The Crime Statistics, Research Paper Example

Organised Crime

Traditional organized crime in the USA centred on the Mafia and Cosa Nostra who operated primarily out of Cities like New York and Chicago.  Today these criminal activities have become much more globalized with South East Asia operations targeting the USA.  The FBI has identified a number of these organization and this includes the Yakuza from Japan. Japan has 110,000 members that are subdivided into 2,500 criminal families (Bruno, 2010).  This is interesting because the USA only has 20,000 crime syndicates and has double the to influence the Japanese population of Japan.  The Yakuza are extremely influential with the right wing political parties in Japan and in addition to criminal activities like vice and gambling they are well embedded in the Corporate business world. One of the big scandals in the Corporate world was that involving Lockheed in 1976 This involved a two million bribe to sway the market to that of Lockheed. (Bruno, 2010).  The Chairman of Lockheed was brought to testify before the Senate and the investigation in Japan and whilst the senior figure in Yakuza (Kodama) escaped conviction, they got him on a charge of $6 million tax evasion instead.

The Yakuza have exploited the situation in both China and the Philippines and have taken vast numbers of young girls and put them into the sex trade in Japan. They have also been heavily involved with arms smuggling and drug trafficking operating in many countries throughout the world including the USA.

Organized Crime in the USA falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI.  The FBI views criminal activities as having structure  with a view to profiteering  (FBI, 2010).  The laws that regulate organized crime include that of the RICO Act (Racketeer influenced and corrupt  organizations ) providing the framework for the FBI to tackle criminal activities in this area. The laws coming into effect from January 1996 and are extremely comprehensive in scope and nature.  These are in addition to the myriad of laws that cover Federal offences and the penalties for same.  The FBI has realized the global organized crime has become a serious international problem and they co-operate with other agencies like INTERPOL in Europe.  They have also separated this activity from that of Terrorist activity. The USA Patriot Act provides a framework for agencies like the FBI and CIA to co-operate in dealing with domestic terrorist threats posed against the homeland States.

The USA has such a high figure owing to the amount of drug related and gang related crime compared to other countries.  The USA is also facing considerable social issues relating to Juvenile Crime and civil unrest in the larger Urban Cities like Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.  Russia is combating a large black market mafia style criminal element that is involved with drug trafficking.  The Crime figures in the UK have been decreasing in the last decade but this has been attributed to a large incoming immigrant population and drug related crime. There is a large degree of international collaboration in terms of resolving issues like terrorism, drug trafficking and homicides.  In particular with the FBI, Interpol and the Mexican Government.  This remains a critical problem for business today with some estimated $30 billion being lost in productivity owing to drug use and some $60 billion applicable to alcohol abuse. (Harris, M. 2008). Those workers who had reported drug use missed more than 2 days per month at work and on average had more than three employers per year.

Russian Organized Crime (ROC) relates to that of international crime syndicates that operate in the USA and elsewhere.  Russia is used loosely as a term to cover all of the Eurasian countries that these gangs originate from i.e. Armenia, Lithuania, and other former Soviet bloc countries. It has been estimated that there are around 15 organized crime syndicates in the USA, which fall under the ROC umbrella.  This places a group membership of around 5-6,000 people. In addition to the USA, these gangs are reported to have a global reach that spans some 58 countries worldwide. The ROC have been contrasted to the Italian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (Sicily) in that they are well organized, have a firm hierarchy, an internal code of conduct, rules of engagement and an organized method of settling disputes and conflict resolution. Russian Organized Crime activity has witnessed a considerable expansion in the US over the last 20 years. The FBI has been paying close attention to this.

Works Cited

Bruno, A. (2010). The Yakuza. Retrieved 9 8, 2010, from TruTV: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/gang/yakuza/1.html

James O. Finckenauer, P. (2007). Russian Organized Crime In the US. Boston MA: National Institute of Justice.

M.Harris. (2008, 8 4). Alcohol and Drug use in the workplace: issues, controversies & directions for future research. Retrieved 10 15, 2010, from BNET: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4

Weareonetravel.com . (2011, 6 21). Mexico is Safe. Retrieved 8 1, 2011, from Weareonetravel.com : http://www.weareonetravel.com/2011/06/21/mexico-is-safe/