is the impersonal actions, not the status or affiliations of their members, that define the group. Rules of conduct and behavioral aspects of power and networks and roles include the following:
* family operates as a social unit, with social and business functions merged;
* leadership positions down to middle management are kinship based;
* the higher the position, the closer the kinship relationship;
* group assigns leadership positions to a central group of family members, including fictive god-parental relationship reinforcement;
* the leadership group are assigned to legal or illegal enterprises, but not both; and,
* transfer of money, from legal and illegal business, and back to illegal business is by individuals, not companies.
Strong family ties are derived from the traditions of southern Italy, where family rather than the church or state is the basis of social order and morality.

====The "disorganized crime" and choice theses====
One of the most important trends to emerge in criminological thinking about OC in recent years is the suggestion that it is not, in a formal sense, "organized" at all. Evidence includes lack of centralized control, absence of formal lines of communication, fragmented organizational structure. It is distinctively disorganized. For example, Seattle's crime network in the 1970s and 80s consisted of groups of businessmen, politicians and of law enforcement officers. They all had links to a national network via [[Meyer Lansky]], who was powerful, but there was no evidence that Lansky or anyone else exercised centralized control over them.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chambliss|title=ON THE TAKE - FROM PETTY CROOKS TO PRESIDENTS|date=1978|publisher=Indiana University Press |url= https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/take-petty-crooks-presidents-second-edition |isbn=978-0-253-34244-7|id={{NCJ|50101}} }}</ref>

While some crime involved well-known criminal hierarchies in the city, criminal activity was not subject to central management by these hierarchies nor by other controlling groups, nor were activities limited to a finite number of objectives. The networks of criminals involved with the crimes did not exhibit organizational cohesion. Too much emphasis had been placed on the Mafia as controlling OC. The Mafia were certainly powerful but they "were part of a heterogeneous underworld, a network characterized by complex webs of relationships." OC groups were violent and aimed at making money but because of the lack of structure and fragmentation of objectives, they were "disorganized".<ref>{{cite book |last=Reuter|title=Disorganized Crime - The Economics of the Visible Hand|date=1983|publisher=MIT Press|url=http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/abstractdb/AbstractDBDetails.aspx?id=88708|isbn=978-0-262-68048-6   |id={{NCJ|88708}}  }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Reuter|title=Disorganized Crime Illegal Markets and the Mafia|date=1985|publisher=MIT Press|url=http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=9465&ttype=2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060911013602/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=9465|archive-date=2006-09-11|isbn=978-0-262-68048-6|access-date=2011-06-10}}</ref>

Further studies showed neither bureaucracy nor kinship groups are the primary structure of organized crime; rather, the primary structures were found to lie in partnerships or a series of joint business ventures.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Haller|title=Bureaucracy and the Mafia: An Alternative View|journal=Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice|date=1992|volume=8|issue=1|pages=1–10|doi=10.1177/104398629200800102|s2cid=144764530}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Haller|journal=Criminology|date=1990|volume=28|issue=2|pages=207–236|doi=10.1111/j.1745-9125.1990.tb01324.x|title=Illegal Enterprise: A Theoretical and Historical Interpretation}}</ref> Despite these conclusions, all researchers observed a degree of managerial activities among the groups they studied. All observed networks and a degree of persistence, and there may be utility in focusing on the identification of organizing roles of people and events rather than the group's structure.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Weick|title=Organizational culture as a source of high reliability|journal=California Management Review|date=1987|volume=29|issue=2|pages=112–127|url=http://www.mendeley.com/research/organisational-culture-source-high-reliability/|doi=10.2307/41165243|jstor=41165243|s2cid=153521217|access-date=2013-03-10}} {{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Jablin & Putnam|title=The new handbook of organizational communication: advances in theory, research, and methods|date=2001|publisher=SAGE|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_VMrf5JRUp8C&q=F.+M.+Jablin,+L.+L.+Putnam,.+K.+H.+Roberts,+%26+L.+W.+Porter+%28Eds.%29,+Handbook+of|isbn=978-0-8039-5503-5}}</ref>  There may be three main approaches to understand the organizations in terms of their roles as social systems:<ref>{{cite book|last=Scott|first=W|title=Organizations. Rational, natural, and open systems.|date=1992|publisher=Prentice-Hall|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7S1HAAAAMAAJ&q=Scott%2C%20W.%20R.%20%281992%29.%20Organisations%3A%20Rational%2C%20Natural%2C%20and%20Open%20Systems|isbn=978-0-13-638891-3}}</ref>
* organizations as rational systems: Highly formalized structures in terms of bureaucracy's and hierarchy, with formal systems of rules regarding authority and highly specific goals;
* organizations as natural systems: Participants may regard the organization as an end in itself, not merely a means to some other end. Promoting group values to maintain solidarity is high on the agenda. They do not rely on [[profit maximization]]. Their perversity and violence in respect of relationships is often remarkable, but they are characterized by their focus on the connections between their members, their associates and their victims; and,
* organizations open systems: High levels of interdependence between themselves and the environment in which they operate. There is no one way in which they are organized or how they operate. They are adaptable and change to meet the demands of their changing environments and circumstances.
Organized crime groups may be a combination of all three.

