Prohibition Crime

“To what extent did prohibition influence the growth of organized crime in the United States from 1920 to 1933?”

Section 1 – Identification and evaluation of sources

The idea behind this investigation is to encounter the form in which Prohibition in the United States was an influential factor in the growth of organized crime from 1920 to 1933. The first source that was found is from “The Finer Times”, the writer of this article is Tim Nash. The article gets into in-depth thoughts about the factors of influence in the prohibition period that increased the growth of criminal organizations. The second source was from “Policy Analysis”, the writer of this article is Mark Thornton, this article talks about the economic aspect of the prohibition

In 1930 the United States was living a very dark period of their history, the Great Depression. During this period, there were a lot of people who lost their jobs and had to move to live better, there was a big migration of people in order to find jobs that would earn them some money to maintain their families.

Considering that there was a shortage of jobs people couldn’t provide the best life quality for themselves or their families and that was when gangsters enter in the scene; gangsters’ jobs during that period where providing dangerous jobs but also provide easy way to make money, though it was a very dangerous job the idea of making money fast was very tempting increasing people participation in organized crime activities.

The period of the Prohibition lasted from 1920 until 1933, the gang abuse of this crisis made the crime rate increase and from it various gangs were generated; gangs such as the Sicilian-American, during that time gangs controlled the majority of the alcohol bootlegging in their cities, this income added to the other such as prostitution and

Organized crime this way decided to enter the illegal booze selling in order to take advantage of this situation and increase their power and influence in the society, much of the work wasn’t able to be achieved alone so the criminal organizations started inviting more and more people who as mentioned before needed money in order to support their families or themselves into this dangerous but well-paying life.

Alphonse Capone was undoubtedly the figure of the prohibition time, known as Al Capone was a famous gangster of that time. His fortune indeed, like that of many other prominent criminals of those years, was achieved through the alcohol trade in the black market. Al Capone was supplied alcohol from Florida, Mexico and Canada, as well as by some clandestine Chicago distillers, then reselling these bottles to the "Speakeasy" who were places where booze was sold to the public illegally.

Al Capone in one of his interviews released a shocking statement: "I made money by providing a product requested by the people. If this is illegal, even my clients, hundreds of people of good society, break the law. The only difference between us is that I sell and they buy. Everyone calls me gangsters. I call myself a businessman