ORGANIZED CRIME
SUBMITTED BY-
ASHUTOSH KUMAR, B.A., LL.B.(HONS.)
(4th Semester), (Roll No.- 2114)
SUBMITTED TO-
MR. KUMAR GAURAV
(Lecturer of Law)
This final draft is submitted in partial fulfilment in Criminology, Penology and
Victimology for the completion of B.A., LL.B.(Hons.) course.
MARCH 2021
CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,
PATNA
DECLARATION BY THE CANDITATE
I hereby declare that the project entitled “Organized Crime” submitted by me at
CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY is a record of bona fide project work
carried out by me under the guidance of our mentor Mr. Kumar Gaurav. I further declare that
the work reported in this project has not been submitted and will not be submitted, either in
part or in full, for the award of any other degree or diploma in this university or in any other
university.
__________________
(ASHUTOSH KUMAR)
ROLL NO. – 2114
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is a fact that any research work prepared, compiled or formulated in isolation is
inexplicable to an extent. This research work, although prepared by me, is a culmination of
efforts of a lot of people who remained in veil, who gave their intense support and helped me
in the completion of this project.
Firstly, I am very grateful to my subject teacher Mr. Kumar Gaurav, without the kind support
and help of whom the completion of this project was a herculean task for me. He donated his
valuable time from his busy schedule to help me to complete this project. I would like to
thank him for his valuable suggestions towards the making of this project.
I am highly indebted to my parents and friends for their kind co-operation and encouragement
which helped me in completion of this project. I am also thankful to the library staff of my
college who assisted me in acquiring the sources necessary for the compilation of my project.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank the Almighty who kept me mentally strong and in
good health to concentrate on my project and to complete it in time.
I thank all of them!
_______________
ASHUTOSH KUMAR
ROLL NO. – 2114
B.A., LL.B.(HONS.)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. ORGANIZED CRIME- MEANING
3. TYPES OF ORGANIZED CRIME
4. CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIZED CRIME
5. TYPICAL ACTIVITIES
6. ACADEMIC ANALYSIS
7. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
8. CONCLUSION
9. BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. INTRODUCTION
Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly
centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly
for profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, are politically motivated.
Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a
gang extorts money from shopkeepers for "protection".1 Gangs may often be deemed
organized crime groups or, under stricter definitions of organized crime, may become
disciplined enough to be considered organized. A criminal organization or gang can also be
referred to as a mafia, mob, ring, or syndicate; the network, subculture, and community of
criminals may be referred to as the underworld. European sociologists (e.g. Diego Gambetta)
define a “mafia” as a type of organized crime group that specializes in the supply of extra-
legal protection and quasi-law enforcement. Gambetta's classic work on the original “Mafia”,
the Sicilian Mafia, generates an economic study of organized crime groups, which exerts
great influence on studies of the Russian mafia, the Chinese triads, Hong Kong mafia, and the
Japanese yakuza.2
Other organizations — including states, churches, 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” (which is often gang-like and more working-class in
nature, frequently involves secret subcultures, and is often formed around ethnic, regional,
territorial, or cultural identities) from certain other forms of crime that also usually involve
organized or group criminal acts, such as white-collar crime, financial crimes, political
crimes, war crime, state crimes, and treason. This distinction is not always apparent and
academics continue to debate the matter. For example, in failed states 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 oligarchs that may be deemed or may devolve into organized crime groups in
practice. By their very nature, kleptocracies, mafia states, narco-states or 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.
In the United States, the Organized Crime Control Act (1970) defines organized crime as "the
unlawful activities of a highly organized, disciplined association". Criminal activity as a
structured process is referred to as racketeering. In the UK, police estimate that organized
1
Macionis, Gerber, John, Linda (2010). Sociology 7th Canadian Ed. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Canada Inc. p.
206.
