Organized Crime Taught in College

[Wiseguy]

Textbooks from scholars like Howard Abadinski and James B. Jacobs are good. Heck, you could read Capeci's Idiot's Guide to the Mafia and know more about the LCN than 99.9% of people out there.

[Angelo Santino]

My dream job. Where can I apply?

[mafiastudent]

My dream job. Where can I apply?

You could actually teach at some of the accredited online universities. They're always looking for new classes/professors.

But, how would you balance fact and fiction? Say something like Colombo's murder? Or with informants - balancing what they do to what they get paid and the ethics of it? I mean that could be a semester in itself.

Or even the media aspect of organized crime....

[Lefty_Ruggiero]

It surprises me that more college professors and historians do not jump into studying the history of organized crime. It would help separate the fact from the fiction.

I agree, look what some researches have done in their spare time, both on here and in articles in Informer Magazine. If tenured professors started researching the mafia/organized crime, i'm sure there will be a whole new wealth of information coming out.

But what would be the purpose of a class like that unless you were going into law enforcement? I would imagine any law enforcement class would have to be more specialized than what's being presented in that book I posted.

There might be interest as an elective I guess though.

It could definitely be part of the history department, I was a history major and wish there were classes on the mafia/organized crime just to learn more.

I was a education major with concentration in history. It definitely could be its own class or two. Alot of history is reading primary and secondary sources and making an argument, which is why I am surprised more historians do no do it regarding the mob.

You can look at it in many angles too, does not have to just be a complete history about a particular mafia family. History professors can approach certain historical questions such as how much influence did the mafia have in labor unions and things of that nature. There is alot of historical signifiance involved there.

[Ivan]

I took an OC class once and it was nothing special. The average poster here is a lot more knowledgeable about OC than the professor who taught it.

Pogo I was a criminology major for about a year before I gave up on it. It was libtard hell, and that was 20 years ago. These people are so ignorant and innocent when it comes to what criminals are actually like that I am LESS inclined to trust their expertise in spite of their PhDs until they prove to me first that they are okay.

[Ivan]

I took an OC class once and it was nothing special. The average poster here is a lot more knowledgeable about OC than the professor who taught it.

Pogo I was a criminology major for about a year before I gave up on it. It was libtard hell, and that was 20 years ago. These people are so ignorant and innocent when it comes to what criminals are actually like that I am LESS inclined to trust their expertise in spite of their PhDs until they prove to me first that they are okay.

[BarrettM]

Very thought provoking thread. I majored in film (it was called "Motion Pictures") just a few years ago. The most worthwhile class by far was film history. After covering the obligatory, history of silent film, disjoined early films, and a little Charlie Chaplin, the FIRST feature length film the teacher curated for us was Scarface (1932). Not only did I, a mob watcher know the whole history back and forth, it was a way more exciting choice than, I don't know, Frankenstein, it was the school's first pick for what was essential viewing.

I think OC would be a great study supplementally for a media analysis or media studies class. When OC becomes part of the collective consciousness again, every professor will flock to be the first to teach about it. Even if they're lightyears behind the average researcher.

[Bruno187]

Personally, I think a more practical approach to this class would be much more interesting....kind of a "How to".
Imagine the labs sessions for extortion or arson? The mathematics of shylocking or bookmaking? Geez, I think "hits" would be a class unto itself.

[sdeitche]

As a scientist, I like the "ologys", so we can start a degree program in Mobology and become mobologists. Not my term- I was called that by a local TV person. But I refer to myself as a "mob author", "mob historian", "organized crime expert", so what's another made up title?

[B.]

Most academic institutions needs to be destroyed and rebuilt from the ground up. When that happens, we'll set up a Commissione of Organized Crime Scholarship and turn the country's knowledge of the mafia inside out and upside down.

I used the mafia as part of my sociology studies circa 2004-2008 but my knowledge was much more limited/off-base then, not that anybody noticed or knew better. I feel a true class on the mafia would need to be a blend of sociology, cultural studies, and criminology.

[chin_gigante]

I sometimes wonder where we'd be in our research and what we'd discover if we had more academic work like Before Bruno or East Side, West Side

[Lefty_Ruggiero]

I think academic work would be able to get FOIA request faster with better disclosures. Along with more indepth interviews with police and agents. Not to mention more readily available other tv programs and newspapers that passed by the wayside.

[HairyKnuckles]

Imagine taking a class and actually being more knowledgable than the professor!

[Antiliar]

Imagine taking a class and actually being more knowledgable than the professor!

I took a class that combined OC with gangs about 25 years ago, and I was bored out of my mind, and what I knew back then was a drop of what I know now. Most of the professors and instructors who write about OC, like Gary Potter, are Marxists with a hyper-skeptical take on the nature of OC. Jimmy B is an exception as a Marxist who accepts the existence of OC. There are/were non-Marxists who have an even-handed take such as Humbert S. Nelli and the aforementioned Howard Abadinsky, and independent scholars such as Stephen Fox, Mike Dash, and our own David Critchley. In Europe there are profs such as Diego Gambetta, John Dickie, Letizia Paoli, and Salvatore Lupo.

[scagghiuni]

Imagine taking a class and actually being more knowledgable than the professor!

I took a class that combined OC with gangs about 25 years ago, and I was bored out of my mind, and what I knew back then was a drop of what I know now. Most of the professors and instructors who write about OC, like Gary Potter, are Marxists with a hyper-skeptical take on the nature of OC. Jimmy B is an exception as a Marxist who accepts the existence of OC. There are/were non-Marxists who have an even-handed take such as Humbert S. Nelli and the aforementioned Howard Abadinsky, and independent scholars such as Stephen Fox, Mike Dash, and our own David Critchley. In Europe there are profs such as Diego Gambetta, John Dickie, Letizia Paoli, and Salvatore Lupo.

john dickie probably knows about mafia groups more than all the italian profs combined