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It is an inherent element in the world of organized crime. When you owe money to a legitimate company and you don’t pay, they send you notices and reminders with due dates and eventually it could go to collections. Organized crime sees violence as a way to avoid all of this. If you owe them money and you don’t pay, when they catch you they will beat you up or worse, make an example out of you and kill you. Basically violence is used as a means to an end for these people. The main problem of this is collateral damage, or the innocent bystanders that get hurt as a result.
When you mention organized crime, almost always people think you are talking about the Italian Cosa Nostra, or Mafia. In reality, La Cosa Nostra is just the Italians’ version of organized crime. Crime syndicates span the globe and even include the Al-Qaeda terrorists that brought down the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Three thousand innocent lives were lost on that day because a militant group of deviants used violence as a means to obtain their ends. Every day in the news you hear about civilian casualties in Baghdad, Iraq or some outlying city. These terrorists do not care about the lives of these innocent people as evidenced by the near daily reports out of Iraq. In October 2006, 3,709 Iraqi civilians lost their lives as a result of terrorism. Despite all these negative aspects of organized crime, it appears that people are intrigued by the ‘glorious’ gangster lifestyle. It is almost as if it is becoming accepted by society when violent (and mostly accurate) depictions of organized crime are among the most popular television shows, movies, and video games. The extremely popular HBO series The Sopranos depicts the daily life of a New Jersey mob boss named Tony Soprano and all the things he has to deal with his juggling of his two ‘families’. In the end this lying, cheating, conniving and ruthless criminal is made out to be sympathetic person with problems like the rest of us. He sees a psychiatrist, tries to fix his strained family relationships, and cries when he gets sad. He kills people and we are supposed to feel sorry for him. In the 1990’s, two remarkable gangster movies were released. Martin Scorcese, a New York native who grew up in the thick of the mafia heyday, directed them both. First came Goodfellas in 1990, and a few years later Casino. Both of them portray this flamboyant gangster lifestyle, but also show the dark side of organized crime. Goodfellas brought in 47 million dollars and was nominated for six academy awards with Joe Pesci winning for best supporting actor. These are phenomenal accolades and illustrate how popular the genre was ten years before the Sopranos burst on the scene. The success of the Sopranos has increased the popularity even more. They even have a video game so that young adults can get into the whole gangster life mentality and virtually kill people. It’s not just the Sopranos video game. …show more content…
Many other games such as the wildly successful Grand Theft Auto series feature organized crime and loads of violence that is carried out by you, the star of the game. It appears that we are sending the wrong messages to the kids who play these games and it seems to be another example of society at large becoming numb to the affects of organized crime.
There are many other aspects of organized crime that exemplify deviance, however, the aforementioned characteristics stand out as the more serious influences on society. The impact of the criminal lifestyle, the perpetuation of violence and the virtual acceptance and glorification of this criminal way of life is leading our society down the wrong path. In the years to come we should strive to eliminate the glorification of gangster culture and do a better job of eradicating this societal evil. RESOURCES 1. F.B.I. organized crime website - http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/orgcrime/ocshome.htm 2. Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption -http://www.yorku.ca/nathanson/default.htm 3. Organized Crime Research - http://www.organized-crime.de/ 4. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes - http://www.unodc.org/unodc/organized_crime.html 5. Interpol – Drugs and Criminal Organizations website - http://www.interpol.int/Public/Drugs/default.asp 6. http://english.people.com.cn/200611/23/eng20061123_324250.html
When you mention organized crime, almost always people think you are talking about the Italian Cosa Nostra, or Mafia. In reality, La Cosa Nostra is just the Italians’ version of organized crime. Crime syndicates span the globe and even include the Al-Qaeda terrorists that brought down the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Three thousand innocent lives were lost on that day because a militant group of deviants used violence as a means to obtain their ends. Every day in the news you hear about civilian casualties in Baghdad, Iraq or some outlying city. These terrorists do not care about the lives of these innocent people as evidenced by the near daily reports out of Iraq. In October 2006, 3,709 Iraqi civilians lost their lives as a result of terrorism. Despite all these negative aspects of organized crime, it appears that people are intrigued by the ‘glorious’ gangster lifestyle. It is almost as if it is becoming accepted by society when violent (and mostly accurate) depictions of organized crime are among the most popular television shows, movies, and video games. The extremely popular HBO series The Sopranos depicts the daily life of a New Jersey mob boss named Tony Soprano and all the things he has to deal with his juggling of his two ‘families’. In the end this lying, cheating, conniving and ruthless criminal is made out to be sympathetic person with problems like the rest of us. He sees a psychiatrist, tries to fix his strained family relationships, and cries when he gets sad. He kills people and we are supposed to feel sorry for him. In the 1990’s, two remarkable gangster movies were released. Martin Scorcese, a New York native who grew up in the thick of the mafia heyday, directed them both. First came Goodfellas in 1990, and a few years later Casino. Both of them portray this flamboyant gangster lifestyle, but also show the dark side of organized crime. Goodfellas brought in 47 million dollars and was nominated for six academy awards with Joe Pesci winning for best supporting actor. These are phenomenal accolades and illustrate how popular the genre was ten years before the Sopranos burst on the scene. The success of the Sopranos has increased the popularity even more. They even have a video game so that young adults can get into the whole gangster life mentality and virtually kill people. It’s not just the Sopranos video game. …show more content…
Many other games such as the wildly successful Grand Theft Auto series feature organized crime and loads of violence that is carried out by you, the star of the game. It appears that we are sending the wrong messages to the kids who play these games and it seems to be another example of society at large becoming numb to the affects of organized crime.
There are many other aspects of organized crime that exemplify deviance, however, the aforementioned characteristics stand out as the more serious influences on society. The impact of the criminal lifestyle, the perpetuation of violence and the virtual acceptance and glorification of this criminal way of life is leading our society down the wrong path. In the years to come we should strive to eliminate the glorification of gangster culture and do a better job of eradicating this societal evil. RESOURCES 1. F.B.I. organized crime website - http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/orgcrime/ocshome.htm 2. Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption -http://www.yorku.ca/nathanson/default.htm 3. Organized Crime Research - http://www.organized-crime.de/ 4. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes - http://www.unodc.org/unodc/organized_crime.html 5. Interpol – Drugs and Criminal Organizations website - http://www.interpol.int/Public/Drugs/default.asp 6. http://english.people.com.cn/200611/23/eng20061123_324250.html