The Smith’s Enterprise Model and The Block Model

 To understand a model of organized crime there must first be an understanding of what organized crime is. The American Heritage Dictionary (2000) defines it as; “Widespread criminal activities, such as prostitution, interstate theft, or illegal gambling, that occur within a centrally controlled formal structure .” Many Scholars use varies attributes to not completely define but identify organized crime. Organized crime can then be identified as a group that has no ideological, are hierarchical, have limited/exclusive membership, are perpetuitous, use illegal violence, demonstrate a division of labor, are governed by a code of secrecy (Potter, p.1a). Assuming that both definitions are correct then Smith’s Enterprise Model and Block’s Enterprise and Power Syndicate Model can be defined under these terms; or can it?

Smith’s Enterprise Model began with a man named Dwight Smith who wrote the book The Mafia Mystique in 1975. This model based the idea that organized crime was basically a normal business operation that performed in the illegal market. It was the fundamentals of entrepreneurship that led to the or

ganized crime sector because it was based out of illegal goods and services. This was first examined with a look at the 1920s when Prohibition was set forth. Once alcohol became illegal a huge black market arose which produced illegal goods by the new style gangsters. Smith’s role was also supported by Alan Block with his empirical study of the cocaine trade in New York City (cited in Potter b). Block concluded that there was not one monolithic criminal organization but several smaller ones based around this illegal entrepreneurship. (Potter, p.1-2b)

Block’s Enterprise and Power Syndicate Model was founded by a man named Alan Block. He studied organized crime between 1930 and 1950 in New York City. This model maintained that organized crime could be broken down into two syndicates: enterprise syndicates and power syndicates (cited in Potter b). The Enterprise syndicates were criminal groups only for the purpose of producing and/or distributing illegal goods and services. The goods or services could be anything such as drugs, prostitution, gambling, and in the 1920s alcohol. Block also concluded that because of the demand of such illegal goods that these organizations would be bigger in number, have a

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