====International governance approach====
International consensus on defining organized crime has become important since the 1970s due to its increased prevalence and impact. e.g., UN in 1976 and EU 1998. OC is "...the large scale and complex criminal activity carried on by groups of persons, however loosely or tightly organized for the enrichment of those participating at the expense of the community and its members. It is frequently accomplished through ruthless disregard of any law, including offences against the person and frequently in connection with political corruption." (UN) "A criminal organization shall mean a lasting, structured association of two or more persons, acting in concert with a view to committing crimes or other offenses which are punishable by deprivation of liberty or a detention order of a maximum of at least four years or a more serious penalty, whether such crimes or offenses are an end in themselves or a means of obtaining material benefits and, if necessary, of improperly influencing the operation of public authorities." (UE) Not all groups exhibit the same characteristics of structure. However, violence and corruption and the pursuit of multiple enterprises and continuity serve to form the essence of OC activity.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Maltz|title=On Defining "Organized Grime" The Development of a Definition and a Typology|journal=Crime & Delinquency|date=1976|volume=22|issue=3|doi=10.1177/001112877602200306|s2cid=145393402}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Maltz|title=Measuring the effectiveness of organized crime control efforts|date=1990|publisher=University of Illinois|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EKLyAAAAMAAJ&q=Maltz,+1976+crime|isbn=978-0-942511-38-3}}</ref>

There are eleven characteristics from the European Commission and Europol pertinent to a working definition of organized crime. Six of those must be satisfied and the four in italics are mandatory. Summarized, they are:
* ''more than two people'';
* their own appointed tasks;
* activity over a ''prolonged or indefinite period of time'';
* the use discipline or control;
* perpetration of ''serious criminal offense''s;
* operations on an international or transnational level;
* the use violence or other intimidation;
* the use of commercial or businesslike structures;
* engagement in money laundering;
* exertion of influence on politics, media, public administration, judicial authorities or the economy; and,
* ''motivated by the pursuit of profit or power,''
with the [[Convention against Transnational Organized Crime]] (the ''Palermo Convention'') having a similar definition:
* organized criminal: structured group, three or more people, one or more serious crimes, in order to obtain financial or other material benefit;
* serious crime: offense punishable by at least four years in prison; and,
* structured group: Not randomly formed but does not need formal structure,
Others stress the importance of power, profit and perpetuity, defining organized criminal behavior as:
* nonideological: i.e., profit driven;
* hierarchical: few elites and many operatives;
* limited or exclusive membership: maintain secrecy and loyalty of members;
* perpetuating itself: Recruitment process and policy;
* willing to use illegal violence and bribery;
* specialized division of labor: to achieve organization goal;
* monopolistic: Market control to maximize profits; and,
* has explicit rules and regulations: Codes of honor.<ref>{{cite book|last=Abadinsky|title=Organized Crime|date=2009|publisher=Cengage|url=https://archive.org/details/organizedcrime00howa|url-access=registration|quote=abadinsky organised crime.|isbn=978-0-495-59966-1}}</ref>

Definitions need to bring together its legal and social elements. OC has widespread social, political and economic effects. It uses violence and corruption to achieve its ends: "OC when group primarily focused on illegal profits systematically commit crimes that adversely affect society and are capable of successfully shielding their activities, in particular by being willing to use physical violence or eliminate individuals by way of corruption."<ref>{{cite book|last=Fijnaut|title=Organized Crime in the Netherlands|date=1998|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QgqaJ6OgOHUC&q=fijnaut+1998|isbn=90-411-1027-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fijnaut & Paoli|title=Organized crime in Europe: concepts, patterns, and control policies in the European Union and beyond|date=2004|publisher=Springer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iegCkMlnI_UC&q=Maltz,+1976+crime|isbn=978-1-4020-2615-7}}</ref>

