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Symposium - Perspectives on Organized Crime

NCJ Number
104331
Journal
Rutgers Law Journal Volume: 16 Issue: 3-4 Dated: (Spring-Summer 1985) Pages: complete issue
Editor(s)
E J Bloustein
Date Published
1985
Length
558 pages
Annotation
Thirteen articles focus on government responses to organized crime, including the use of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), electronic surveillance, search and seizure, undercover activity, and New Jersey's regulation of casino gaming in Atlantic City.
Abstract
The opening article provides an overview of the origins and growth of La Cosa Nostra in the United States, the harms organized crime causes, and governmental responses to organized crime. Another article discusses the expansion of Federal criminal jurisdiction in the name of combating organized crime, arguing that Federal criminal laws have expanded well beyond any necessary relationship to the stated purpose of suppressing organized crime. An examination of organized crime's infiltration of legitimate businesses touts RICO as the most effective tool for dealing with this circumstance, and another article analyzes a sample of appellate cases under RICO to determine its use and possible abuse. Four articles examine the nature and effectiveness of New Jersey's mechanisms for excluding organized crime from the operations and profits of Atlantic City casinos. Other articles consider legal procedures for electronic surveillance under Title III, strengthening the entrapment defense, factors that perpetuate organized crime, accomplice accusations in the criminal process, and the recent leniency of the U.S. Supreme Court regarding search and seizure. Article footnotes. For individual articles, see NCJ 104332-40.