Creating A Law Enforcement Capacity to Address the Advantages of Organized Crime

Investigations of traditional crimes almost always are an effort to piece together and prove a historical event. In contrast, an organized crime investigation is necessarily forward-looking, focusing on uncovering the reach, structure, and conduct over time of a resilient group of interdependent people. The authors introduce the reader to new law enforcement capacities created in the United States to address the advantages of organized crime in concealing their harmful ongoing activities, members, and structure. During the 1970s and 1980s, the United States moved investigation and prosecution of organized crime from the local level to dedicated teams of FBI agents and federal prosecutors who could draw on newly available investigative techniques and substantive statutes.