Organizations like the Yakuza, 'Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra, the Irish Mafia, etc, are part of many countries, to bigger or smaller fashion.

But to someone from those countries, what do you think was the original/historical cause for such organizations to develop?

My country - Portugal - has some degree of presence of these organizations but, to my knowledge, we never developed our domestic version of a crime syndicate. And we are not a bunch of choir boys. Something just kept things from forming. And that intrigues me.

So, what is the understanding of someone from a country where the organizations exist?

  • The_v@lemmy.world
    9·
    7 hours ago

    Organized crime is an interesting topic. In my opinion it’s existence shows a disconnect of the needs of the people and their government/social structure. Every country has some amount of “organized crime”. There is no exception. What does differ is the size, power, and wealth of the criminal syndicate.

    The larger and more severe the disconnect between the people’s needs and government, the more extensive and structured these criminal organizations become.

    For example gangs often form in an regions where opportunity is limited or a group of people are being oppressed. Inner city gangs are a good example of this. They form as a form of protection and a chance for opportunity. These opportunities are usually supplying things that are illegal but still in demand.

    If government bans or fails to provide something with a very high demand (like prohibition of alcohol in the U.S. and just about everything in the Soviet Union) the criminal organizations grow in wealth and sophistication.

    The only effective way to stop these criminal organizations is fulfill the demand and provide other opportunities for the individuals. For example the U.S. legalized alcohol. This dramatically reduced income to criminal opportunity. Under FDR support structures, fair wages, education, and all sorts of opportunities were created (for whites). The opportunity for individual people through criminal activity declined and most of them left the criminal organizations. In darker skin colored groups where opportunity remained limited, criminal activity remained higher.

    Organized crime can be dramatically reduced by providing opportunities to all individuals.

    Alternatively a complete collapse and takeover by the criminal organizations like the Soviet Union to Russia is also a option.