2
Hill, P.B. (2003). The Japanese mafia: Yakuza, law, and the state. Oxford University Press.
crime involves up to 38,000 people operating in 6,000 various groups. Historically, the
largest organized crime force in the United States has been the La Cosa Nostra (Italian-
American Mafia), but other transnational criminal organizations have also risen in
prominence in recent decades. 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." The U.S. 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, Jalisco New Generation, Juárez, Gulf, Los Zetas, and Beltrán-Leyva cartels as
the six Mexican TCO with the greatest influence in drug trafficking to the United States.3 The
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 has a target to combat all forms of
organised crime as part of the 2030 Agenda.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1. To analyse the Organized Crime.
2. To analyse the types and characteristics of the Organized Crime.
3. To give conclusion and suggestions for the Organized Crimes.
HYPOTHESIS
Statement 1: Like any other business organisation, professional criminals organise
themselves into criminal gangs to carry on the anti-social activities with the skill and
efficiency for profit making.
Statement 2: Organized Crime constitutes a larger part in the daily crime record.
MODE OF RESEARCH
The researcher has relied upon the Doctrinal method of research for the completion of this
project.
3
National Drug Threat Assessment (PDF) (Report). Drug Enforcement Administration. October 2017. Pp. vi, 2.
SOURCES OF DATA
The researcher has relied upon both primary as well as secondary sources to complete the
project.
1. Primary Sources: Books.
2. Secondary Sources: Materials available on internet.
2. ORGANIZED CRIME- MEANING
Organized crime is described as any group having a corporate structure whose main aim is to
obtain money through unlawful activities often surviving on fear and corruption.
Organized Crime:
Is an act committed by two or more criminals as a joint venture in an organized
manner.
Is an illegal act which the members of association commit with their mutual co-
operation.
Is an unlawful misadventure which is carried on by a boss, his lieutenants and
operates and operators who form a hierarchical structure for a specific period- Dr.
Walter Reckless.
Resembles those economic adventures or enterprises which are organized to carry on
illegal activities- Sellin.
Like any other business organisation, professional criminals organise themselves into
criminal gangs to carry on the anti-social activities with the skill and efficiency for profit
making.
Criminals organise themselves into criminal groups with a view to specialising in their traits
and accept a particular crime as their occupation.
These criminals are habitual and hardened offenders who have embraced criminality as a
regular profession.
Eg. Organised gambling, liquor trade, prostitution, drug trafficking.
According to Sutherland, there is at least one thing common among these criminals’
organisations i.e., they are bound together by a common hostility toward law and therefore
members assist and protect each other from law enforcing authorities.
3. TYPES OF ORGANIZED CRIME
Organized Crime has three major types: Gang Criminality, Racketeering and Syndicated
Crime.
1. Gang Criminality
This type of criminality includes kidnapping, extortion, robbery, vehicle theft, etc. on a large
scale. Gangs are composed of tough and hardened criminals who do not hesitate to kill,
assault, or use violence. They are equipped with modern pistols, bullet-proof vests, cars, etc.
The gang criminals are efficient, disciplined but dangerous.
These criminals are recruited from among ex-convicts, escaped murderers, professional
gangsters and high-powered robbers.
The Tyagi gang in Delhi, the Radha Yadav gang in Champaran district in Bihar, the Aran
Gandhi gang in Bombay, the Vikram Singh gang in Uttar Pradesh and the Shrikant gang in
Bihar are some of the notorious gang operating in different parts of our country and are
engaged in robberies, kidnapping small children and wealthy individuals for obtaining
ransoms, murder, extortion, and smuggling.
2. Racketeering
This is an activity of an organized criminal gang engaged in extortion of money from both
legitimate and illegitimate business through intimidation of force. It also involves dishonest
way of getting money by deceiving or cheating people, selling worthless goods and articles,
adulterated commodities, spurious drugs and so forth.
The racketeers, unlike organized criminal gangs do not take away all the profits but allow the
owners of the illegitimate business to continue their operations like prostitution, gambling,
liquor trafficking, drug peddling, etc., but give them (racketeers) regular fixed money.
3. Syndicate Crime
This is furnishing illegal goods and services by an organized criminal gang, often called
‘mafia’. The illegal goods could be drugs, liquor, etc. while the illegal services could be call-
girls, gambling and so forth. The syndicates create their own ‘business’ procedures.
