Public Reputation and Organized Crime: Explicating the Relationship between Racket Subcultures and Informal Social Control

• In Event: IASOC Presents: Organized Crime and the Public

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of public reputation on informal social control in community areas. Specifically, this paper examines the influence of public reputation on informal social control in a community that once had the presence of traditional organized crime. The data comes from the Community Survey of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Both the Student’s T and the One Sample Z test were used to analyze the data. The findings indicate that neighborhoods with a public reputation for organized crime report higher levels of informal social control when compared to current racket areas in the city of Chicago. These findings have important implications for the study of deviance. Not only do they suggest that criminals can play an important role in controlling street crime, the findings also suggest that this public reputation remains long after organized crime activities have ceased in the area.

Authors

• Robert Lombardo, Loyola University

• Hollianne Marshall, California State University, Fresno