Organized crime refers to crime activities committed by strategic groups commonly involving the provision of illegal goods and services required by other people in the society. It also adopts some unique modes of operation in carrying out these activities. This type of crime is usually governed by strict and explicit regulations which are supposed to be followed to the letter by the members of that criminal society. There exists federal legislation that specifically deals with organized crime through some states use non-specialized laws such as for prosecuting such crimes (Blakey & Gettings, 1980).
RICO law refers to the defense and prosecution of individuals who engage in an organized criminal activity. Violation of RICO has involved both civil and criminal penalties. The law mentioned above offers up to a twenty years jail term coupled with excessive penal damages up to a triple (Blakey & Gettings, 1980). The concept behind RICO is to consolidate all the criminal activities together as one case to make it easier to find appropriate links to occurred events leading to the crime activities.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
A looming budget deficit is an offense that can be classified as a racketeering activity which is subject to the law under the RICO act (Lacovara & Aronow, 1985) . Though organized crime has become sophisticated over time; it has adopted various strategies to break RICO, like in this case; engaging in patterns of racketeering activity in business; like budget deficits and cutbacks.
This act covers a broad perspective on the activities and incidences it handles. They can include gambling, arson, fraud, extortion, bribery, robbery among many other criminal acts. There are some notable RICO cases like regarding Catholic dioceses where suits have followed alleging RICO in an attempt to prosecute other people in the events relating to covering up sex abuses (Mancini, 2002) .
The act’s appeal of triple damages rewards has made it take on its new role in present business litigation.
References
Blakey, G. R., & Gettings, B. (1980). Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO): Basic Concepts-Criminal and Civil Remedies. Temp. LQ , 53 , 1009.
Lacovara, P. A., & Aronow, G. F. (1985). The Legal Shakedown of Legitimate Business People: The Runaway Provisions of Private Civil RICO. New Eng. L. Rev. , 21 , 1.
Mancini, N. R. (2002). Mobsters in the Monastery-Applicability of Civil RICO to the Clergy Sexual Misconduct Scandal and the Catholic Church. Roger Williams UL Rev. , 8 , 193.