They generally operate in big metropolitan areas which happen to be big centres of
communication, transportation and distribution of goods.
The leaders of big crime syndicates periodically gather at fixed places to discuss their
problems.
The scope and effect of the criminal operations of syndicates vary from one area to another,
the wealthiest and most influential groups operate in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Calcutta
and the capital cities of some states like Patna, Lucknow, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, etc.
4. CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIZED CRIME
Organized Crime has following important characteristics:
1. Team Work: It involves association of a group of criminals which is relatively permanent
and may even last for decades.
2. Planning: It involves advance arrangements for successfully committing crimes,
minimising risks and ensuring safety and protection.
3. Specialisation: Some groups specialise in just one crime while some others may be
simultaneously engaged in multiple crimes. Those groups which are engaged in multiple
crimes are more powerful and influential.
4. Division of Labour: Organized crime involves delegation of duties and responsibilities
and specialisation of functions.
5. Violence: It depends upon use of force and violence to commit crimes and to maintain
internal discipline and restrain external competition.
5. TYPICAL ACTIVITIES
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 (inside trading). Organized crime groups also victimize
individuals by car theft (either for dismantling at "chop shops" or for export), art theft, bank
robbery, burglary, jewellery and gems theft and heists, shoplifting, computer hacking, credit
card fraud, economic espionage, embezzlement, identity theft, and securities fraud ("pump
and dump" scam). 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 (buttlegging), and providing immigrant workers to avoid
taxes.
Organized crime groups seek out corrupt public officials in executive, law enforcement, and
judicial roles so that their activities on the black market can avoid, or at least receive early
warnings about, investigation and prosecution.
Activities of organized crime include loansharking of money at very high interest
rates, assassination, blackmailing, bombings, bookmaking and illegal gambling, confidence
tricks, copyright infringement, counterfeiting of intellectual property, fencing, kidnapping,
prostitution, smuggling, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, oil, smuggling, antiquities
smuggling, organ trafficking, contract killing, identity document forgery, money laundering,
bribery, seduction, electoral fraud, insurance fraud, point shaving, price fixing, illegal taxicab
operation, illegal dumping of toxic waste, illegal trading of nuclear materials, military
equipment smuggling, nuclear weapons smuggling, passport fraud, providing illegal
immigration and cheap labour, people smuggling, trading in endangered species, and
trafficking in human beings. Organized crime groups also do a range of business and labour
racketeering activities, such as 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.
6. ACADEMIC ANALYSIS
Criminal Psychology
Criminal psychology is defined as the study of the intentions, behaviours, and actions of a
criminal or someone who allows themselves to participate in criminal behaviour. The goal is
understanding 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.4
Rational Choice
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.). 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,
4
“What does CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY mean?”
purpose, and activity being indicative of the rational choices made by criminals and their
organizers.5
Deterrence
This theory sees criminal behaviour as reflective of an individual, internal calculation by the
criminal that the benefits associated with offending (whether financial or otherwise) outweigh
the perceived risks.6 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
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.7 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. 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.
Enterprise
Under this theory, organized crime exists because legitimate markets leave many customers
and potential customers unsatisfied.8 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. For success, there must be:
an identified market; and,
5
Lyman and Potter (2007). Organized Crime (PDF) Pearson.
6
Tullock (1974). “DOES PUNISHMENT DETER CRIME?”.
7
Akers (1973). DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR- A SOCIAL LEARNING APPROACH.
8
Smith (1978). “ORGANIZED CRIME AND ENTRPRENEURSHIP”. International Journal of Criminology and
Penology.
a certain rate of consumption (demand) to maintain profit and outweigh perceived
risks.
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).
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. 9 This also explains the propensity of
criminal organizations to develop protection rackets, to coerce through the use of violence,
aggression and threatening behavior (at times termed 'terrorism'). 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
Social disorganization theory is intended to be applied to neighbourhood level street
crime, 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. Criminals experience poverty; and witness affluence they are deprived of and
which is virtually impossible for them to attain through conventional means. The concept of
9
Akers (1973). DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR- A SOCIAL LEARNING APPROACH.
neighbourhood 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. 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. This theory has tended to view violent or antisocial behaviour by
gangs as reflective of their social disorganization rather than as a product or tool of their
organization.10
Anomie
Sociologist Robert K. Merton believed deviance depended on society's definition of
success,11 and the desires of individuals to achieve success through socially defined avenues.
