Thesis on "Gangs This Is a Guideline and Template"

Thesis 6 pages (1882 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Gangs

This is a guideline and template. Please do NOT use as a final turn-in paper.

Russian Mafia and Japanese Yakuza

The similarity of the two Mafioso is that both are heavily into the financial aspects of criminal activity. The Yakuza has spent a good deal of time and effort making headway into the financial and banking systems of Japan. The Russian mafia, in some cases using the Yakuza as a model, has also penetrated the financial and economic aspects of Russia's top levels of government.

The Russian Mafia developed out of the fall of the U.S.S.R. Today there are several thousand Russian gangs of mobsters that have penetrated the top governing councils of former Soviet republics as well as the financial aspects and economy of Russia. They have also stolen billions from the former republics, not only in cash but in gold, silver and other precious metals.

The Russian and Japanese mafias have ties to each other -- shaky, but present. They trade stolen goods: stolen cars go to for Russia, while arms and women are traded to the Japanese Yakuza.

The Yakuza, as opposed to the latter-day development of the Russian mafia, got its start in the early 1600s as gangs of "crazy terrorists" who carried long swords and were the crime gangs of the medieval Japan. Throughout the next couple centuries they were considered anything from the dregs of society to "Robin Hoods" as they were depicted in Japanese plays championing the poor. As far as one can tell, this was mostly fiction and legend however.

The Yakuza can be legitimately traced back to the mid-to-late 1700s and groups of traveling gamblers and traders who began organizing into "families" with a structure of leadership and a godfather at the top of the pyramid. Then, in the early to mid-1800s, Jirocho of Shimizu, the most famous gangster in Japan's history, who led an "army" of 600 gamblers, would actually protect the common people from dishonorable gamblers and thieves, as well as the brutal samurai of that time. That's the legend, however, more factual sources detail him as a gangster who did nothing but rule by violence and intimidation.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as Japan began to modernize, so the yakuza expanded, organizing construction workers and dock workers, and controlled the trade in a new kind of big-wheeled cart called a rickshaw. Mitsuru Toyama, the man who had joined politics and organized crime, and had reigned over the yakuza and Japanese politics through blackmail and assassination, in 1919, formed the first national federation composed of more than 60,000 gangsters. And from there, the yakuza became more and more integrated into Japanese society as they continued the expansion of their "markets" and criminal behavior.

A comparison of the violence of the two is somewhat meaningless. They are both considered among the most violent in the world, with the Russians probably considered number one.

The Japanese operate with some organization including shoguns at the top of the chain who can send out armies of samurai to accomplish their missions for them. They recognize authority, self-police the entire organization and conduct themselves with mind control and will power.

The Russians, on the other hand, are like a bunch of independent little groups of violent bullies who have no regard for authority or anyone else. They have no regard at all for human life, and are moving into major cities around the globe to take over from existing crime syndicates.

They have virtually no organization at all and no link to "families." They use whatever means they might have at their disposal to get what they want in a very "every man for himself" attitude.

The Crips and Latin Kings

"The Latin Kings began in Chicago in the 1940s." They were Puerto Rican, and their wish was to "rise above racism" and create a gang of "Kings" to help both themselves and their community (Knowgangs, 2008, par. 2).

There are over 20,000 of them today just in Chicago, and they have "chapters" in many other states. According to police, they are organized and more structured than other gangs, and are involved mostly in violent crimes. Their membership today consists of more Mexican-Americans than Puerto Ricans (Knowgangs, 2008).

The Crips began life in Los Angeles in 1969. In the 1980s, the Crips had migrated to Texas prisons as well. Rumor is that the name "Crip" is derived from the word "Crib," named after the Baby Avenue Cribs gang in Central L.A. In the late 1960s. One of the Crips' main rivals is the Latin Kings. The Crips are mainly African-American, but have many ethnicities and races.

Both of these gangs are violent, widespread, and number in the tens of thousands.

By 2005, approximately 30,000 Crip gang members were on the streets in over 200 U.S. cities. They spread into Canada during the 1990s. Originally, the Crips concentrated on schools in and around LA, and had a reputation for extortion and violence. Now, they are more involved in urban warfare and drug sales, along with violent robberies and burglarizing warehouses.

Cali Cartel and Medellin Cartel

During the 1970s small-time traffickers in marijuana in Colombia decided to try to secrete cocaine in suitcases and smuggle it into the U.S. With profits of over 3000% they decided there must be a better way to smuggle larger amounts. They came up with the idea of flying small planes loaded with the stuff under the radar and into the U.S. This led to a conglomeration of misfits, businessmen, well-to-do horse ranchers, and criminals forming both the Cali and Medellin Cartels, named after the cities they were located in. The similarities stopped there (pbs.org, n.d.).

