Read the following text. Following the title of the text brainstorm words you expect to find in it. Write the vocabulary list of possible words that you could find in that text. Draw a vocabulary spider gram (mind map). Add any new words you find in the text.

Make sure you understand the meaning of the following words and word-combinations:

transnational, national, or local groupings

highly centralized enterprises

to distinguish

involvement in criminal operations

the promotion of corruption

the possession of considerable resources

hierarchical

compartmentalized

laundering

loansharking

blackmail

methamphetamine

traffickers

a gang

a gangster

community

 Organized Crime

Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals who intend to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for money and profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, are politically motivated. Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for so-called "protection". Gangs may become disciplined enough to be considered organized. A criminal organization or gang can also be referred to as a mafia, mob, or crime syndicate; the network, subculture and community of criminals may be referred to as the underworld.

Other organizations—including states, militaries, police forces, and corporations—may sometimes use organized-crime methods to conduct their activities, but their powers derive from their status as formal social institutions. There is a tendency to distinguish organized crime from other forms of crime, such as white-collar crime, financial crimes, political crimes, war crime, state crimes, and treason. 

Numerous scholars, lawyers, and social scientists have attempted to define international organized crime. Most have found that it is best defined by its attributes:

• involvement in criminal operations that cross state boundaries, often in response to a demand for goods that are illegal;
• the promotion of corruption of government officials (often exploiting economically weakened states) with the goal of influencing or neutralizing the instruments of state;
• the possession of considerable resources;
• a hierarchical, rigid, or compartmentalized organizational structure that uses internal discipline and thereby protects the leadership, who carry out organizational, administrative and ideological functions, from detection or implication in commission of crimes;
• the laundering of proceeds and the use of legitimate "front" businesses to hide criminal activities;
• the use of violence;
• the capacity to engage in a range of activities, and the professionalism of its participants;
• the aim of the realization of large financial profits as quickly as possible;
• operation on a sustained, long-term basis; and the tendency to organize international operations together with other groups of different nationalities.

The Major International Criminal Organizations The "Big Five"' international criminal organizations are the Russian "Mafiya," the Italian mafia families, the Colombian cartels, the Chinese Triads, and the Japanese Yakuza. To elaborate the best approach in combating the problem of organized crime, it is important to consider each of the groups for its differences, similarities, and links to the other groups.

For example, favorite projects of the Japanese Yakuza include casinos, brothels, loansharking, blackmail, arms trading, and real estate. The Yakuza has perfected its own style of corporate extortion called sokiya, whereby it purchases stock in a company so that it can send armed thugs to disrupt stockholder meetings until they are paid off. In addition to Japan, the Yakuza has known operations in Costa Rica, Sdo Paulo, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, and other spots in the Pacific region. Methamphetamine is one of the Yakuza's chief exports from Asia and guns are one of its chief imports. The Yakuza has also been a key force in developing the Southeast Asian "sex slave" business. The Yakuza (also known as Boryokudan, or "the violent ones") includes approximately 3,000 groups and 85,000 members.

The larger players of the organized crime have also recruited significant numbers of support staff in other parts of the world, including the Jamaican posses, Nigerian traffickers, Pakistani drug traders, Afghani poppy farmers, and Mexican launderers and distributors. Finding new recruits becomes necessary every time law enforcement increases its focus on a particular link in the network.

Questions to discuss:

1. What is organized crime?
2. Are some of them politically motivated?
3. What words are used to describe an organized group of criminals?
4. What are the attributes of organized crime?
5. Do criminal groups differ? Do they have links with one another?
6. Do criminal groups have their national features?
7. How big is the Japanese Yakuza criminal group?
8. Have players of the organized crime recruited significant numbers of support staff in other parts of the world?