Deviance As a Sociological Term Term Paper

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The common perception of organized crime as consisting of tightly knit underworld syndicates who operate on the periphery of the legitimate business world is a misconception. It was illustrated as such in a most public way with the revelation of the Savings and Loan Scandal which swept through dozens of fronts that posed as banking institutions during the 1980's. With the revelation that there was a direct and demonstrable relationship between mob influence at the highest levels of bank ownership for those institutions implicated and the government and corporate sponsors of the loan programs in question, the myth had been dispelled that organized crime is even capable of operating without the knowing involvement of so-called legit power-figures.

Indeed, "the distinctions drawn between business, politics, and organized crime are at best artificial and in reality irrelevant. Rather than being dysfunctions, corporate crime, white-collar crime, organized crime, and political corruption are mainstays of American political-economic life." (Potter, 1) This underscores Sutherlands differential association theory, which suggests that "criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication." (Mork, 1) Such is to say that in a broader system where corruption is epidemic even at levels of allegedly legitimate authority, those involved in organized criminal enterprises have been bred into such roles by their access to others of a similar orientation.

According to Potter, the Savings & Loan scandal, which was propagated as a means to laundering bank customer money into the hands of waiting mob affiliates, illegal CIA corps and other below-boards business enterprisers, ultimately presented the public with the irrefutable evidence that its money had been purloined by a complex network of criminal elements.

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Essentially, organized crime, in this context, is a term referring to that network, comprised as it was not just by career underworld players and attorneys, but also by government officials, intelligence and military operatives, bankers and investors, all facilitating a shared and learned corruption.

This differs somewhat from those models which instead view criminal behavior not as learned by as enabled by the view that such behavior can ultimately yield desirable results. Among the models of political economy which attempt such observation, rational choice theory descends from the premise that for most criminals, there is a process of decision-making which concerns evaluation of the consequences and opportunities in criminal behaviors. This theoretical model "is based on the idea that offenders do indeed think and make choices. From this perspective, property offences are the result of rational decision-making reached by men and women who confront a problem faced by many others -- a need or a desire for money." (Desroches, 1) Though money will not be the only rational motive for crime, where white collar crime is concerned, the substantial sum of money often concerned is viewed as 'worth the risk' of being caught.

And in period such as the previous decade, where enforcement and regulation were scarce, many corporate leaders were moved by the view that, rationally speaking, they were less likely to be ensnared than to abscond with massive private fortunes. Though many corporate leaders of this generation would face indictment and prison sentences, one may never know how many others succeeded according to the odds calculated by the rational choice theory.

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