Organized crime in America today is not the tough hoodlums
familiar to moviegoers and TV watchers. It is more sophisticated,
with many college graduates, gifted with organizational genius, all
belonging to twenty-four tightly knit "families," who have
corrupted legitimate business and infiltrated some of the highest
levels of local, state, and federal government. Their power reaches
into Congress, into the executive and judicial branches, police
agencies, and labor unions, and into such business enterprises as
real estate, retail stores, restaurants, hotels, linen-supply
houses, and garbage-collection routes.
How does organized crime operate? How dangerous is it? What are
the implications for American society? How may we cope with it? In
answering these questions, Cressey asserts that because organized
crime provides illicit goods and services demanded by legitimate
society, it has become part of legitimate society. This fascinating
account reveals the parallels: "the growth of specialization,
"big-business practices"" (pooling of capital and reinvestment of
profits; fringe benefits like bail money), and "government
practices" (negotiated settlements and peace treaties, defined
territories, fair-trade agreements).
For too long we have, as a society, concerned ourselves only
with superficial questions about organized crime. "Theft of the
Nation" focuses on to a more profound and searching level. Of
course, organized crime exists. Cressey not only establishes this
fact, but proceeds to explore it rigorously and with penetration.
One need not agree with everything Cressey writes to conclude that
no one, after the publication of "Theft of the Nation," can be
knowledgeable about organized crime without having read this
book.
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