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Rise Of Organized Crime In The 1920's

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What happened in the 1920s when the 18th amendment was passed? The 18th amendment banned the production, sale, transportation, exportation, importation and consumption of alcohol. This law gave a rare chance to start a business that caused the rise of organized crime. The Mafia, also known as La Cosa Nostra (Our Thing), or the Mob, is the name of several clandestine organizations in Sicily and the United States. Before the 1920s the mafia’s main focus was on gambling, theft, and prostitution in order to make a profit, but when the Volstead act passed it increased their profits even more because all mafia organizations started a black market for bootlegging the outlawed alcohol and they also created speakeasies which was where they sold …show more content…

When the U.S passed this law they thought it was going to reduce the crime rate, but instead it increased it and in addition it also increased the drug addiction rate as well. In addition, they passed this law because there was a lot of health issues so they used the prohibition to promote better health and hygiene habits. The men that had families would spend all their family’s savings on alcohol instead of using the money support their families which led to divorces and women to change their ways. There were also some laborers that would go to work drunk and not able to perform their job duties properly which caused less proficient companies. Law enforcement had a difficult time trying to control the crime rate that increased during the prohibition. The Prohibition created more gangs and turned cities into battlegrounds between opposing gangs. In 1910 there were …show more content…

The black market which was led by several mafia organizations, was the cause of this, which basically led to worse social conditions. New York and Chicago were the main states that rose to power through the successful selling of illegal liquor that the mafia organizations offered, but New York was the main home of a dozen big time mobsters. New York became one of the nation’s largest market for bootlegging alcohol. The mafia organizations found ways to avoid being detected by law enforcement during the prohibition. Some of these crimes included money laundering, bribing law enforcement, smuggling, and bootlegging. Amongst these mafia organizations were Johnny Torrio, Al Capone, Lucky Lucciano, and Salvatore Maranzano who were some of the main mafioso’s that were involved in bootlegging

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In the 1920's, the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the consumption, distributing, and production of alcohol, was passed and seen as a failure as it filled the streets of America with criminals and gangsters. Americans saw the 18th Amendment as a violation of their constitution rights and often found a way to go around the amendment. For example, speakeasies, which was an illegal liquor store or night club during prohibition, began to emerge. This allowed Americans to go against tradition culture by socializing with other people who opposed Prohibition. The 18th Amendment raised crime rates within the United States.

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Organized crime was relatively new to America, there were families in the past, but they had never grown to the extent they did in the 1920s. With the expansion of the availability of luxury goods and prohibition, the criminal underworld had many doors open to it. Criminal organizations started to take advantage of prohibition, bribing police, taking control

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The creation of illegal establishments like speakeasies would be the just the beginning of crime in the 1920s. Bootlegging, the illegal sell of alcohol became commonplace. Gangsters rose to power on the streets of cities like Chicago and New York. Criminals like Al Capone, and Charles “Lucky’ Luciano became household names. Prohibition, intended to fix America’s alcohol problem, only made it worse.

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