Organized Crime

Organized Crime Characteristics 1) First, by definition, organized crime is comprised of participants who incorporate themselves into more or less complex systems for the purpose of committing crimes. 2) The second attribute of organized crime is its instrumental nature. Instrumental crimes are defined as illegal acts committed when individuals unable to obtain desired goods and services through conventional means, resort to crimes-for-profit. Organized crime exists for the sole purpose of making money. 3) Organized crime, at its core, …

…schemes involving faulty prepaid telephone calling cards... the list is endless. Finally, it is the adaptive nature of organized crime that is both its most important defining characteristic, and the one that ensures its survival. It is the flexible and persistent nature of the American Mafia, in conjunction with the characteristics listed above, that have enabled its evolution from loosely knit bands of extortionists around the turn of the century to a high-tech, multinational conglomerate.