Organized Crime

by Michael Lyman, Gary Potter

Overview

For courses in organized crime.
A student-friendly introduction to organized crime – what it is and what it’s not
Organized Crime provides an easy-to-read introduction to organized crime, including a historical basis for understanding its origins, evolution, and current status. The text dispels widespread myths about organized crime, revealing why ethnically driven pop-culture stereotypes are inadequate. It also deals with the role of drug trafficking in organized crime and comparative models of terrorism. The 7th edition has significant new material and updates, such as sections on definitions of organized crime, Mexican cartels, Somali pirates, RICO, Eastern African groups, Albanian drug-smuggling networks, Triborder Area OC activity, counterfeit consumer goods, and updated case studies, statistics, and graphics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780134871356
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	04/02/2018
Series:	What's New in Criminal Justice Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

About our author

Michael D. Lyman is a professor of criminal justice at Columbia College, in Columbia, Missouri. In addition to being a teaching faculty member, he serves as the program coordinator for the Master of Science of Criminal Justice Program and the founder of the college’s Forensic Science Program. Before entering the field of college teaching, he was employed as a certified police trainer and served as a sworn criminal investigator for state police organizations in Kansas and Oklahoma. He has taught literally thousands of law enforcement officers in the proper police techniques and methods of professional criminal investigation.

Dr. Lyman has authored numerous textbooks in criminal justice dealing with the areas of criminal investigation, policing, organized crime, drug enforcement and drug trafficking. He received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wichita State University and his PhD from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has served law enforcement and legal communities on more than 375 occasions to review criminal investigations and render the results of his evaluations and his opinions in federal court proceedings nationwide.

Textbooks such as this are an ongoing work in progress, and the author welcomes communication and correspondence about his work. Dr. Lyman can be contacted at Columbia College, Rogers Street, Columbia, MO or by email.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding Organized Crime
2. Theories of Organized Criminal Behavior
3. The Evolution of Organized Crime: Urban Beginnings
4. The Evolution of Organized Crime: Southern Beginnings
5. The Businesses of Organized Crime
6. The Illicit Drug Trade
7. Domestic Organized Crime Groups
8. A Comparative Perspective
9. Terrorism As Organized Crime
10. Organized Crime's Political and Corporate Alliances
11. Controlling Organized Crime

Appendices
A. Selected Provisions from the 2001 USA Patriot Act
B. Chronology of White Supremacist Domestic Terrorist Incidents in the 1980s
C. Domestic Terrorism Groups and Events
D. Foreign Terrorist Organizations

Introduction

Crime and criminality have been cornerstones for countless movie and book plots and radio/TV talk shows over the decades. Of all the varied types of criminal activity, however, organized crime has proven to be the most intriguing through the years. Images of pin-striped gangsters, police shoot-outs, and flamboyant lifestyles emerge whenever the topic of organized crime is mentioned. To a great extent, these images form the basis for stereotyping what the public generally perceives as organized crime. However, these images fail to portray organized crime realistically.

The third edition of Organized Crime is designed to be an introductory text serving several purposes in the field of criminal justice. First, it provides the reader an understanding of the concept of organized crime, what it is and what it is not. It also gives the reader the necessary historical foundation for understanding the evolution, development, and current status of organized crime. Most important, the book is designed to dispel the myth that organized crime is composed exclusively of Italian-American criminal groups. In fact, when considering the overall problem of crime in our communities, other groups, such as African-American, Mexican, Colombian, and Jamaican criminal groups, play an increasingly important role in it.

Another important component to the book is that drug trafficking plays an important role in the continuing proliferation of organized crime groups. The existence of the illegal drug trade says much about those groups that traffic illicit drugs and about those members of society who use these drugs and consequently lend support to organized criminals. In addition toa separate chapter dealing with the issue, the topic is discussed periodically throughout the book.

We have made a great effort to present this material in a logically organized, readable fashion. The problem of organized crime is examined from a social perspective using specially designed pedagogical features. These include chapter objectives, critical thinking exercises, chapter summaries, key terms, and suggested readings. All of these features are designed to promote scholarly thought and insight into the problem of organized crime while presenting important thematic questions in each chapter including these: What is organized crime? Is there really a Mafia? Is terrorism organized crime? Do political machines still exist? Although there are no hard-and-fast answers to these questions, readers can draw conclusions and perhaps develop probing questions on their own. In many respects the most important pursuit for students studying organized crime is to develop sufficient mastery of the topic to ask the right questions.

Organized Crime, Third Edition incorporates a considerable amount of new material and updates. New/revised topics include: arms trafficking; contraband smuggling; counterfeiting; piracy; Chinese organized crime; drug trafficking: Colombian traffickers, Mexican drug syndicates, Nigerian drug traffickers, Albanian drug smuggling networks, Dominican drug traffickers; trafficking in gems and gold; high tech crime; intellectual property rights violations; trafficking in nuclear material; environmental crime; trafficking in women and children; Southeast Asia; Afghanistan; and the Japanese Yakuza.

The preparation of this book was a demanding task because it required sifting through an enormous amount of historical data and archives to present the most salient aspects of the organized crime problem. The efforts of the authors were augmented by numerous individuals and organizations. In addition to the research offered by well-known researchers in the field, information was also culled from governmental reports generated by organizations such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, the National Institute of Justice, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

In addition to those special people and organizations mentioned, we would also like to recognize the efforts of those criminal justice academicians who took time to review this text in its developmental stages. Included are Paul Becker, Morehead State University; Joseph Andritzky, Concordia University; Ken Mullen, Appalachian State University; Frank Afflito; University of Tennessee at Memphis; Steven Brodt, Ball State University; and William Kelly, Auburn University. The feedback, suggestions, and recommendations provided by each of these contributors is greatly appreciated.

Finally, we wish to thank the many friends at Prentice Hall who helped in the book's production. Special recognition is well deserved for acquisitions editor Frank Mortimer and assistant editor Sarah Holle.

The study of organized crime is one of the most fascinating educational endeavors, posing thematic, scholarly, and ideological questions. As we attempt to understand this area of interest, let us bear in mind that during the past century organized crime became the most insidious form of criminality involving criminals, politicians, bankers, lawyers, and the all-important users of illegal goods and services. The authors would like to thank you for the adoption of this book for classroom study, and we encourage comments and suggestions regarding this publication for the improvement of future editions.

Editorial Reviews

Organized crime and the war against it have become ever more sophisticated and politicized. In the context of theories of the evolution of this alternative social institution and its behaviors, Lyman (Columbia College) and Potter (Eastern Kentucky U.) investigate not only the illicit trades endemic to organized crime, but also<-- >new to this edition<-->transnational and rural domestic US involvement, terrorism as organized crime, and such crime filtered through the media and popular culture. Each of the ten chapters in this introductory criminal justice text concludes with lessons learned, terms, discussion questions, and suggested reading. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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