Models of Organized Crime, Essay Example

Organized crime can be defined as a systematic illegal activity whose goal is to get profit or power. The meaning has evolved and today organized crime refers to gangsters who have now acquired a lot of power by corrupting greedy, weak and passive public officials or even through violence (Woodiwiss 2000). According to Jay Albanese 1989 there are three models of organized crime which are hierarchical model, enterprise model and patron-client model all originally known as American Cosa Nostrica. Jay Albanese has emphasized, these “models” are a representative of different ways of explaining different paradigms of organized crime. The view of Cosa Nostra as a bureaucratic entity with a national wide organizational structure and framework was attributed to the Hierarchical model of organized crime. On the other hand, another work by Joe Albini views the same as Cosa Nostra as a mesh of ties that have an asymmetric network that is engrossed in ethnic as well as local networks and so described as patron client model (Abadinsky 2003).

Bureaucratic model emphasizes on efficiency as the main factor for big activities or operations. According to this model when activities continue to increase the need for bureaucratic structure sets in .this structure is important in controlling the enterprise through setting rules ,through specialization,  means of communication and hierarchy. An example of this type of structure is the outlaw biker groups whose target is to support activities of criminals and the Colombian cartels (Abadinsky 2003)

The patron –based organization is based on the ties that unite an organization. According to this model the role of the patron is to protect and help the client while the client becomes a respected loyal member. This model puts emphasis on traditions such as personal relationship and rituals (Abadinsky 2003)

The bureaucratic model is more centralized with more control over subordinates as opposed to the patron-client model whose activities are decentralized with a big number of social networks which has members who have no connection with each other and also has a little control over subordinates. According to (Abadinsky 2003) The American Mafia activities are characteristic of Patron-client model while its structure is a bureaucratic and   a   hierarchy. The American Mafia aim is gain profit by carrying out criminal activities.

All the models are similar in that they have a strong orientation to solid  settings and events. These models are constructed   based on some signs in mind of organized crime that have resulted under specific cultural and historic conditions.The quoted authors also combine different approaches in order to overcome the limits towards applicability of the models. Although these models cover a wide range of issues they still have the limitation of lacking an overall framework necessary to compare and analyze phenomena across cultural and historical variations because the models only  put in order and then link the phenomena as if historical cases are the only provider of constellations.

Organized criminal models are vital in understanding organized crime in that they represent the reality in a clear and simple manner. This  helps in understanding the reasons to why organized crime exist and thus the government and law enforcement bodies are able to make plans to  deal with it. All efforts to unravel as well as combat crime should be reinforced with intensive study and analysis of the way it is organized as well as controlled. This not only makes the job of crime busters easy but also enables them to fight organized crime with efficiency and thereby wipe out organized crime on the long term.

References

Woodiwiss P, (2000) Organized Crime –The Dumping of Discourse, British Criminology conference 2000: Selected proceedings.

Jay, A,  (1994, Models of Organized Crime, in: Robert J. Kelly, Ko-lin Chin, & Rufus Schatzberg (eds.), Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Abadinsky, H. (2003).  Organized Crime. New York. Penguin Books