Mafia Theory In America

America has been the symbol of freedom for quite some time now, so it’s no real surprise that this is the country that many immigrants flocked to in search of better economic opportunities. However, that wasn’t exactly everyone’s main objective. By 1910 there were over 500,000 Italian immigrants and first-generation Italian Americans in New York City alone. Most were law-abiding citizens but there were quite a few bad apples who had escaped from the wrath of Benito Mussolini. To Mussolini, the Mafia was a huge threat and needed to be dealt with swiftly. In turn, over a “thousand suspected Mafiosi were convicted and thrown in prison” (“The Demise of the Mafia,” 2009), and those who were lucky enough to escape continued their illegal activity in a country that had no idea how to deal with it. That’s where the roaring twenties come into play.
The 1920s was most likely one of the most significant periods in American history. Fast cars, flappers, the Charleston, jazz, and gangsterism in America were all fresh on the scene. But there was nothing new about organized crime, the Mafia itself technically only came into existence for the sole purpose of protecting each other from corruption. On January 17, 1920 the history of America and the way that organized …show more content…
The RICO Act allows the government to “’attack criminal enterprises on a broad front, stripping them of their leadership and sources of both illicit and legitimate revenue in one massive prosecution’” (“The Demise of the Mafia,” 2009), which means that the government finally has the power to go after these crime families and threaten harsh sentences unless someone comes forward to rat everyone out. It’s been an amazing tool in aiding the government’s fight against the American Mafia, too bad it only took fifty years to realize that there was a