CJUS 3310 Organized and Consensual CrimeChapter 9 Summary- Understand how the history of Russia and the former Soviet Union (FSU) paved the way for organized crime:o In 1991, the USSR splintered into Russia and fourteen other independent states.o Russian organized crime (ROC) refers to those whose origins are from the territory of theFSU.o Like the invading foreigners of Sicily, the governmental system of Russia made the Russian, like the Sicilian, distrustful of government.- Appreciate what ROC has in common with American's "Robber Barons" and how the collapse of the Soviet Union fostered pirate capitalism:o Economic liberalization paved the way for the entry of criminal organizations.o The communist ideology was replaced by a criminal one and the former party leaders entered into cooperation with the criminal world.o Because of the lack of a reliable legal system, in the FSU, businessmen rely on "shadow justice" provided by criminal groups.o Criminal organizations offer "protection" to provide arbitration and restraint of trade services.o In a scenario that parallels that of American organized crime after the repeal of Prohibition and the onset of the Great Depression, Russian criminals have ready access to investment capital in a society where sources of financing are scarce.o ROC is involved the production and sale of methadone and similar synthetic narcotics, arms trafficking, and trafficking in women for the sex industry.- Recognize the overlapping categories of ROC and the oft-invisible boundary between Russian criminals and businessmen:o There are three overarching and sometimes overlapping categories of ROC: Sportsmen and veterans, ethnic-based groups, and the vory.o Leaders of criminal organizations invested in the businesses they were protecting and became capitalists.- Know how organized crime in the FSU differs from ROC in the United States:o Russian immigrants are generally urban in origin, well educated, technologically skilled, and typically possess martial skills.o Russian crime groups in the United States are typically fluid, and membership is transient, loosely structured, and without formal hierarchy.o The Russian criminal network consists of specialists teamed for specific criminal enterprises after which they split up or move together to other criminal ventures.o ROC groups have engaged in sophisticated crimes such as insurance fraud, Medicaid scams, securities-related fraud, identity theft, counterfeiting, and tax