Crime was long concerned only with brutal, solitary and personal impulses. But nowadays the murderers and robbers are forming ranks; they obey discipline; they have given themselves a code and a morality; they work in gangs with well devised schemes.
-- Louis Blanc, 1840
Organized crime is more than merely a specific type of "crime," the way that a "violent crime" is a subset of all crimes. For example, we can talk about a violent crime and describe a particular incident to others; if the incident's description fits the legal definition of the crime and includes violent acts as a part of its commission, then we understand the incident to be a violent crime. But we cannot talk about "an organized crime" in the same manner, because we do not conceive of "an organized crime" as a similar subset of all crimes; rather, we conceive of a crime fitting into the category "organized crime" by virtue of other factors, such as whether the person committing the crime is affiliated with a criminal enterprise and the description of the circumstances surrounding the crime --these are needed for an understanding of "organized crime."
Organized Crime Statutes cover the full range of possible entities. At one extreme, we have that of the state of Mississippi: "Two or more persons conspiring together to commit crimes for profit on a continuing basis." By this definition, two bank robbers who planned and executed robberies together would qualify. While this would constitute an elementary form of criminal organization, it does not seem to describe a very distinctive phenomenon, worthy of particular statutory or investigative attention.
Organized crime is not an appropriate label to apply to all illegal market enterprises, such as brothels and heroin distribution operations. Yet it is often assumed that these enterprises, if of........
