Welcome to your first discussion!  I hope you enjoy the class and I hope you have fun with the discussions.  Please know that you are graded on what is posted below, even the word count with meaningful insight that is not repetitive or the words in the assignment repeated.  if you have any questions, please call me at anytime. 

Your first discussion needs to be on what you believe 
the definition of “Organized Crime” is without quoting your text
book or any other means and just putting it in your own words.  Have you
ever been in contact with any organized criminal organization?  What criminal
organizations are near where you live and how involved in the community 
are those organizations? (And keep in mind that all areas have organized crime near)
What are the structural means and what theory do they follow?   Which organization 
did you find most interesting within your first two chapters and why?  

You need to make sure you also join a minimum of two other discussions before your 
deadline.  Your deadline for this week’s initial discussion is Friday at midnight.  The deadline for the
response to your fellow students and their post in this discussion is Sunday at 
11:59 pm.  The post on your fellow students discussion board should be in depth and very well thought out and presented in a scholarly manner. 

This in on EVERY discussion post.  

There will be no credit for work presented after the deadline.  This is throughout the course. 

Minimum 300 words in original/initial post that deal with the topics.  Please do not do word counts on your post and make sure you answer as a discussion, not a Q and A.  All questions should be answered. 

Also, I realize that many of you will not have your book this week and that is why you really do not need your book for the assignment this week.

There is also a website, smartcourse.com, that allows you to read the first few chapters of each book.

Tunisia Maine

Organized crime is when a group of individuals get together and orchestrate criminal activities. For example, gambling with a “bookie” is an illegal organized crime. The bookies loan gamblers money and charge them double of what they borrowed. If the money is not paid in return then the gambler has to paid in another way. I myself have never been in contact with  any type of organized crime, we leave that to the investigators. I just lead them to the suspected group. Within my community we have several places that are involved in organized crime i.e “internet cafes”. These cafés portray to only offer slot machine activities, but majority of them are also selling drugs and even have prostitution. The structural meaning in this business is teamwork . Without workers coming together the business would fall apart, they must work in cohesion to keep everything afloat. 

Robert Chunn

I believe the definition of “Organized Crime” is the planned systematic conduct of individuals to commit crime in an organized manner that involves intentional misconduct. For example, in my town there is a baby formula theft ring going on. The individuals are going around to different store locations and removing all the baby formula off the shelves and leaving the stores committing theft. The baby formula is then sold online generating revenue for the assailants who committed the theft. The ring of offenders is known to be from a nearby neighboring town crossing several jurisdictions in order to elude law enforcement. Each town local law enforcement agencies are investigating the incidences that involve similar theft patterns to help slow this organized crime down. The local sheriff’s office has joined forces with investigators from the state attorney office to help develop a strategic plan to get ahead of the theft ring. The community has been well informed of the progress of the investigation in order to try and deter future acts of theft however, the offenders seem to move to another town in order to continue the theft patterns that help fuel their production. I have never been in contact with an organized criminal organization but, I have been a victim of an organized crime ring. I used my credit card at a gas pump that had a skimmer on the pump. Within a matter of minutes from using the cad at the gas pump my card was duplicated and used for over $7,000. I had to go through several hoops to get my bank to remove the charges. I had to file a police report and send it to my bank to ensure that the charges were not my own. There was a group of thieves placing skimming devices inside the gas pumps payment slot in order to retrieve valuable information. Having the ability to reconstruct a credit card and use the card in a matter of minutes takes organization and planned behavior that describes organized crime.