The growth of racketeering
- 1 February 1973
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Economy and Society
- Vol. 2 (1) , 35-69
- https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147300000002
Abstract
To understand why racketeering flourishes in the United States in a way that it does not elsewhere we need to understand how it differs from other kinds of professional crime. A model of the developed racket is presented which shows how it depends on relations that have been built up over time with customer-victims and with agencies of law enforcement and how it has an inherently expansive tendency. Three episodes in the history of racketeering in the United States are then discussed to show how (1) the ‘machine’ system in city politics contributed to the corruption of law-enforcement, (2) Prohibition contributed to monopoly control over markets, and (3) labour racketeering contributed to ruling-class acquiescence to organized crime.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Marx and Engels on law, crime and moralityEconomy and Society, 1972
- The Rise and Decline of a SubcultureSocial Problems, 1967
- From Mafia to Cosa NostraAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1965
- Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, 1900–1920Published by Harvard University Press ,1963
- Obstacles to Enforcement of Gambling LawsThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1950
- Organized CrimeThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1941