Sociology 2266A/B Chapter 11: Chapter 11 Textbook Notes 2266A
14 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 11 lecture and Textbook
Organized crime, corporate crime, and cybercrime
Conventional crimes
- Crime of the streets, violent crimes and property crimes
- Typically committed by individuals or small groups from the middle and lower
socioeconomic class
- Information on violent and property-related crime is dutifully recorded, and the data are
made readily available through official police records and stats Canada
Organized crimes
- Illegal activity conducted by individuals or groups acting in consort, typically involving
extortion, fraud, theft, smuggling or the sale of illegal products
- Organized crime and corporate crime are typically committed by the powerful and
influential groups or individuals
Corporate crime
- Illegal activity conducted by employees and or officers of a business either for individual
gain or to benefit the company
Cybercrime
- Cybercrime is any crime that involves the use of computer technology or the internet
- Computer-mediated crime
- While once associated with solitary hackers acting out of mischief and not as part of a
larger criminal conspiracy is increasingly being carried out by sophisticated criminal
groups
- The status or power that these groups/individuals hold the impact of these crimes can
be very costly
o What our computer technology are capable of doing
o It has only been a few years that we created cyberbullying laws
o Canadian revenue agency: 19-year-old students hacked into a CRA computer
system
o Cybercrime: any crime that involves the use of computer technology or the
internet
Organized Crime
Howard Abadinsky (2012): is critical of past attempts as defining organized crime
o There is no ideal type of organized crime that we can pinpoint but that organized
crime in fact exists as a degree of criminal activity or as a point of the spectrum
of legitimacy
o Any group having a corporate structure whose primary objective is to obtain
money through illegal activities, often surviving on hear and corruption
o Economically motivated illicit activity undertaken by any group, association, or
other body consisting of two or more individuals, whether formally or informally
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
organized, where the negative impact of said activity could be considered
significant from an economic, social, violence generation, healthy and safety and
or environmental perspective
▪ It is the illegal activities carried out by structured groups of three or more
persons for a prolonged period of time and having the aim of committing
serious crimes through concerted action by using intimidation, violence,
corruption, or other means in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a
financial or other material benefit
▪ Continuing criminal enterprise that rationally works to profit from illicit
activities that are in great public demand. Its continuing existence is
maintained through the use of force, threats, monopoly control and or
the corruption of public officials
1) The supplying of illegal good and services
2) The involvement of predatory crime (carried out by gangs and terrorist cells
3) The transnational dimensions
History of Organized Crime
- Ancient Phoenicians (1200-146 BCE) roamed the Mediterranean Sea and plundered
ships
- Eighth century: The Vikings of Scandinavia were known to practise acts of piracy
throughout France, Scotland, England, and Ireland
o The most famous examples of piracy occurred during the 1600s when
flamboyant, swashbuckling pirates ranged the seas
- Brodeur poits out that there is eidee of ross order assoiatios of riials
orgaizig rie
- Its transnational: international networks of individuals or groups involved in the illegal
movement of goods or even people
- Can involve reputable, well-established, and apparently legitimate businesses
- Piracy (attacking and robbing ships at sea) is among the earliest examples of organized
crime
Beare (1996): one of the challenges to offering a single definition is the difficulty of capturing
the essential aspects of the process that certain criminal use in carrying out criminal activity
- This leads to another challenge for criminologists:
o Loree (2004): since each nation creates its own legal definitions of organized
crime, it complicates international collaboration data collection and analysis
o Abadinsky (2012): focused on identifying a set of attributes that are commonly
found among organized crime groups
▪ Non-ideological: most organized crime groups have no political
affiliation, with goals that are no directly motivated by political concerns
▪ Hierarchical: they feature a chain of command, with three or more
permanent positions of authority typically existing with the groups
▪ Perpetuous: these groups constitute an ongoing criminal conspiracy
designed to persist over time
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
▪ Organized through specialization or division of labour: members have
specific area of responsibility and defined roles (e.g. Enforcers, soldiers,
money movers)
▪ Monopolistic: organized crime groups strive for hegemony (dominance)
over a geographic area, thereby restraining competition and increasing
their own profit
▪ Governed by rules and regulations: virtually all organized crime groups
require their members to take an oath of secrecy
• Example: some gangs require new members to undergo hazing or
beatings by fellow members
According to the Canadian Public Safety website as of 2009 there was 157 organized crime units
across Canada
- Increasing sophistication of criminal organizations and the multi-jurisdictional nature of
organized crime demand an equally sophisticated law enforcement and regulatory
response
Key Recommendations for Improving the Working of the Units:
1) Finding ways to measure and evaluate the success of integrated units
2) Learning what effect the integrated units have on their priority target crimes
3) Investigating how these initiatives benefit all partners
Aboriginal Crime Groups
- Definition: Organized crime groups started or operated in Canada by Aborginial people,
involved in crimes ranging from cigarette smuggling to illegal gambling
o Low-level groups of thugs lacking formal structures: Indian Posse, Redd Alert,
Alberta Warriors, an Native Syndicate have been drawing increasing attention
since the 1990s
- Beare (1996): describes the organized criminal activity of Aboriginal people as a perfect
example of a manufactured organized crime problem since certain groups seek out
illegal ventures by which to attain their goals as a result of perceived limited economic
opportunities and of being marginalized
o Aorigial rie groups are street gags, fallig etee aa-e groups
and criminal business organizations in terms of their sophistication and formal
structure
▪ 2003: prairie based Aboriginal gangs were working with more established
gangs ex. Hells angels and Asian gangs in selling drugs at the street level
▪ 2004: there were an est. 300 Aboriginal gang members incarcerated
▪ April 2014: RCMP: reported that organized Aboriginal gangs were caught
in a raid along the Canada- US border which results in 25 arrests. Gang
members caught are usually linked to the Mafia: this was tobacco
smuggling on the black market
- Aboriginal organized crime groups can make profit over a million dollars with a load of
1,200 cases of cigarettes
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Crime of the streets, violent crimes and property crimes. Typically committed by individuals or small groups from the middle and lower socioeconomic class. Information on violent and property-related crime is dutifully recorded, and the data are made readily available through official police records and stats canada. Illegal activity conducted by individuals or groups acting in consort, typically involving extortion, fraud, theft, smuggling or the sale of illegal products. Organized crime and corporate crime are typically committed by the powerful and influential groups or individuals. Illegal activity conducted by employees and or officers of a business either for individual gain or to benefit the company. Cybercrime is any crime that involves the use of computer technology or the internet. While once associated with solitary hackers acting out of mischief and not as part of a larger criminal conspiracy is increasingly being carried out by sophisticated criminal groups.