It is a mistake to use the term "OC" as though it denotes a clear and well-defined phenomenon. The evidence regarding OC "shows a less well-organized, very diversified landscape of organizing criminals…the economic activities of these organizing criminals can be better described from the viewpoint of 'crime enterprises' than from a conceptually unclear frameworks such as 'OC'." Many of the definitions emphasize the 'group nature' of OC, the 'organization' of its members, its use of violence or corruption to achieve its goals and its extra-jurisdictional character...OC may appear in many forms at different times and in different places. Due to the variety of definitions, there is "evident danger" in asking "what is OC?" and expecting a simple answer.<ref name="Van Duyne1996">{{cite journal|last=Van Duyne|title=Organized crime, corruption and power|journal=Crime, Law and Social Change|date=1997|volume=26|issue=3|pages=201–238 |url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/cris/1997/00000026/00000003/00125105|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024022932/http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/cris/1997/00000026/00000003/00125105|archive-date=October 24, 2012|doi=10.1007/BF00230862 |s2cid=144058995 | issn = 0925-4994 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

====The locus of power and organized crime====
Some espouse that all organized crime operates at an international level, though there is currently no international court capable of trying offenses resulting from such activities (the International Criminal Court's remit extends only to dealing with people accused of offenses against humanity, e.g., genocide). If a network operates primarily from one jurisdiction and carries out its illicit operations there and in some other jurisdictions it is 'international,' though it may be appropriate to use the term 'transnational' only to label the activities of a major crime group that is centered in no one jurisdiction but operating in many. The understanding of organized crime has therefore progressed to combined internationalization and an understanding of social conflict into one of power, control, efficiency risk and utility, all within the context of organizational theory. The accumulation of social, economic and political power<ref>{{cite journal|last=Reed|journal=Organization Studies|date=2001|volume=22|issue=2|doi=10.1177/0170840601222002|title=Organization, Trust and Control: A Realist Analysis|pages=201–228|s2cid=145080589}}</ref> have sustained themselves as a core concerns of all criminal organizations:

[[File:KWC - 1989 Aerial.jpg|thumb|From the 1950s to the 1970s, the [[Kowloon Walled City]] in British Hong Kong was controlled by local [[triad (organized crime)|Chinese triads]].]]
* social: criminal groups seek to develop social control in relation to particular communities;
* economic: seek to exert influence by means of corruption and by coercion of legitimate and illegitimate praxis; and,
* political: criminal groups use corruption and violence to attain power and status.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wang|first=Peng|title=The rise of the Red Mafia in China: a case study of organised crime and corruption in Chongqing|journal=Trends in Organized Crime|date=2013|volume=16|issue=1|pages=49–73|doi=10.1007/s12117-012-9179-8|s2cid=143858155}}</ref><ref name="Van Duyne1996"/>

Contemporary organized crime may be very different from traditional Mafia style, particularly in terms of the distribution and centralization of power, authority structures and the concept of 'control' over one's territory and organization. There is a tendency away from centralization of power and reliance upon family ties towards a fragmentation of structures and informality of relationships in crime groups. Organized crime most typically flourishes when a central government and [[civil society]] is disorganized, weak, absent or untrustworthy.

This may occur in a society facing periods of political, economic or social turmoil or transition, such as a change of government or a period of rapid economic development, particularly if the society lacks strong and established institutions and the [[rule of law]]. The [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] and the [[Revolutions of 1989]] in [[Eastern Europe]] that saw the downfall of the [[Communist Bloc]] created a breeding ground for criminal organizations.

The newest growth sectors for organized crime are [[identity theft]] and online [[extortion]]. These activities are troubling because they discourage consumers from using the [[Internet]] for [[e-commerce]]. E-commerce was supposed to level the playing ground between small and large businesses, but the growth of online organized crime is leading to the opposite effect; large businesses are able to afford more [[Bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]] (to resist [[denial-of-service attack]]s) and superior security. Furthermore, organized crime using the Internet is much harder to trace down for the police (even though they increasingly deploy [[cybercrime|cybercop]]s) since most police forces and [[list of law enforcement agencies|law enforcement agencies]] operate within a local or national jurisdiction while the Internet makes it easier for criminal organizations to operate across such boundaries without detection.

In the past criminal organizations have naturally limited themselves by their need to expand, putting them in competition with each other. This competition, often leading to violence, uses valuable resources such as manpower (either killed or sent to prison), equipment and finances. In the United States, [[Whitey Bulger|James "Whitey" Bulger]], the [[Irish Mob]] boss of the [[Winter Hill Gang]] in [[Boston]] turned [[informant]] for the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI). He used this position to eliminate competition and consolidate power within the city of Boston which led to the imprisonment of several senior organized crime figures including [[Gennaro Angiulo]], [[underboss]] of the [[Patriarca crime family]]. Infighting sometimes occurs within an organization, such as the [[Castellamarese war]] of 1930–31 and the Boston Irish Mob Wars of the 1960s and 1970s.

