The World System: White Collar Crime &
Organized Crime
 Cultural
dynamics carry within them the
meaning of crime
 If
DEVIANCE is relative (or a matter of
perspective) then the behaviors we identify
as deviant (or crimes) are a function of the
changing values, beliefs and practices of a
population
 Crime
and Deviance constitute more than the
simple enactment of a static group culturepg3
 People’s
cultural views and practices don’t
just stay the same they are always changing,
therefore you cannot suggest that a
population is inherently criminal or inclined
toward deviant behavior
 Crucial
to criminology is a critical
understanding of current times (late
modernity)
 Criminology
seeks to understand a world in
flux, those who are marginalized and
excluded economically as well as those who
are exalted via forms of mass communication
 “a
crime committed by a person of
respectability and high social status in the
course of his occupation” E. Sutherland 1949

Behavior that doesn’t violate criminal law should not
be considered a crime, no matter how harmful it may
be

Sutherland’s definition rules out lawbreaking
behavior by the wealthy, such as tax evasion, that is
not committed in the course of their occupation
Sutherland’s definition excluded crimes by blue-collar
workers and businesses that share features of crimes
committed by persons of high social status
Sutherland’s book, White-Collar Crime focused almost
entirely on crime by corporations…did this mean that
white-collar crime is something that only
corporations and businesses can do?



Occupational crimecommitted by individuals
in the course of their
occupation for personal
gain

Corporate crimecommitted by
corporations (some
prefer the term
organizational crime
over the term
corporate crime)
:Coordinated efforts to acquire
illegal profits
*when the public demands or
desires goods or services,
organized criminal efforts are
often there to provide them
(even if the products are
legal)
*organized crime is believed to be involved in
several legitimate businesses (trash-hauling,
vending and amusement machines) as well as
toxic-waste disposal
 *primary
sources of
income for organized
remain illegal activities
and products: drugs,
prostitution,
pornography, gambling,
loan sharking and
extortion
 Organized
crime has existed for
centuries. Earliest examples:
Piracy
>Phoenicians, Vikings, buccaneers in
the 1600’s
-by the end of the 1600s pirates
openly traded their plunder with
merchants in Boston, NY,
Philadelphia and other port cities
(golden age of piracy)
 Piracy
faded by late 1720s after “honest”
officials exposed corruption and several
pirate leaders were killed.
 Understanding
economic context
>major reason piracy ended was
that merchants began to realize
they could get greater profits by
trading with England; after that,
“the markets for pirate goods
dried up, and the public demand
for their services and support for
their existence disappeared.”
(Dennis Kenney, James
Finckenaeur 95)
 Began
anew in NY in early 1800s (1mil
people-most poor & half immigrant and
unemployed-lived crammed into 2 square
miles)
 >young
women were forced
into prostitution, young men
formed gangs that allowed
them to commit crime more
effectively and evade police;
these early gangs were the
forerunner of today’s
organized crime groups (like
previous org. criminal
enterprises, relied on public
officials)
 By
the end of the 1800s gangs had
developed in NY and other eastern
cities into extensive operations
 Ethnic
makeup of the groups reflected
the great waves of immigration into
the U.S. during the 19th century; as
immigrants settled into cities many
inevitably turned to organized crime
to make ends meet
 The
Irish were the first
to take up organized
crime and became
dominant in many
cities
 Later
in the century
Italians and Jews
immigrated and got
their share of the vice
trade
 In
the 20th century African Americans, Asian
Americans and Latinos have become more
involved in organized crime
 Organized is the one area where diverse
groups have pursued economic opportunity
and the American Dream
 While
urban gangs were the forerunners of
organized crime, 19th century white collar
criminals (robber barons) were the role
models
 Examples:
Leland Stanford (railroads) bribed
congressmen to gain land grants and federal
loans for Central Pacific Railroad; JD
Rockefeller (Standard Oil) forced competitors
our of business with price wars and
bombings; Du Pont family (gunpowder)
cornered the market after the Civil War with
bribery
 Both
Organized Crime and
White Collar crime involve
careful planning and
coordinated effort to
acquire illegal profits;
both rely on active or
passive collusion of public
officials and on public
willingness to buy the
goods and services they
provide
 Rise
of Organized Crime
during Prohibition
 After
Prohibition: gambling
>starting in 1960’s moved into
drug trade (50-150billion),
reducing interests in gambling
 Suggests
that organized crime today is
controlled by a highly organized, hierarchical
group of some 24 Italian families (Alien
Conspiracy Model or Mafia mystique)
 Popularized
in congressional hearings in the
1950s (see the Godfather II)
 Sociologist
Donald Cressey’s
book Theft of the Nation
articulated this model and
argued that organized
crime was largely unknown
before Italians immigrated
to the U.S. Assumed that
organized crime exists
because immigrants corrupt
good U.S. citizens and prey
on their weaknesses