From Damon Runyan's colorful tough guys in black shirts and white ties to recent media coverage of John Gotti, the `dapper don', public depictions of racketeers in the United States have drawn attention away from the true nature of organized crime and its extensive penetrations into mainstream business. The Upperworld and the Underworld: Case Studies of Racketeering and Business Infiltrations in the United States strips away the romantic patina and reveals the significant impact of racketeering on vital segments of American industry.  In this informative study Robert Kelly explores two fundamental questions: `Why is organized crime a serious problem in some businesses and industries, and not in others?' and `What are the consequences of racketeering activities for labor organizations and businesses tainted by a criminal presence?' He examines the blurred demarcation between the legitimate and illegitimate sectors of society and explains the reasons for this occurrence. In the process, Kelly provides a distinct vantage point for understanding organized crime, not just as an `outlaw fringe' preying on society, but as a disturbingly integral element of our social and economic structure. Moreover, he confirms a widely held thesis that organized crime is not merely parasitic but an institutional component of American society.  The Upperworld and the Underworld affords a fascinating view of the current state of organized crime in the United States and the rise of nontraditional criminal organizations in new immigrant communities. The volume is an essential resource for students and scholars concerned with issues of crime and its effects on the economy.

The Upperworld and the Underworld: Case Studies of Racketeering and Business Infiltrations in the United States (Criminal Justice and Public Safety)

Business & Money

Kelly, Robert J.

Management & Leadership

Springer

Internationally known authorities in criminal justice provide one of the most comprehensive and detailed surveys today of the diverse ethnic and racial groups in the criminal underworld and their grave threats to the very fabric of American society. This coherent overview describes Mafia, Chinese, African American, Russian, and other criminal activities in different cities currently with historical background, showing the pernicious effects that their illicit operations have had on the economic, social, political, and moral life of the nation. This one-volume reference also assesses law enforcement and crime control programs during the 20th century, defines key problems, analyzes recent trends, and reviews the basic research about organized crime through the years. Lengthy bibliographical data and a full index further enrich this landmark study. This sobering overview should be required reading for specialist and general audiences alike and for broad library use given the serious threat of organized crime to all Americans in the 1990s.

Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States

Chin, Ko-Lin

Schatzberg, Rufus

Greenwood

Typically, other reference works on organized crime in the United States focus primarily on the Mafia and La Cosa Nostra, and neglect the many new ethnic and racial criminal organizations that permeate American society today. This reference fills those gaps while providing systematic detailed coverage of traditional crime families, individuals, significant events, and terms. More than 250 entries provide in-depth information on major underworld figures, from Al Capone to John Gotti and Sammy the Bull Gravano, and key criminal events and milestones. In addition, Kelly, an expert on organized crime, provides in-depth coverage of African American organized crime, Chinese Triads and Tongs, the Colombian drug cartels' infiltration of the U.S., Dominican drug trafficking, ecocrime, Russian organized crime, Latin gangs and criminal groups, and Vietnamese American organized crime.
Significant events (such as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre) and historical milestones (such as the Apaplachian Meeting) are interwoven with contemporary trends and facts about the new underworlds emerging in American cities. Entries include data on the backgrounds of important and infamous criminals, their nicknames, organizational structure, their criminal careers, and colorful details about their lives. Also included are definitions of key phrases and terms, such as making your bones, and organization charts of traditional and new organized crime groups. Entries are placed in a social/historical context that clarifies their significance and enables the reader to appreciate the circumstances that shaped the criminal incidents and public response to them. This is the most comprehensive collection of current information on organized crime in the United States ever assembled in one volume and will be a valuable research tool for students and interested readers.

Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States: From Capone's Chicago to the New Urban Underworld

History

Americas

While stories of organized crime most often dwell on groups like the Mafia and Chinese Triad or Tongs, African Americans also have a long history of organized crime. Why have scholars and journalists paid so little attention to African American organized crime? What can a history of these criminal networks teach us about the social, political, and economic challenges that face African Americans today? What is specific to African American organized crime, and how do these networks differ from the criminal organizations of other racial and ethnic groups? How can a historical study of African American organized crime enrich our understanding of all criminal activity?
Rufus Schatzberg and Robert Kelly take us through almost a century of African American organized crime. Chapters focus on the numbers gambling that took place in New York City from 1920 to 1940, the criminal groups that operated in ghettos from the 1940s to the 1970s, and the gang activities that began in the 1970s and continues today. While providing a compelling analysis of African American organized crime, the authors also challenge existing stereotypes of African Americans and demonstrate the importance of studying any criminal activity within its historical and social context.