Today criminal organizations are increasingly working together, realizing that it is better to work in cooperation rather than in competition with each other (once again, consolidating power). This has led to the rise of global criminal organizations such as [[Mara Salvatrucha]], [[18th Street gang]] and [[Barrio Azteca]]. The [[American Mafia]], in addition to having links with organized crime groups in Italy such as the [[Camorra]], the [['Ndrangheta]], [[Sacra Corona Unita]] and [[Sicilian Mafia]], has at various times done business with the [[Irish Mob]], [[Jewish-American organized crime]], the Japanese [[yakuza]], [[Organised crime in India|Indian mafia]], the [[Russian mafia]], [[Thief in law]] and Post-Soviet Organized crime groups, the Chinese [[triad (organized crime)|triads]], Chinese [[Tong (organization)|Tongs]] and Asian street gangs, [[Outlaw motorcycle club|Motorcycle Gangs]] and numerous White, Black and Hispanic prison and street gangs. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that organized crime groups held $322 billion in assets in 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.havocscope.com/market-value-of-organised-crime-322-billion/|title = Market Value of Organised Crime-Havocscope Black Market|access-date = 2013-03-10}} {{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

This rise in cooperation between criminal organizations has meant that law enforcement agencies are increasingly having to work together. The FBI operates an organized crime section from its headquarters in [[Washington, D.C.]] and is known to work with other national (e.g., [[Polizia di Stato]], [[Federal Security Service (Russia)|Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)]] and the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]]), federal (e.g., [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives]], [[Drug Enforcement Administration]], [[United States Marshals Service]], [[Immigration and Customs Enforcement]], [[United States Secret Service]], US [[Diplomatic Security Service]], [[United States Postal Inspection Service]], [[U.S. Customs and Border Protection]], [[United States Border Patrol]], and the [[United States Coast Guard]]), state (e.g., [[Massachusetts State Police]] Special Investigation Unit, [[New Jersey State Police]] organized crime unit, [[Pennsylvania State Police]] organized crime unit and the [[New York State Police]] Bureau of Criminal Investigation) and city (e.g., [[New York City Police Department]] Organized Crime Unit, [[Philadelphia Police Department]] Organized crime unit, [[Chicago Police]] Organized Crime Unit and the [[Los Angeles Police Department]] Special Operations Division) law enforcement agencies.

==Academic analysis==

===Criminal psychology===
{{main|Criminal psychology}}Criminal psychology is defined as the study of the intentions, behaviors, and actions of a criminal or someone who allows themselves to participate in criminal behavior. The goal is to understand what is going on in the criminal's head and explain why they are doing what they are doing. This varies depending on whether the person is facing the punishment for what they did, are roaming free, or if they are punishing themselves. Criminal psychologists get called to court to explain the inside the mind of the criminal.<ref>[https://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/02/criminal-mind The criminal mind] Retrieved 6 October  2023</ref><ref>[https://www.simplypsychology.org/biological-theories-crime.html#:~:text=Genetic%20studies%20are%20limited%20because,development%2C%20resulting%20in%20abnormal%20behavior. Psychology » CriminologyBiological Theories Of Crime] Retrieved 6 October  2023</ref>

====Rational choice====
{{main|Rational choice theory (criminology)}}
This theory treats all individuals as rational operators, committing criminal acts after consideration of all associated risks (detection and punishment) compared with the rewards of crimes (personal, financial etc.).<ref>{{cite book |last=Piquero & Tibbetts|title=Rational choice and criminal behavior: recent research and future challenges|date=2002|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajoAGhrfxDAC&q=rational+choice+theory+%22organised+crime%22|isbn=978-0-8153-3678-5}}</ref>  Little emphasis is placed on the offenders' emotional state. The role of criminal organizations in lowering the perceptions of risk and increasing the likelihood of personal benefit is prioritized by this approach, with the organizations structure, purpose, and activity being indicative of the rational choices made by criminals and their organizers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lyman & Potter|title=Organized Crime|date=2007|publisher=Pearson|url=http://wps.pearsoncustom.com/wps/media/objects/6904/7070214/CRJ455_Ch02.pdf}}</ref>

