How did 'organized crime' get its name? This has a sense of being MBA-talk of the 20th century. Is it? This sense of groups of criminals - such as pirates - has been with us a long time.
"Barbarian conquerors, whether Vandals, Goths, the Norse, Turks or Mongols are not normally thought of as organized crime groups, yet they share many features associated with thriving criminal organizations. They were for the most part non-ideological, predominantly ethnically based, used violence and intimidation, and adhered to their own codes of law."
So what I think distinguishes this expression is the sense of organization structure and functioning. The website ResearchGate has the answer from Klaus von Lampers in his paper: Not a Process of Enlightenment: The Conceptual History of Organized Crime in Germany and the United States of America
von Lampers says that the content and meaning of the term "organized crime" has undergone various changes since it was first coined in Chicago in 1919 and entered the criminal policy debate in Germany in the 1960s. He relays the historical origins of the expression.
"The term organized crime first came into regular use among the members of the Chicago Crime Commission, a civic organization that was created in 1919 by businessmen, bankers and lawyers to promote changes in the criminal justice system in order to better cope with the crime problem.
In the pronouncements of the Chicago Crime Commission, organized crime referred not to criminal organizations but in a much broader sense to the orderly fashion in which the so-called criminal class of an estimated 10,000 professional criminals in Chicago allegedly could pursue crime as a business. The discussion centred on the conditions that seemingly allowed criminals to gain a steady income from crime, in particular property crimes, under virtual immunity from the law. In the eyes of the Crime Commission, the city authorities were to blame for incompetency, inefficiency and corruption, while the public was criticized for its indifference and even open sympathy towards criminals. This characterization of organized crime as an integral part of society apparently reflected the perception of Chicago by the old established Protestant middle class as a city that, after years of rapid growth and cultural change, seemed to be drowning in crime, corruption and moral decay."
Here's his summary of the evolution of this term in the U.S. history: "In essence, over the last 80 years the American perception of organized crime has evolved from an integral facet of big city life to an assortment of global criminal players who challenge even the most powerful countries. In other words, the original systemic view of the relation between organized crime and society has been replaced by a dichotomic view that in recent years has been carried to extremes with the concept of global mafias."
And how do we conclude? With an organized crime joke!
Barry's job was to write articles for a massive online news site run by the mafia. He absolutely hated his job, but he had to stay because they would kill his family if he left. He had to write articles about the mafia’s crimes, and because the company had all the lawmakers bribed, they were untouchable even though they openly admitted to their crimes.
The editor-in-chief walked over to his desk one day, and leaned on the side of his cubicle. He said, “Barry, we’ve got the senator’s daughter held hostage. Thing is, we can’t do our usual schtick and demand money because we think the feds are onto us. Gimme something good for the headline and we’ll let you off early.”
So Barry, knowing exactly what was at stake, wrote the standard ransom article asking for fifty million dollars, but this time he changed the title: “Senator’s daughter to be released safely only upon reception of $50 million in precious metals’.
Barry felt very proud of himself, and sure enough a week later the ransom had been paid and the company was rich. The editor-in-chief came back to his desk.
“Great job, Barry! It worked! Why don’t you take the rest of the day off, after you change the title so the feds can’t hold it against us?”
Barry agreed, and within five minutes the article title read:
“Edit: Thanks for Gold!”
I am thinking that Dilbert would appreciate this joke, wouldn't he? Here's something from the garden after the snow.