African American Organized Crime: A Social History

Rutgers University Press

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

African-American Organized Cri (Garland Reference Library of Social Science:current Issues in Criminal Justice)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Garland Science

Perspectives on Deviance: Dominance, Degradation and Denigration

Maxnamara, Donal E. J.

Anderson Pub. Co.

Representing over six years of research with children reporting nonritualistic and ritualistic sexual abuse in preschool settings, BEHIND THE PLAYGROUND WALLS is a clear, comprehensive examination of the effects of reported molestation on young children and their families. Based on and data gathered from the children, parents, and therapists in a comparison study, the book covers the effects on children's behavior, fears, PTSD symptoms, sexuality, achievement, school performance, and self-concept. Moreover, the ways in which the children and their families coped with reports of abuse and the factors associated with positive short- and long-term outcome are detailed.

Behind the Playground Walls: Sexual Abuse in Preschools

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Waterman, Jill

Oliveri, Mary Kay

McCord, Jane

Mental Health

The Guilford Press

This book demonstrates how social distress or anxiety is reflected, modified, and evolves through the medium of the motion picture. Tracing cinema from its earliest forms, the authors show how film is a perfect medium for generating and projecting dreams, fantasies, and nightmares, on the individual as well as the societal level. Arising at the same time as Freud’s influential ideas, cinema has been intertwined with the wishes and fears of the greater culture and has served as a means of experiencing those feelings in a communal and taming environment. From Munsterberg’s original pronouncements in the early 20th century about the psychology of cinema, through the pioneering films of Melies, the works of the German expressionists, to James Bond and today’s superheroes this book weaves a narrative highlighting the importance of the social dream. It develops the idea that no art form goes beyond the ordinary process of consciousness in the same way as film, reflecting, as it does, the cognitive, emotional, and volitional aspects of human nature.

Film, Television and the Psychology of the Social Dream

Humor & Entertainment

Rieber, Robert W.

Movies

A detailed survey of a growing scourge of the global economy―the smuggling of people, materials, and money.
Smuggling used to be a family business. Today it is big business. Illicit Trafficking: A Reference Handbook offers a thorough introduction to the problems of illegal trafficking that have emerged from and been intensified by globalization. This title provides an examination of how criminal enterprises have exploited opportunities to enrich themselves and broadened their involvement in many areas of illegal trafficking while compromising or evading legal authorities.
The coverage includes a brief history of illicit trafficking, analyzes current problems, and examines local and global containment policies such as Presidential Decision Directive 42. It also explores key international agreements on money laundering, bank secrecy laws, extradition treaties, and technologies that have exploited legitimate business opportunities to enrich their profits while compromising or evading legal authorities.
 • Entries include transnational organized criminal groups involved in illicit trafficking activities, including profiles of prominent figures engaged in money laundering, drug smuggling, and arms trafficking
• Annotated chronology of key events concerning international agreements on fighting illegal trafficking

Illicit Trafficking: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World Issues)

Maghan, Jesse L.

Serio, Joseph D.

Reference

ABC-CLIO

Gifts of the Gods is a fast-paced fictional story about Michael Grange, the greatest baseball player of all time. One cannot judge a book by its cover. Baseball is only the stage from which our hero launches his career. The trails and tribulations of his journey through the Major Leagues begins with an old-time scout, a devoted family, a unique contract and an appetite for the flesh. As Grange grows, so does his appreciation of the gifts the Gods bestowed upon him. After attaining fame and fortune as a superstar sports icon, he turns his attention to the domination of the corporate world. Grange's altruistic philosophy inspires him to create several benevolent trusts to 'help people help themselves.' After enduring a horrific personal tragedy, Michael Grange begins to weave the emotional threads of his life back together and undertake even greater challenges. With his baseball career nearing its completion, Grange anticipates his position in the world order and renders decisions that astonish the country. Join me now and enter the life of a person the Gods have shared their Gifts with. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. To whet your appetite, here are a few pages from Michael Grange's life. Sincerely, Robert J. Kelly

Gifts of the Gods

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

1st Book Library

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kelly, Robert J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kelly, Robert J.