====Deterrence====
{{main|Deterrence (psychology)}}
This theory sees criminal behavior as reflective of an individual, internal calculation<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Nagin | first1 = D. S. | last2 = Pogarsky | first2 = G. | doi = 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2001.tb00943.x | title = Integrating Celerity, Impulsivity, and Extralegal Sanction Threats into a Model of General Deterrence: Theory and Evidence* | journal = Criminology | volume = 39 | issue = 4 | pages = 865–892 | year = 2001 }}</ref> by the criminal that the benefits associated with offending (whether financial or otherwise) outweigh the perceived risks.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Tullock|title=DOES PUNISHMENT DETER CRIME?|journal=Public Interest|date=1974|volume=36|url=http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=49871|id={{NCJ|49871 }}|access-date=2011-06-07|archive-date=2019-06-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622185254/https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=49871}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Decker & Kohfeld|journal=Criminology|date=1985|volume=23|issue=3|doi=10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00349.x|pages=437–450|title=Crimes, Crime Rates, Arrests, and Arrest Ratios: Implications for Deterrence Theory}}</ref>  The perceived strength, importance or infallibility of the criminal organization is directly proportional to the types of crime committed, their intensity and arguably the level of community response. The benefits of participating in organized crime (higher financial rewards, greater socioeconomic control and influence, protection of the family or significant others, perceived freedoms from 'oppressive' laws or norms) contribute greatly to the psychology behind highly organized group offending.

====Social learning====
{{Main|Social learning theory}}
Criminals learn through associations with one another. The success of organized crime groups is therefore dependent upon the strength of their communication and the enforcement of their value systems, the recruitment and training processes employed to sustain, build or fill gaps in criminal operations.<ref name="Akers 1973">{{cite book|last=Akers|title=DEVIANT BEHAVIOR - A SOCIAL LEARNING APPROACH|date=1973|url=http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=27692|id={{NCJ|27692 }}|access-date=2011-06-07|archive-date=2019-06-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190611120706/https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=27692}}</ref> An understanding of this theory sees close associations between criminals, imitation of superiors, and understanding of value systems, processes and authority as the main drivers behind organized crime. Interpersonal relationships define the motivations the individual develops, with the effect of family or peer criminal activity being a strong predictor of inter-generational offending.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Akers|first=R|title=Self-control as a general theory of crime|journal=Journal of Quantitative Criminology|date=1991|volume=7|issue=2|doi=10.1007/BF01268629|pages=201–211|s2cid=144549679}}</ref>  This theory also developed to include the strengths and weaknesses of reinforcement, which in the context of continuing criminal enterprises may be used to help understand propensities for certain crimes or victims, level of integration into the mainstream culture and likelihood of recidivism / success in rehabilitation.<ref name="Akers 1973"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Akers|first=R|title=Social Learning and Deviant Behavior: A Specific Test of a General Theory|journal=American Sociological Review|date=1979|volume=44|issue=4|jstor=2094592|doi=10.2307/2094592|pmid=389120|pages=636–55}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Akers|first=R|title=Social learning and social structure: a general theory of crime and deviance|date=2009|publisher=Transaction Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjBDZ-T0WMgC&q=social+learning+theory+organised+crime|isbn=978-1-4128-1576-5}}</ref>

====Enterprise====
{{main|Enterprise theory (crime)}}
Under this theory, organized crime exists because legitimate markets leave many customers and potential customers unsatisfied.<ref name="Smith1978">{{cite journal |last1=SMITH |first1=D. C. Jr |title=Organized Crime and Entrepreneurship |journal=International Journal of Criminology and Penology |date=1978 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=161–178 |url=http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=49083 |id={{NCJ|49083}} |access-date=2011-06-07 |archive-date=2019-06-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190620121145/https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=49083 }}</ref> High demand for a particular good or service (e.g., drugs, prostitution, arms, slaves), low levels of risk detection and high profits lead to a conducive environment for entrepreneurial criminal groups to enter the market and profit by supplying those goods and services.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Smith | first1 = Dwight C. |title=Paragons, Pariahs, and Pirates: A Spectrum-Based Theory of Enterprise |  journal = Crime and Delinquency |date= 1980 | volume = 26 | issue = 3 | pages = 358–386 | doi = 10.1177/001112878002600306 | issn = 0011-1287 |s2cid=145501061}}</ref>  For success, there must be:
* an identified market; and,
* a certain rate of consumption (demand) to maintain profit and outweigh perceived risks.<ref name="Albanese2008">{{cite journal|last=Albanese|title=Risk Assessment in Organized Crime Developing a Market and Product-Based Model to Determine Threat Levels|journal=Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice|date=2008 |volume=24 |issue=3 |doi=10.1177/1043986208318225 |issn = 1043-9862 |s2cid= 146793104}}</ref><ref name="Albanese2000">{{cite journal|last=Albanese|first=J|title=The Causes of Organized Crime: Do Criminals Organize Around Opportunities for Crime or Do Criminal Opportunities Create New Offenders?|journal=Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice|date=2000|volume=16|issue=4|pages=409–423|doi=10.1177/1043986200016004004 | issn = 1043-9862 |s2cid=143793499}}</ref>

