Introduction:
The Yakuza is a functioning criminal organization group that fits the entire attributes of Organized Group that fits all the attributes of organized crime. These attributes will be examined to prove this thesis. In this paper I will go through some history of the Yakuza and focus on the structure & hierarchy of the Yakuza and then look into each of the Attributes of Organized Crime and how the Yakuza fits those categories. The Yakuza is an organized criminal gang from Japan. “The Yakuza is not a single organization but rather a collection of separate gangs or clans akin to the American Mafia.” (Grabianowski, 2003) These violent criminals have left their fingerprints on part of Japanese life, from the different types of criminal
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According to Rome, “With the end of Japanese feudalism, they lost their role in life, and many roamed the countryside as freelance mercenaries.” (As Cited Abadinsky, 2012) “By adhering to different rules of conduct that precludes violence against the police and innocent civilians, Yakuza syndicates have been able to operate openly, with high-profile headquarters.” (Abadinsky, 2012) The Yakuza has a strong emphasis on loyalty and the importance of sonority. All members of the organization are expected to obey their seniors without any questions. “Yakuza syndicates are composed of groups tiered in a pyramidal structure. In the case of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the head family is comprised of men who are themselves bosses of second-level groups. The senior executives of second-level groups will in turn be bosses of third-level groups and so on.” (Hill, 2004) Everybody on that hierarchy ladder is divided into divisions for ranks and responsibility. Starting from the very top of the pyramid, we start with the head of the family. As put in the position as …show more content…
The Yakuza have an unlimited amount of manpower in the family that shows signs that they have been around forever and will continue to be around forever. The Yakuza was not always called the Yakuza forever, when they first started, they where called the Cosa Nostra. The Cosa Nostra, had 100 groups and 4,500 members. “Unlike most criminal organizations that struggle to hide in the dark, the Yakuza are fairly open about their existence and their business.” (Grabianowski, 2003) In the country of Japan, the Yakuza is a main criminal organization that is very well known, and some criminal organizations want to be hidden and do not want anyone to know anything about them and who they are. Their whole goal is to make money, but they are afraid of losing business or creating conflict between other organizations. The Yakuza does not have to deal with that problem because they are the main criminal organization in Japan. They are not like all the other criminal organizations out there. They want people to know who they are and they are not afraid to show people what different activities that they are an apart of and they are not afraid to show their power to everyone else. “The Yakuza has 1,500 groups and 87,000 members, so they are a very large group that will continue to grow stronger and stronger and can only be stopped by catching them
Once a new member to the group has become comfortable with the gang, the individual will become accepting of the activities of gang life. This eventually leads them down the path to finding it difficult to give up the perks of the gang life. These small Asian street gangs sometimes take orders from a larger, more powerful, Asian crime groups who are usually organized (much like the Yakuza or Triads). These gangs that are controlled by a crime organization are usually connected to higher crimes like prostitution, gambling, drug smuggling, assassinations, murders, or
In this paper it was asked of us as a team to give an in-depth historical analysis of an organized crime group. With this class being about organized crime one would think to write about mobsters, but we decided to think outside the box. Even though when thinking of organized crime the first thought is The Italian Mafia and groups of that sort, one has to remember that organized crime comes in many different forms of organizations. From this class we were able to understand more on organized crime and who can be classified as an organized crime organization. Organizations that one would never really think of as having ties to organized crime may have some
During the early 1900s, specifically the 1920s, organizations involved in sophisticated crime arose and lived on for decades, influencing American progress and culture. These organizations came to be known as the American Mafia, the Italian Mafia, or the Italian Mob. These “families”, as they were called, sprung up in large cities all across the United States. The mob progressed quickly in America, developing from the simplest of crimes to methodical, organized illegal activity. The method of structure and the emphasis of loyalty and secrecy made insiders of the mob very susceptible to exploitation by the local police and federal government agencies, many instances of which were eventually revealed to the public. The mafia, while still around today, fell in prominence and importance in the eyes of the American government and its people. The major time frame of relevance for the American Mafia is about 1920-2001.
Russian organized crime's hierarchy resembles more closely the structure of Italian based mafias with a clear division of power and leadership roles. There are four main groupings of individuals that comprise Russian organized crime: elite, support, security, and the working. The elite group are the highest leaders, with the secondary command of the support role. The security level members are responsible for the protection and intelligence gathering of the organization as these members are viewed with more confidence than those of the lowest class, the working role. The working role members are the predominant executors of the crimes. The hierarchy structuring of Russian organized crime draws on similarities and contrasts from such Asian
Organized crime has many relationships that go along with the group. For the sake of the assignment, I will be discussing the organized crime of biker gangs or rather “clubs”. There are many different relationships dealing with biker gangs, both in and out of the gang. Many people see them as a nuisance, while others see them as kind of a group of Robin Hoods.
