1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910965773903321

Autore

Lombardo Robert M

Titolo

Organized crime in Chicago : beyond the Mafia / / Robert M. Lombardo

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Urbana : , : University of Illinois Press, , [2013]

©2013

ISBN

9781283901703

1283901706

9780252094484

0252094484

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xviii, 258 pages)

Disciplina

364.10609773/11

Soggetti

Organized crime - Illinois - Chicago

Criminals - Illinois - Chicago

Gangs - Illinois - Chicago

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-246) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Explaining organized crime -- The gem of the prairie -- The black Mafia -- The syndicate -- The Forty-two Gang -- The outfit -- The outfit as a complex organization -- Street crew neighborhoods.

Sommario/riassunto

This book provides a comprehensive sociological explanation for the emergence and continuation of organized crime in Chicago. Tracing the roots of political corruption that afforded protection to gambling, prostitution, and other vice activity in Chicago and other large American cities, Robert M. Lombardo challenges the dominant belief that organized crime in America descended directly from the Sicilian Mafia. According to this widespread "alien conspiracy" theory, organized crime evolved in a linear fashion beginning with the Mafia in Sicily, emerging in the form of the Black Hand in America's immigrant colonies, and culminating in the development of the Cosa Nostra in America's urban centers. Looking beyond this Mafia paradigm, this volume argues that the development of organized crime in Chicago and other large American cities was rooted in the social structure of American society. Specifically, Lombardo ties organized crime to the emergence of machine politics in America's urban centers. From



nineteenth-century vice syndicates to the modern-day Outfit, Chicago's criminal underworld could not have existed without the blessing of those who controlled municipal, country, and state government. These practices were not imported from Sicily, Lombardo contends, but were bred in the socially disorganized slums of America where elected officials routinely franchised vice and crime in exchange for money and votes. This book also traces the history of the African American community's participation in traditional organized crime in Chicago and offers new perspectives on the organizational structure of the Chicago Outfit, the traditional organized crime group in Chicago.