Racketeering in Legitimate Industries - Two Case Studies - Executive Summary

• NCJ Number: 87678
• Date Published: 1982
• Author(s): P Reuter; J Rubinstein; S Wynn
• Length: 44 pages
• Grant Number(s): 80-IJ-CX-0038
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

This report analyzes racketeers' involvement in the legitimate economy through case studies of two New York/New Jersey area industries, historically reputed to be vulnerable to infiltration and control by organized crime: the solid waste disposal industry and the vending machine industry. Findings showed the involvement of racketeering interests to be quite different in the two industries.

Abstract

Conventional marketing analysis techniques were used to examine the solid waste disposal industry. Study findings identified an important role for organized crime in creating 'cartels' or criminal conspiracies among nonracketeers within the industry, to eliminate competition and to establish operating policies benefiting industry participants at the expense of consumers. Once these conspiracies had been initiated, organized crime figures did not dominate or control their activities, but racketeers' presence continued to be important to future cartel operations, ensuring cooperation through use or threat of coercion. In contrast, a multi-disciplinary examination of the vending machine business showed that, although racketeers had a central role in vending machine enterprises in the past, they no longer actively participated in industry operations. However, continuing allegations of organized crime domination deterred members of the legitimate economic community from entering the vending machine business, indirectly contributing to the continuation of influence from racketeers' past associations with industry participants. Thus, even the reputation of organized crime infiltration can be harmful to legitimate business operations and counterproductive to anti-racketeering efforts of law enforcement agencies. Specific implications for organized crime control strategies are included in each of the case study discussions. Improved police and prosecutor investigatory skills, resources, and training are recommended, as well as a broader criminal justice perspective on organized crime. Footnotes and 31 references are supplied. (Author abstract modified)