Introduction
Organized crime is a particular type of crime that is mostly committed by national, transnational, and local groups of highly centralized enterprises. These people mostly commit crimes for money or for the sake of some profit. Organized criminals are mostly in the form of groups and gangs. Such types of organized groups or gangs are also called Mafia.
Similarly, the network or the community of the criminals is also known as The Underworld.
What does organized crime mean?
In general;
“Organized crimes mean criminal activities that are planned and controlled by powerful groups and carried out on a large scale.”
Definition
According to Merriam Webster
“A group of professional criminals who work together as part of a powerful and secret organization.”
According to Wikipedia
“Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, are politically motivated.”
How organized crime is promoted?
Organized crime gets promoted by the relationship between the criminals and the politicians. The criminals feel powerful due to their relationship with the politicians and they commit crimes with no fear.
This type of connection is very much dangerous when relating to elections to the parliament.
Characteristics of Organized Crimes
The characteristics of organized crime are the following.
- Organized crime is committed by a group of persons
- In an organized crime, only one or few members of the group enjoy the whole authority
- It may dominate the law enforcement agencies through corruption or by means of political powers.
- The criminals of organized crime develop close relationships with lawyers, doctors, engineers, politicians, judges, and other authority figures.
Objectives of the criminals
The object of these criminals is to get huge profits from the people by every possible means legally or illegally. They also buy and sell illegal goods in illegal ways also.
Classification of Organized Crimes
Organized crimes are classified as follows
- Corporate Crimes
- White-Collar Crimes
- Smuggling
- Property Crimes
- Crimes related to Drugs
- Hijacking & Kidnapping
1. Corporate Crimes
The crimes committed by a corporation are known as Corporate Crimes. Corporate crime has an impressive effect on the social and economic life of individuals. For Examples, insider trading, embezzlement, bribing,
2. White-Collar Crimes
White-Collar crimes are those crimes that are committed by business people, government officials, and entrepreneurs. These people enjoy a high social position in society and commit crimes due to their extraordinary authority. These crimes include money laundering, fraud, and corruption.
Read More: White-Collar Crimes
3. Smuggling
Smuggling is the illegal movement of goods into or out of a country.
The major reasons for smuggling are greed for wealth and lack of nationalism.
The smugglers smuggle the goods and substances by participating in illegal trade ( weapons trade, drug trade, tax evasion, illegal emigration, and illegal immigration.
4. Property Crimes
Property crimes are those crimes that are committed to obtain money, property, or some other benefit. People commit these crimes by using force or the threat of force.
The basic cause for committing property crimes is to destroy or steal someone’s property through force.
Crimes against property are of two types.
- Arson or Vandalism: These are those crimes in which someone’s property is destroyed.
- Robbery or Embezzlement: These are those crimes when someone’s property is only stolen.
5. Crimes related to drugs
Crimes related to drugs are those crimes in which a man owns, manufactures, and distributes drugs such as heroin, morphine, and cocaine.
These crimes include drug production and drug trafficking at the same time.
6. Hijacking and Kidnapping
The crimes of Hijacking and Kidnapping are very serious in their nature. There is a huge danger to the lives of people in these crimes.
Hijacking is a crime that is committed by a group or gang which they seize an aircraft, ship, or any other vehicle while traveling.
In Kidnapping, an individual is seized or detained against his will by a gang. For example, Detaining a child.
Conclusion
It is concluded that Organized Crime is a result of criminal conspiracy in which it is planned to exploit the social, economic, and political setup of the society.
Hence, organized criminality causes the same harm in society as tapeworm (a parasite found in the elementary canal) causes harm to the human gut.
Law Enforcement Agencies can perform an important role to resolve these crimes.