Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia

1. Explaining Organized Crime

1 exPlaining organized crime The competing alien conspiracy and ethnic succession explanations for the emergence of organized crime in America are based upon two separate but related theories of crime: cultural deviance and social disorganization. Although they are both mainstream theories, their classification is often a difficult task. Cultural deviance theory, for example, has been explained at both the micro and macro levels, and there are two variants of social disorganization theory.To add to the confusion, there is also what has come to be known as Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay’s“mixed”model of delinquency, combining both social disorganization and cultural deviance.1 All of these are associated with the Chicago School of sociology, which emerged from the University of Chicago in the early 1920s.This analysis follows the paradigm developed by the Chicago School. Both cultural deviance and social disorganization theory are reviewed in this chapter as possible explanations for organized crime in Chicago and other American cities. Cultural Deviance The alien conspiracy argument is based upon cultural deviance theory. If we follow the imagery portrayed in Mario Puzo’s book The Godfather, we see a picture of a Sicilian immigrant family who brought the traditions of the Mafia to America, which they accepted as a legitimate means of obtaining the fruits of the new world.2 Young Michael Corleone, the U.S. Marine Corps hero, who at first showed distaste for criminal activity, was celebrated when he turned away from the values of the larger society and joined the “family business.” Michael’s entrance into organized crime marked his acceptance of the cultural norms to which he had been socialized and, therefore, to which he owed his allegiance. Cultural deviance is a middle-range theory grouped under the positivist paradigm. Cultural deviance argues that every person is identified with a social group that has developed its own norms of conduct. In cultural deviance theory, norms are never violated. Criminals are well-socialized members of the groups to whose cultural codes they invariably conform. What appears to be deviance is simply a label applied by outsiders to the conforming behavior endorsed by one’s own group. People act, for the most part, in accordance with the rules of the group to which they belong.3 If these rules are in conflict with those of other cultural groups, who have the power to incorporate their values into law, crime occurs.The cause of crime is culture conflict—that is, variation in cultural values defining crime. Pure cultural deviance theory argues that conflict exists when divergent rules of conduct govern a person’s situation in life. There are two types of culture conflict. Primary group conflict occurs when members of one cultural group migrate to another area. Because immigrants often bring divergent religious beliefs, norms, and systems of values, culture conflict is inevitable. For example, William F. Whyte found a discrepancy between middle-class values and immigrant morality in an inner-city Italian community.4 In the Boston neighborhood of “Cornerville,” gambling was seen as normal conduct even though by the standards of the larger society it was considered illegal. Secondary culture conflict occurs with the evolution of different subcultures and value systems within the same society.The secondary culture conflict argument has often been used to explain the development of street gangs in modern society. Francis Ianni provided a real-life example of cultural deviance theory as it pertains to organized crime in his study of one of New York’s five crime families. He states that the members of Italian American organized crime “share a common culture and organize their universe and respond to it in ways which are considered culturally appropriate.” This shared culture is internalized as a code of implicit rules of behavior that members learn to use as part of these groups. This code is manifested in their actions, since it defines the equation through which they perceive the objective world and make culturally acceptable decisions about how to behave. Ianni believes that many of the attitudes and values that supported the entry of Italian immigrants into organized crime came with them from their mother country, where Mafia practices have existed since the mid-1800s.5 Despite its popularity, support for the alien conspiracy/cultural deviance explanation for organized crime in America is sparse. There is, however, a body of research that focuses on the Sicilian Mafia as a cultural form and a de facto method of social control in the absence of effective...