Subjects were 160 defense attorneys and 20 judges involved in Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) cases and 77 attendees of a conference on organized crime. In general, results indicate a normative consensus about the relative seriousness of various crimes, although defense attorneys were more likely than other criminal justice professionals to view certain white-collar and organized crimes as less serious and to feel that the two types of crime should be treated differently for policy, statutory, prosecutorial, and sentencing considerations. There was little difference among occupational groups' perceptions of the various definitions of the two crime types and they agreed the most useful definition of organized crime was traditional and not conspiratorial. Results suggest that policy issues surrounding the treatment of these two types of crime by statutes such as RICO result from differing ideological views about the seriousness of various crimes. 40 references.