Comaparison and contrast of chapters in understanding organi
Comaparison and contrast of chapters in understanding organiThe two articles to be compared are The Functions and Structure of Criminal Syndicates by Donald R. Cressey and Donald Cressey’s Contributions to the Study of Organized Crime by Joseph L. Albini. Though the second article is merely an evaluation of the first, the goal is to show how Albini agrees with some of Cressey’s points, and to present Cressey’s evidence that Albini has rejected in a way that will challenge Albini’s accusations.
In the essay written by Donald R. Cressey deals with Cressey’s view on the organization and function of organized crime. First, he touches on how Italians and Sicilians perceive people and the occupation they dwell in. Next, Cressey shows how local organized crime entities combined to form a commission to overlook each other, while within this he touches on important morale concepts, and the hierarchy or the family itself. Lastly, Cressey goes through each of organized crimes big business’s and explains how each operates and pays a profit.
In the essay written by Joseph L. Albini deals with Cressey’s interruption and report of organized crime to the U.S. government in 1967. Albini starts off by reminding the reader that by no means was Cressey an organized crime expert, on the contrary he was merely a social scientist with which the government feed crime statistics for interpretation. Added to this was the tight time restraint given to Cressey along with witnesses willing to divulge information they knew Cressey wanted to hear. Albini ends with a list of faults in Cressey’s work, that including a later book Cressey wrote entitled Theft of A Nation, were Cressey merely reemphasized past ideas without expanding a great deal, contributing to a critical lack of critical evaluation on the data. It is important to note that Albini is a good friend of Cressey, and admits he has contributed a great deal to the field, but shows that under the circumstances Cressey was working under the work is flawed.
The only one thing that the two authors do seem to agree on is the hierarchy of the family, with the ultimate compilation of all the 24 families in an organization called the commission. In Cressey’s essay he says that there are multiple levels to the family starting with the Boss, then the Underboss, with a Consigliere as a counselor to the Boss. Under this is the Buffer, which isolates the Boss from the criminal activities, which he has initiated. The Boss has no direct contact with any other members except the Underboss. After The Buffer are Lieutenant’s then Section Chiefs, and finally Soldiers (Cressey p.9). Albini agrees with this point Cressey makes (Albini p.19) but other then that point Albini seems to have fragmented perceptions on Cressey’s work.
Albini indicates that when Cressey wrote his book Theft of the Nation instead of offering more substantive evidence for his task force...
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