Under these conditions competition is discouraged, ensuring criminal monopolies sustain profits. Legal substitution of goods or services may (by increasing competition) force the dynamic of organized criminal operations to adjust, as will deterrence measures (reducing demand), and the restriction of resources (controlling the ability to supply or produce to supply).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Smith|title=Wickersham to Sutherland to Katzenbach: Evolving an "official" definition for organized crime|journal=Crime, Law and Social Change|date=1991|volume=16|issue=2|pages=135–154|doi=10.1007/BF00227546|s2cid=149631389}}</ref>

====Differential association====
{{main|Differential association}}
Sutherland goes further to say that deviancy is contingent on conflicting groups within society, and that such groups struggle over the means to define what is criminal or deviant within society. Criminal organizations therefore gravitate around illegal avenues of production, profit-making, protectionism or social control and attempt (by increasing their operations or membership) to make these acceptable.<ref name="Akers 1973"/><ref>{{cite web |last=Greek |first=C |title=Differential Association Theory |url=http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/sutherland.html |publisher=Florida State University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303220253/http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/sutherland.html |archive-date=March 3, 2011 |access-date=June 7, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Braithwaite|title=Criminological theory and organizational crime|journal=Justice Quarterly|date=1989|volume=6|issue=3|doi=10.1080/07418828900090251|pages=333–358}}</ref> This also explains the propensity of criminal organizations to develop [[protection racket]]s, to coerce through the use of violence, aggression and threatening behavior (at times termed '[[terrorism]]').<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = COLVIN | first1 = MARK | last2 = CULLEN | first2 = FRANCIS T. | last3 = VANDER VEN | first3 = THOMAS |journal=Criminology |date=2002 |volume=40 |issue=1 |doi=10.1111/j.1745-9125.2002.tb00948.x |pages=19–42 |title= Coercion, Social Support, and Crime: An Emerging Theoretical Consensus | issn = 0011-1384 |id= {{NCJ|194567 }} }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Matsueda|title=Testing Control Theory and Differential Association: A Causal Modeling Approach|journal=American Sociological Review|date=1982|volume=47|issue=4|pages=489–504|jstor=2095194|doi=10.2307/2095194}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Matsueda|title=The Current State of Differential Association Theory|journal=Crime and Delinquency|date=1988|volume=34|issue=3|pages=277–306|doi=10.1177/0011128788034003005|s2cid=146347188}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Matsueda & Heimer|title=Race, Family Structure, and Delinquency: A Test of Differential Association and Social Control Theories|journal=American Sociological Review|date=1987|volume=52|issue=6|pages=826–840|jstor=2095837|doi=10.2307/2095837}}</ref> Preoccupation with methods of accumulating profit highlight the lack of legitimate means to achieve economic or social advantage, as does the organization of [[white-collar crime]] or [[political corruption]] (though it is debatable whether these are based on wealth, power or both). The ability to effect social norms and practices through political and economic influence (and the enforcement or normalization of criminogenic needs) may be defined by differential association theory.

===Critical criminology and sociology===

====Social disorganization====
{{main|Social disorganization theory}}
Social disorganization theory is intended to be applied to neighborhood level street crime,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sampson & Groves|title=Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory|journal=American Journal of Sociology|date=1989|volume=99|issue=4|pages=774–802|jstor=2780858|doi=10.1086/229068|s2cid=144303239|url=https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3226955}}</ref> thus the context of gang activity, loosely formed criminal associations or networks, socioeconomic demographic impacts, legitimate access to public resources, employment or education, and mobility give it relevance to organized crime. Where the upper- and lower-classes live in close proximity this can result in feelings of anger, hostility, social injustice and frustration.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Whyte|first=W|title=Social Organization in the Slums|journal=American Sociological Review|date=1943|volume=8|issue=1|pages=34–39|jstor=2085446|doi=10.2307/2085446}}</ref>  Criminals experience poverty; and witness affluence they are deprived of and which is virtually impossible for them to attain through conventional means.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Toby | first1 = Jackson |title=Social Disorganization and Stake in Conformity: Complementary Factors in the Predatory Behavior of Hoodlums |journal=Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science |date=1957 |volume=48 |issue=12 |pages=12–17 |url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/jclc48&div=7&id=&page= |doi=10.2307/1140161 |jstor=1140161  | issn = 0022-0205 }}</ref> The concept of neighborhood is central to this theory, as it defines the social learning, locus of control, cultural influences and access to social opportunity experienced by criminals and the groups they form.<ref>{{cite journal  | last1 = Forrest | first1 = Ray | last2 = Kearns | first2 = Ade |title=Social Cohesion, Social Capital and the Neighborhood|journal=Urban Studies |date=2001 |volume=38 |issue=12 |doi=10.1080/00420980120087081 |pages=2125–2143 | bibcode = 2001UrbSt..38.2125F |s2cid=15252935  | issn = 0042-0980 }}</ref> Fear of or lack of trust in mainstream authority may also be a key contributor to social disorganization; organized crime groups replicate such figures and thus ensure control over the counter-culture.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hope & Sparks|title=Crime, risk, and insecurity: law and order in everyday life and political discourse|date=2000|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vw8DagPGOakC&q=%22social+disorganisation%22+%22organised+crime%22|isbn=978-0-415-24343-8}}</ref> This theory has tended to view violent or antisocial behavior by gangs as reflective of their social disorganization rather than as a product or tool of their organization.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goldson|title=Youth in Crisis?: Gangs, Territoriality and Violence|date=2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xw0Cj-Mdxh4C&q=youth+in+crisis+goldson+2011|isbn=978-0-203-83200-4}}</ref>

