ABSTRACT
At a time when most analyses of organized crime were still focused on ethnic-based “alien” conspiracies, Frank Pearce’s Crimes of the Powerful (CotP) uncovered the role of capital amid the political corruption of bureaucrats and government officials, the exploitation and monopolization of corporations and mob-controlled unions. This chapter builds on earlier work (Beare 2018) that argued that the participants in ongoing political, financial and corporate corruption schemes and those professionals who enable these schemes are often actual partners in the criminal operations and not duped or “infiltrated” victims. This chapter looks at the role of capital in facilitating these criminal conspiracies. Beyond merely inadequate laws, this chapter reviews ways in which state agencies facilitate crimes of the powerful.
