Papers by Robert Lombardo
Organized crime: causes and consequences
Organized Crime in Chicago by Robert M. Lombardo Social Science
Explaining Organized Crime
University of Illinois Press eBooks, Apr 20, 2017
This chapter reviews the theoretical underpinnings of the alien conspiracy and ethnic succession ... more This chapter reviews the theoretical underpinnings of the alien conspiracy and ethnic succession theories as explanations for the emergence and continuation of organized crime in American society. It first considers the arguments of the alien conspiracy theory, as well as the cultural deviance theory upon which it is based, before discussing the claims of the social disorganization theory as the basis of the ethnic succession theory. The chapter also examines the theories of human ecology, cultural transmission, and differential social organization, along with delinquency theories and their relation to organized crime, with particular emphasis on recruitment issues. Finally, the chapter looks at the relationship between Gerald Suttles's conceptualization of the defended neighborhood and racket subcultures.
Philadelphia’s “Black Mafia”: A Social and Political History. By Sean P. Griffin. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. Pp. 210. $32.00
American Journal of Sociology, Nov 1, 2004
Journal of law and criminal justice, 2014
On 9 March 2011, Governor Patrick Quinn abolished capital punishment in Illinois stating that the... more On 9 March 2011, Governor Patrick Quinn abolished capital punishment in Illinois stating that the state's system of imposing the death penalty was inherently flawed. Quinn's announcement followed an eleven-year effort to end the death penalty that began with a 2000 moratorium on executions imposed by then Governor George Ryan. This moratorium was the direct result of the appellate reversal of a series of death-row convictions. Prompted by these reversals, Ryan also created the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment to study the use of the death penalty in Illinois. As a result of this effort, comprehensive legislation was enacted to reform the Illinois death penalty system, and the Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee was formed to gauge the implementation and impact of the reforms. Working with the Committee, the authors' surveyed 413 Illinois police departments, 102 Illinois State's Attorneys' Offices, and all 99 Public Defender's Offices in an effort to determine the extent to which criminal justice agencies had implemented the requirements of the capital punishment reform legislation, and whether there were any significant barriers to the implementation of the legislative requirements. This paper reports the results of this inquiry, and argues that capital punishment ended in Illinois because of the complexity of the death penalty and the perceived inability to devise a system free of racial, geographic, and economic bias and not the failure of the criminal justice community to implement the reforms recommended by the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment.
Creating Informal Social Control: The False Promise of Community Policing
Organized crime in Chicago: beyond the Mafia
Choice Reviews Online, Jul 1, 2013
This book provides a comprehensive sociological explanation for the emergence and continuation of... more 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, county, 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.
Street Crew Neighborhoods
University of Illinois Press eBooks, Apr 20, 2017
This chapter focuses on the organized crime neighborhoods of Chicago, with particular emphasis on... more This chapter focuses on the organized crime neighborhoods of Chicago, with particular emphasis on five communities in the metropolitan area with a history of being associated with organized crime: Taylor Street, Grand Avenue, Twenty-sixth Street, the North Side, and the suburb of Chicago Heights. These communities are the locations of the five original “street crews,” or branches, of the Chicago Outfit. In addition to these areas, a number of other Chicago communities have a reputation of being associated with organized crime. These communities differ, however, in that they are all descendant from the five original street crew neighborhoods. The chapter reviews the history of organized crime in each of these street crew neighborhoods and offers a sociological explanation for their emergence in conformance with social organizational theories of crime. It argues that Mafia traditions had no bearing on the existence of racket subcultures in these neighborhoods; instead, organized crime was the direct result of machine politics and the differential organization of these communities.
While there appears to be a significant amount of automation within police departments, the surve... more While there appears to be a significant amount of automation within police departments, the survey found that there is almost a total lack of electronic data sharing between municipal police departments and the other components of the criminal justice system. The ability to share timely and accurate data is crucial to the efficient management of the Illinois criminal justice system. At the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority-sponsored Criminal Justice Planning Assembly in June 2000, state policymakers, government officials, service providers, and citizens discussed the need for justice information integration, and expressed the desire for the development of an integrated justice plan. Former Gov. George H. Ryan then established the Illinois Integrated Justice Information System Board. This board, comprised of representatives from state, county, and municipal justice agencies, was charged with developing a strategic plan for justice information sharing in Illinois. This p...
Police Practice and Research, 2016
The Outfit
University of Illinois Press, 2017
This chapter examines the activities of organized crime in Chicago after 1950, with particular em... more This chapter examines the activities of organized crime in Chicago after 1950, with particular emphasis on the Chicago Outfit. It begins with a discussion of the Outfit's takeover of all illegal gambling in Chicago as well as its connection with Chicago mayor Ed Kelly and the political protection given to vice activities in Chicago. It then considers the often confusing relationship between the Outfit and narcotic trafficking, along with the role that African Americans played in Outfit activities, including policy gambling and the distribution of heroin in the black community. It also reviews the history of the West Side Bloc, a group of elected public officials who supported the efforts of organized crime in Chicago, and how it contributed to the rise of racket subcultures in Chicago's “street crew” neighborhoods. The chapter concludes with an assessment of government efforts against organized crime, noting that one of the reasons for the existence of organized crime was th...
SAM MITRANI. The Rise of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894
The American Historical Review, 2014
Organized Crime in Chicago
University of Illinois Press, 2017
This book provides a comprehensive sociological explanation for the emergence and continuation of... more 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, the book challenges the dominant belief that organized crime in America is a descendent of 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, the book ties organized crime to the emergence of machine politics in America's urban ce...
The Black Mafia
University of Illinois Press, 2017
This chapter explores the historical role of African Americans in organized crime in Chicago. It ... more This chapter explores the historical role of African Americans in organized crime in Chicago. It begins with a brief overview of black migration and settlement in Chicago in order to elucidate the relationship between the city's black community and the larger political, economic, and social organization. It then traces the history of the ethnic vice industry that flourished in Chicago's African American community during the first half of the twentieth century. It also considers how policy gambling—a lottery gambling system in which players wagered a small sum of money on a combination of three numbers—became the most important form of vice activity in Chicago's black South Side, citing the role played by three men: Patsy King, King Foo, and Sam Young. The chapter argues that sophisticated African American organized crime groups existed in Chicago independent of white organized crime largely because of the segregated nature of American society. African American organized ...
Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2014
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Papers by Robert Lombardo