====Anomie====
{{main|Anomie}}
Sociologist [[Robert K. Merton]] believed deviance depended on society's definition of success,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Merton|first=R|title=Social Structure and Anomie|journal=American Sociological Review|date=1938|volume=3|issue=5|pages=672–682|jstor=2084686|doi=10.2307/2084686}}</ref> and the desires of individuals to achieve success through socially defined avenues. Criminality becomes attractive when expectations of being able to fulfill goals (therefore achieving success) by legitimate means cannot be fulfilled.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hagan | first = J |author2=McCarthy B |chapter=Anomie, social capital and street criminology| isbn = 1-55553-321-3  | pages = 124–41 | title =The future of anomie|date=1997| publisher = Northeastern University Press }}</ref> Criminal organizations capitalize on states with a lack of norm by imposing criminogenic needs and illicit avenues to achieve them. This has been used as the basis for numerous meta-theories of organized crime through its integration of social learning, cultural deviance, and criminogenic motivations.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Aniskiewicz|first=R|title=Metatheoretical Issues in the Study of Organized Crime|journal=Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice|date=1994|volume=10|issue=4|pages=314–324|doi=10.1177/104398629401000405|s2cid=143150051}}</ref> If crime is seen as a function of anomie,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Powell|first=E|title=Crime as a function of anomie|journal=The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science |date=1966 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=161–171|jstor=1141290|doi=10.2307/1141290}}</ref> organized behavior produces stability, increases protection or security, and may be directly proportional to market forces as expressed by entrepreneurship- or risk-based approaches. It is the inadequate supply of legitimate opportunities that constrains the ability for the individual to pursue valued societal goals and reduces the likelihood that using legitimate opportunities will enable them to satisfy such goals (due to their position in society).<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Baumer | first1 = E. P. | last2 = Gustafson | first2 = R. | doi = 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2007.00090.x | title = Social Organization and Instrumental Crime: Assessing the Empirical Validity of Classic and Contemporary Anomie Theories | journal = Criminology | volume = 45 | issue = 3 | pages = 617–663 | year = 2007 }}</ref>

====Cultural deviance====
Criminals violate the law because they belong to a unique subculture - the counter-culture - their values and norms conflicting with those of the working-, middle- or upper-classes upon which criminal laws are based. This subculture shares an alternative lifestyle, language and culture, and is generally typified by being tough, taking care of their own affairs and rejecting government authority. Role models include drug dealers, thieves and pimps, as they have achieved success and wealth not otherwise available through socially-provided opportunities. It is through modeling organized crime as a counter-cultural avenue to success that such organizations are sustained.<ref name="Akers 1973"/><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Akers | first1 = R. L. | title = Is Differential Association/social Learning Cultural Deviance Theory?* | doi = 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1996.tb01204.x | journal = Criminology | volume = 34 | issue = 2 | pages = 229–247 | year = 1996 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Agnew | first1 = R. | doi = 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1992.tb01093.x | title = Foundation for a General Strain Theory of Crime and Delinquency* | journal = Criminology | volume = 30 | pages = 47–88 | year = 1992 | s2cid = 144126837 }}</ref>

