The definition of organized crime used here is based on the assumptions that organized crime is an economic criminal organization uniting a group around its economic enterprises and that this organization is based on a social system of rules that bind the members together. The article describes aspects of violence in an organized crime group and the operations of organized crime. Violence can be categorized either as internal or regulative, or as external. Factors that may facilitate violence include competition, the stage of development of organized crime, and the emergence of special roles allocated to deal with dimensions of organized crime violence. Violence may be controlled internally through norms designed to prevent intragroup conflict, the leader, mediation, or external containment. 77 references