Organized crime is found in the United States of America today and the law enforcement agencies are trying to find a way to curb its existence. Even though there are illegal businesses associated with organized crime, they are mixed in with legal businesses to portray a legal front. It also can be called a social institution because it is led by a boss and follows a chain of command much like a pyramid. Empirical and speculative theories have been developed through the years in order for the law enforcement agencies to better understand organized crime and how to deal with it. This paper will examine a social institution as it applies to
In Yojimbo, Akira Kurosawa satirizes Japanese greed and corruption and portrays the growing influence of capitalism. During this time in Japan, the Yakuza clan was a very strong and dangerous group equivalent to the modern day mafia. The Yakuza clans’ ideals are relatable to two themes prominent in Yojimbo: greed and corruption, and rising capitalist influence. Kurosawa satirizes these two characteristics of the Yakuza clan through the use of mise en scene.
The Yakuza, unlike most criminal organizations in the world, do not exist in secrecy. The Yakuza have made themselves public and have set many offices throughout Japanese, which are surrounded by barb and armed guards (43). They also have created printed business cards for their organization and published magazines detailing their criminal society. Some of their activities are actually legitimate business operations, such as running construction projects and various public works projects, real estate firms, and finance operations such
When people think of organized crime they think of the Italian mob and the Russian mafia. They are the ones that they see in movies and on television, and the ones that they hear about the most. However, they were created a couple centuries after their Asian counterparts, the Yakuza in Japan, and the Triads in China. These Asian syndicates were founded in the sixteenth and seventeenth century and consisted of merchants and other people in what was basically the middle class. They were just groups of poorer people who were just looking for protection or were trying to help other people. The first organized crime syndicates were a kind of Robin Hood, they helped the poor. They weren’t big or powerful, and they didn’t have large numbers. The
The country has an interestingly strong mix of formal and informal social control that keeps the crime rate statistically lower than both China and America. Due to the cultural value of “harmony, loyalty to tradition, intergroup dependence, and shame” (Burfeind &Westermann, 1991, 39-40) there is a strong sense of informal control to suppress deviant behavior or else you disrupt these values and bring shame upon yourself and everyone else part of your group and or family. This and many other forms of formal and informal social control make Japan the most efficient in controlling crime and crime
The topic of this paper is gangsters in organized crime can either work alone or work with other gangsters. When people commit crimes with other criminals, their personal ties to each other become strong when there is especially trust or there could be no trust, however, those ties can become strong at some point.
The Russian Mafia, also known as Bratva (Brotherhood) is a collection of various organized crime groups that originated during the former Soviet Union era. It is made up of underworld leadership in which engages in providing illegal goods and services that range anywhere from drugs and weapons smuggling to gambling and human trafficking. As in the U.S, there is no universally accepted definition of organized crime in Russia. However, the Bratva shares many basic characteristics with other well-known criminal organizations such as the Italian Mafia. Therefore, the definition that has been commonly used in the U.S will be fitting for the Bratva as well. The FBI defines organized crime as, "any group having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities" (FBI). The Bratva falls under this definition with one of its many groups, the 'Vory v Zakone ', which translates to 'Thieves-in-law '. They are bound by a code of honor in which states that one is not to make a living on anything other than thievery, complete submission to the laws of criminal life, including obligations to support the criminal ideal and refusal to participate in all political activities (Omics).
Firstly, you done a extremely good job at summarizing the Yakuza history. I was not sure if they are the only gangs to be recognize in the world, but I have to agree they are very disciplined and show a impression of cruelty and cold-blooded. Moreover, Yakuza tattoo is part of their symbol and tradition, one must get that tattoo in order to be part of the family. Also, those that commit a mistake will show loyalties by cutting their finger off with a sword, which is a very terrify to know. At last, Yakuza is perhaps better than mafia in my personal opinion, although they they do activities such as drug abuse, and sexual intercourse, in somewhat part we can understand they are not bad as we think it
Exactly what is the Mafia? Mafia, more specifically the Italian-American Mafia, is a group of criminals organized into "families," and operating primarily in North America. Also known as La Cosa Nostra, at one time there were 26 families in the United States - roughly one for each major city. The Mafia composed of bosses of numerous families, mostly New York, was the overseeing authority for all of the other La Cosa Nostra families. New York City is the place of origin for organized crime in the United States. Currently, there are five families in the New York City outfit of the La Cosa Nostra. The five families are, the Gambinos, Genovese, Colombo,
The Mafia way of life may seem like a romantic updated version of the western movie played out on the streets of the big cities where the good guys and the wise guys who share the same instincts and values do battle before an enthralled public but it is actually very different. The Mafia is really just a group of uneducated thugs making money by victimizing the public. Initially, the Mafia was setup as a prominent supplier of bootlegged liquor, but it has spread into many different areas of crime. During this research paper I will discuss three aspects of the Mafia which are crime, structure and decline in leadership.