====Alien conspiracy/queer ladder of mobility====
{{main|Jewish-American organized crime}}
The alien conspiracy theory and queer ladder of mobility theories state that ethnicity and 'outsider' status (immigrants, or those not within the dominant ethnocentric groups) and their influences are thought to dictate the prevalence of organized crime in society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/search|title=Virtual Library Search|website=Office of Justice Programs}}</ref>  The alien theory posits that the contemporary structures of organized crime gained prominence during the 1860s in [[Sicily]] and that elements of the Sicilian population are responsible for the foundation of most European and North American organized crime,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lyman & Potter|title=Organized Crime and the Drug Trade (From Drugs and Society: Causes, Concepts and Control)|journal=Criminal Justice Policy Review|date=2011|volume=22|issue=2|url=http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=177133|id={{NCJ|177133}}|access-date=2011-06-07|archive-date=2018-06-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613184254/https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=177133}}</ref> made up of Italian-dominated crime families. Bell's theory of the 'queer ladder of mobility' hypothesized that '[[Ethnic succession theory|ethnic succession]]' (the attainment of power and control by one more marginalized ethnic group over other less marginalized groups) occurs by promoting the perpetration of criminal activities within a disenfranchised or oppressed demographic. Whilst early organized crime was dominated by the [[Irish Mob]] (early 1800s), they were relatively substituted by the [[Sicilian Mafia]] and [[Italian-American Mafia]], the [[Aryan Brotherhood]] (1960s onward), Colombian [[Medellín Cartel]] and [[Cali cartel]] (mid-1970s - 1990s), and more recently the Mexican [[Tijuana Cartel]] (late 1980s onward), Mexican [[Los Zetas]] (late 1990s to onward), the [[Russian Mafia]] (1988 onward), terrorism-related organized crime [[Al-Qaeda]] (1988 onward), the [[Taliban]] (1994 onward), and [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]] (ISIL) (2010s to onward). Many argue this misinterprets and overstates the role of ethnicity in organized crime.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bovenkerk|title=Organized crime and ethnic reputation manipulation|journal=Crime, Law and Social Change|date=2003|volume=39|issue=1|doi=10.1023/A:1022499504945|pages=23–38|s2cid=140412285}}</ref>  A contradiction of this theory is that syndicates had developed long before large-scale Sicilian immigration in the 1860s, with these immigrants merely joining a widespread phenomenon of crime and corruption.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schloenhart|first=A|title=Organized crime and the business of migrant trafficking|journal=Crime, Law and Social Change|date=1999|volume=32|issue=3|doi=10.1023/A:1008340427104|pages=203–233|s2cid=151997349}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Paoli|title=The paradoxes of organized crime|journal=Crime, Law and Social Change|date=2002|volume=37|issue=1|doi=10.1023/A:1013355122531|pages=51–97|s2cid=153414741|url=https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/202701}} {{Dead link|date=January 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Dwight|title=Mafia: The Prototypical Alien Conspiracy|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|date=1976|volume=423|issue=1|pages=75–88|doi=10.1177/000271627642300108|s2cid=145638748}}</ref>

==Legislative frameworks and policing measures==
{{trivia section|date=January 2024}}
{{Prose|section|date=January 2024}}

;International
* [[Convention against Transnational Organized Crime]] (the 'Palermo Convention') - the international treaty against organized crime; includes the [[Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children]] and the [[Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air]]
;Canada
* [[Criminal Code (Canada)|Criminal Code]], [http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-236.html#docCont RSC 1985, c C-46, ss 467.1 to 467.2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005195127/http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-236.html#docCont |date=2015-10-05 }}. 
;China
* [[:s:Anti-organized Crime Law of the People's Republic of China|Anti-Organized Crime Law of the People's Republic of China]]
;India
* [[Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act]]
;Republic of Ireland
* [[Criminal Assets Bureau]]
;Italy
*[[Article 41-bis prison regime]]
<!-- PLEASE RESPECT ALPHABETICAL ORDER -->
;United Kingdom
* [[Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005]]
;United States
* [[Hobbs Act|Federal Anti-Racketeering Act (the 'Hobbs Act')]] 1946
* [[Federal Wire Act]] 1961
* [[Bank Secrecy Act]] 1970
* [[Organized Crime Control Act]] 1970
* [[Title 21 of the United States Code]] 1970
* [[Continuing Criminal Enterprise]] (contemporary)
* [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act|Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (the 'RICO Act')]] 1970
* [[Money Laundering Control Act]] 1986
* [[United States Patriot Act]] 2001
* [[Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009]]

==See also==
* [[List of criminal enterprises, gangs, and syndicates]]
* [[Timeline of organized crime]]
* [[Global Organized Crime Index]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Organized crime}}
{{Wikiquote|Organized crime}}
{{Wikivoyage|Organized crime tourism}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110210040158/http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/37642/mob-life-gangster-kings-of-crime Mob Life: Gangster Kings of Crime] — slideshow by ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine
* [https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/organized-crime/index.html UNODC — United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime] — sub-section dealing with organized crime worldwide
* [http://oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/display/id/obo-9780195396607-0021 "Organized Crime"] — Oxford Bibliographies Online: Criminology. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100425001515/http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/display/id/obo-9780195396607-0021|date=2010-04-25}}

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