Criminality becomes attractive when expectations of being able to fulfil goals (therefore
achieving success) by legitimate means cannot be fulfilled. 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. If crime is
seen as a function of anomie, organized behaviour 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).
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 modelling organized crime as a counter-cultural avenue to success that such
organizations are sustained.12
Alien Conspiracy/Queer Ladder of Mobility
10
Goldson (2011). Youth in Crisis?: Gangs, Territoriality and Violence.
11
Merton, R (1938). “Social Structure and Anomie”. American Sociological Review. 3 (5): 672-682.
12
Akers (1973). DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR- A SOCIAL LEARNING APPROACH.
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. 13 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, made up of Italian-
dominated crime families. Bell's theory of the 'queer ladder of mobility' hypothesized that
'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 Medellin 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. A contradiction of this theory is that syndicates had developed long before large-scale
Sicilian immigration in 1860s, with these immigrants merely joining a widespread
phenomenon of crime and corruption.14
13
“Organized Crime- Ethnic Succession and Organized Crime”.
14
Paoli (2002). “The Paradoxes of Organized Crime”. Crime, Law and Social Change. 37 (1): 51-97.
7. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
The UN Convention against Transitional Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto:
UNODC is the guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transitional Organized
Crime (Organized Crime Convention) and the three Protocols on Trafficking in Persons,
Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking of Firearms that supplement it.
This is the only international convention, which deals with organized crime. It is a landmark
achievement, representing the international community’s commitment to combating
transnational organized crime and acknowledging the UN’s role in supporting this
commitment. The adoption of the Convention at the fifty-fifth session of the General
Assembly of the United Nations in 2000 and its entry into force in 2003 also marked a
historic commitment by the international community to counter organized crime.
The Organized Crime Convention offers States parties a framework for preventing and
combating organized crime, and a platform for cooperating in doing so. States parties to the
Convention have committed to establishing the criminal offences of participating in an
organized crime group, money laundering, corruption and obstruction of justice in their
national legislation. By becoming parties to the UNTOC, States also have access to a new
framework for mutual legal assistance and extradition, as well as a platform for strengthening
law enforcement cooperation. States parties have also committed to promoting training and
technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of national authorities to address organized
crime.
8. CONCLUSION
Organized crime is illegal behaviour that is planned and carried out by groups of people in a
very systematic manner. Today, organized crime is business at large scale that is conducting
global commerce for the trafficking of illegal services and products as well as developing the
associated supply chains.
These crimes include: Bribery, Murder, Counterfeiting, Embezzlement of Union Funds, Mail
Fraud, Wire Fraud, Money Laundering, Obstruction of Justice, Murder for Hire Drug
Trafficking, Prostitution Sexual Exploitation of Children, Alien Smuggling, Trafficking in
Counterfeit Goods, Kidnapping Gambling, Arson Robbery, Sports Bribery Extortion, Drugs
and Theft from Interstate Shipment/Interstate.
In India, Organized crime is committed to seeking protection money, contract killing, boot-
legging, gambling, prostitution and smuggling, and drug trafficking, illicit arms trading,
money laundering, transporting illegitimate activities based essentially on its readiness to use
physical force and violence.
By corrupting public officials and thereby monopolising or near monopolising, organized
crime aims to secure for itself power. Organized crime has been committed in India since
earlier time in some form or another.
In India, there is no broad law to control organized crime. There is substantive law regarding
criminal scheme.
9. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources: Books.
1. Siddique Ahmad, 2018, Criminology & Penology with Victimology, EBC, Lucknow.
2. Sutherland, E.H., & Cressey, D.R. (1974). Principles of Criminology. Philadelphia,
PA: Lippincott.
Secondary Sources: Materials Available on the internet.
1. http://www.legalservicesindia.com
2. www.fbi.gov
3. https://www.britannica.com
4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org
