Disorganized Crime: The Economics of the Visible HandWinner of the 9984 Leslie T. Wilkins Award for the best book in criminology and criminal justice. Bookmaking, numbers, and loansharking are reputed to be major sources of revenue for organized crime, controlled by the "visible hand" of violence. For years this belief has formed the basis of government policy toward illegal markets. Drawing on police files, confiscated records, and interviews with police, prosecutors, and criminal informants, Reuter systematically refutes the notion that the Mafia, by using political connections and the threat of violence, controls the major illegal markets. Instead, he suggests that the cost of suppressing competition has ensured that these markets are populated with small enterprises, many of them marginal and ephemeral. Peter Reuter is a Senior Economist at the Rand Corporation. Disorganized Crime is included in The MIT Press Series on Organization Studies, edited by John Van Maanen. |
Contents
3 | 45 |
4 | 85 |
The Economic Consequences of Product Illegality | 109 |
Copyright | |
5 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
activities agencies agents analysis appears arrest assertions associated Assume bank banker bets bettor bookmaker borrower called capital cities clerk collection collector Commission competitive concerning continued corruption costs criminal customers deal difficult distribution effective efforts enterprise entrepreneur estimate evidence example exist fact factors federal figures force gambling gang given handle heroin horse illegal markets important incentive increased individual interest involved law enforcement least lender less limited loan loanshark Mafia major monopoly numbers observation obtain operation organized crime participants particular payments percent persons police possible probability problem profits reason received records relationship reputation result retail risk role runner seems single structure substantial suggests transactions violence wagering week winning York