CJ 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 53: Headhunting
Headhunting: Effective in Organized-Crime Combat?
Beginning with U.S. Attorney George E. Q. Johnson's Prohibition‐era efforts to identify and
prosecute leaders (the heads) of the Capone gang for any offense, federal law enforcement
efforts against organized crime have been based on a headhunting strategy. Often the
offenses are unrelated to the main illegal enterprises of a criminal gang or criminal organization.
Johnson, for example, successfully prosecuted Al Capone for income tax evasion rather than for
bootlegging, racketeering, gambling, or any of Capone's other illegal business operations.
“Headhunting” is an effective strategy for fighting organized crime
Supporters of headhunting use “body counts” to measure success.
1. Some criminal organizations are too well organized and complex to allow for ‐
criminal prosecutions of their leaders for murder or other serious crimes. If the
government can't successfully prosecute notorious criminals for the many serious
crimes they are suspected of having committed, it is proper to subject them to
prosecutions for a variety of other crimes, including tax evasion, for which they
wouldn't be investigated and charged were it not for their notoriety. If an
individual is in fact guilty of the crime charged, the prosecutor's motive is
immaterial.
2. Prosecutions of leaders of organized crime groups disrupt criminal organizations.
3. Headhunting allows prosecutors to arrest low level offenders on minor charges ‐
and get them to flip—that is, plea bargain with low level offenders to secure their‐
testimony against big fish (the top leaders).
“Headhunting” is not an effective strategy for fighting organized crime
Critics claim headhunting doesn't work for the following reasons:
1. Prosecuting the leaders of organized crime groups doesn't disrupt the criminal ‐
groups. Groups replace incarcerated leaders with other group members and
adapt to headhunting by decentralizing operations.
2. Headhunting often involves targeting the easiest cases—low level offenders as ‐
well as highly visible and public organized crime figures. While the arrest, ‐
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Document Summary
Beginning with u. s. attorney george e. q. johnson"s prohibition era efforts to identify and prosecute leaders (the heads) of the capone gang for any offense, federal law enforcement efforts against organized crime have been based on a headhunting strategy. Often the offenses are unrelated to the main illegal enterprises of a criminal gang or criminal organization. Johnson, for example, successfully prosecuted al capone for income tax evasion rather than for bootlegging, racketeering, gambling, or any of capone"s other illegal business operations. Headhunting is an effective strategy for fighting organized crime. Supporters of headhunting use body counts to measure success: some criminal organizations are too well organized and complex to allow for criminal prosecutions of their leaders for murder or other serious crimes. Headhunting is not an effective strategy for fighting organized crime. Critics claim headhunting doesn"t work for the following reasons: prosecuting the leaders of organized crime groups doesn"t disrupt the criminal groups.
