Summary
Organized crime has long posed one of the greatest criminal challenges to law enforcement. Considered a different type of crime than those committed by individuals or small groups of criminals, these are crimes committed by an organized mob that work together and share in the profits. From the criminal gangs in early American history, to the outlaw gangs of the Old West, to the bootleggers of Prohibition, organized crime has a long history in the United States. Today, numerous organized crime families still exist—the best known, perhaps, is the Mafia—but there are many other types of criminal groups. Organized Crime details the range of tactics police use to identify, combat, and prevent organized crimes.
Chapters include:
- Informants: They Call Them Rats
- Surveillance: Wiring Informants and Tapping Phones
- The Big Bust
- Famous Rubouts
- When the Government Declares War.
Topics covered include:
- The rackets: numbers, betting, extortion, loan-sharking, and other illegal business
- Undercover agents who infiltrate the mob
- The RICO laws, which gave the government the power to take down elusive crime organizations
- Wiretapping and the laws of surveillance
- Mobs from around the world
- Mob killings and assassinations.
Specifications
Full-color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations. Sidebars. Chronology. Bibliography. Endnotes. Further resources. Index.
About the Author(s)
Michael Benson is the author of 50 books, including the true-crime books Betrayal in Blood and Lethal Embrace. He also wrote The Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination for Facts On File. Originally from Rochester, NY, he is a graduate of Hofstra University.