#14 Organized Crime

Wednesday – 10:00 a.m.                                                  Winter Term 2009
Coordinator:  Jim Kohn                                                   Co-coordinator:  Chuck Lipsey

Course Description
When we hear the term "organized crime," we immediately think of the mafia and The Godfather.  But organized crime has been with us in various forms for centuries and now exists all over the world.  The organizers of crime include pirates, governments, drug lords, computer hackers, street gang leaders and international smugglers of women and money launderers.  The effects of organized crime on government, business and individuals are incalculable.
Who are these criminals?  How have they become so powerful?  How do they affect us?  What can be done to stop them?
In this S/DG we will deal with those questions as we explore organized crime through the centuries, with particular focus on current crime groups and the successes and failures of law enforcement to counteract them.

Topics
The weekly topics will include the following:

Piracy from the earliest days to the Somali pirates today
American mafia
South American drug cartels
Mexican mafia
Russian mafia and its effect in the United States
Smuggling of women for prostitution and of men and women as slaves
U.S. street gangs
Cyber crime
International money laundering and counterfeiting
Creation of Las Vegas
Criminals in unions
Hate crimes, including KKK, Aryan Brotherhood, Christian identity
FBI successes and failures
Asian crime: Yakuza in Japan, Triads in China, brothels in Thailand

Bibliography
There is a wealth of material on all of these subjects, including books and material on the web.  In addition to these topics, suggestions for other topics will be entertained at the Pre-Meeting.

Pre-Meeting:  Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 10:00 a.m.