The Medellin Cartel was violent, outspoken and its leader, Pablo Escobar, in a quest to infiltrate and blackmail the government of Colombia, forced a full-scale war with the government. The violence was extreme as Escobar murdered hundreds of government officials, which was, eventually, his downfall. In the early 1990s, Escobar was hunted down and killed by Colombian police (pbs.org, n.d.).

The Cali Cartel was somewhat more professional and subtle than the men from Medellin. They conducted their smuggling business under the banner of legitimate companies into which they continually re-invested some of the drug profits. They also joined in attacking the Medellin Cartel and targeting that cartel's personal properties, businesses and officers. They worked with the Colombian police to supply information on the whereabouts of Escobar and what he was doing.

Meanwhile, they developed a very sophisticated business model for their smuggling. They tracked the moves of U.S. prosecutors and Drug Enforcement Agency by hiring very professional, highly-compensated international lawyers. They also hired top-notch engineers to design bug-proof communications equipment (pbs.org, n.d.).

Their business boomed, and when drug use in the U.S. dropped, they began to ship more to Europe and Asia. They also invested in political protection up to and including the top levels of Colombian government. They were caught and arrested in the mid 1990s, sentenced to relatively light sentences in prison, and are believed to be running the business from their jail cells (pbs.org, n.d.).

Ku Klux Klan

There have been four separate versions of the Ku Klux Klan. It flourished after the Civil War, then died out after the 1870s. It reinvented itself during WWI and stayed around until 1944. Then, after WWII, during the early 1950s through most of the 1960s it made a weak comeback. From the 1980s to present day, its numbers have dwindled to almost nothing -- several thousand at most.

Its purpose, when first stated in the late 1860s after the freeing of the slaves, was white supremacy. The domination by the white race over blacks and others, and whether it took violence, burning down homes, or murder, the KKK took enthusiastic steps to eliminate as many people from non-white races as possible. Their membership reached close to 500,000 during that timeframe -- a huge number considering the population of the country was 35 million.

Under former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest, the Klan adopted the white sheets and hoods, and worked to end any chance for the education, advancement, and voting rights of blacks, and were quite successful.

In 1870, the Klan was declared terrorists and hundreds of indictments were handed down. Klansmen scattered, and the organization broke down over the next couple of years.

The second coming of the Klan arrived around 1915 with the increasing urbanization of the country along with the rise of the industrial age and significant immigration. The Klan grew fast in major cities, until its membership reached about four to six million in the early to mid-1920s.

Most of the membership was lower to middle class white men who did not admire all these immigrants and blacks moving into the cities and taking their jobs.

Klansmen murdered Black soldiers returning from WWI. Over a nine-year period in the early 1920s, over 400 blacks were hanged. The Klan attacked blacks trying to vote, and set fire… READ MORE

How to Reference "Gangs This Is a Guideline and Template" Thesis in a Bibliography

Related Thesis Papers:

Drug Rehabilitation vs. Imprisonment for Non-Violent Drug Users Capstone Project

REHABILITATION V. IMPRISONMENT

Why Rehabilitation Is Favored Over Imprisonment

When an offender is convicted of a non-violent drug offense the decision on whether to incarcerate the offender or rehabilitate the… read more

Capstone Project 20 pages (7508 words) Sources: 6 Topic: Crime / Police / Criminal Justice

---

Violence in Prisons Officer vs. Inmate Essay

Violence in Prisons

This is a guideline and template. Please do not use as a final turn-in paper.

Violence in Prisons -- Officer vs. Inmate

"In recent years, U.S. prison… read more

Essay 3 pages (985 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA Topic: Crime / Police / Criminal Justice

---

Sociological Research and Undocumented Labor Research Paper

Sociological Research and Undocumented Labor

One of the most basic needs in life is the urge to take care of one's family. To that end, many individuals in other countries… read more

Research Paper 8 pages (3088 words) Sources: 8 Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

Scott 2001 Thesis

Institutional Property and Process
The concept of the institution may on the surface seem very simple
and concrete. Particularly, we recognize that this term refers to some
established organizational or… read more

Thesis 2 pages (616 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Sociology / Society

---

Youth Librarians and Homework Centers Developing Term Paper

Youth Librarians and Homework Centers

Developing Homework Centers in Public Libraries

Why homework in public libraries? What are the academic needs and ramifications from the child's perspective?

There are numerous… read more

Term Paper 17 pages (5183 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>