Came across this study from a blog I read... tries to measure whether members of organized crime with college degrees earn more than members who do not have college degrees.. I haven't had a chance to read it but I thought it was worth posting
Is there any return to education in criminal activities? This paper is one of the first to investigate whether education has not only a positive impact on legitimate, but also on illegitimate activities. We use as a case study one of the longest running criminal corporations in history: the Italian-American mafia. Its most successful members were capable businessmen, orchestrating crimes that required abilities that might be learned at school: extracting the optimal rent when setting up a racket, weighting interests against default risk when starting a loan sharking business or organizing supply chains, logistics and distribution when setting up a drug dealing system.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm ... id=2740211
Why Mafia members with college degrees earn more:
Moderator: Capos
Re: Why Mafia members with college degrees earn more:
I would definitely say that a person who graduated college (and took it seriously, retaining the info they studied) can attribute to them having a better understanding of the complexities of economics, sociology, global business, etc. With that, one can argue that even a criminal with a college degree might have a better understanding of how to expand their earning horizons. Furthermore, better understanding of how to use laws/legislation to their advantage when scamming.
Then again, to counter that argue, most successful criminals aren't college educated. Furthermore, there's college educated criminals who end up in jail for ultimately doing stupid, rookie mistakes (I.E. all the executives of Enron).
Then again, to counter that argue, most successful criminals aren't college educated. Furthermore, there's college educated criminals who end up in jail for ultimately doing stupid, rookie mistakes (I.E. all the executives of Enron).
Re: Why Mafia members with college degrees earn more:
People in prison score lower than the average person on various assessments of intelligence. There aren't a lot of criminal geniuses. When we get closer to the original Italian immigrants, who perceived themselves shut off from other avenues, you may have had more intelligent people involved, with a strong work ethic, who would have been successful in other fields. As it eventually emerged, as it did with other ethnic groups, that it's easier and safer to make money legally, you're just left with the dummies in crime. That's what we have.
Re: Why Mafia members with college degrees earn more:
just started reading it, here are some parts I have found interesting.. I realize most of this info has probably been posted before.. I'll post more interesting stuff later if appropriate
From 1880 to 1900, 959,000 Italians entered the U.S., and the following two decades
saw a further 3,200,000 Italians make the journey. This massive wave of migration to
the U.S. stopped with World War I and the introduction of immigration restriction in the
1920s and, particularly, the Immigration Act of 1924, after which the annual visa quota for
Italians was reduced to 4000. While initially the source locations were found in Northern
Italy, over time Sicily and the South provided a larger proportion of new arrivals, due
to labor unrest, population excess and, most of all, agricultural crises and commodity
price shocks.
The majority of these immigrants were agricultural workers, with low levels of literacy.
In 1901, about 80 percent of the Sicilian population was illiterate
Anthony Accardo, Chicago's boss-of-bosses for almost a half-
century (who has a record in the FBN data), was born in Chicago to Sicilian immigrants.
Both settled in the U.S. in 1905. When Anthony was 14 his parents led paperwork with
the authorities claiming that he was two years older than he actually was so that he could
leave school and go to work, a common practice
Criminal careers started quite early { FBN records show that in fifty percent of cases the very first recorded arrest
occurred before the age of 20.
The advantage of the 1940 Census is that it allows for a search by first and last
names as well as basic demographic characteristics and it was the rst U.S. Census to
ask questions at the individual level about highest grade of schooling attained, wage
income, whether any non-labor income was earned in the previous year and migration in
the past ve years and it also provides information on the house value or rent paid for each household.
Of our 414 mobsters only in 5 instances did mobsters with different sur-
names share the same Census page with other mobsters: Joseph Filardo and Joseph
Cusamano, Carlo Gambino and Gaetano Russo, Joseph Stracci and John Linardi, Agatino
Garu and Salvatore Maimone, Vincent Teriaca and Nicholas Bonina. In other words,
only 10 out of 414 known mobsters lived close enough to end up on the same Census page.
From 1880 to 1900, 959,000 Italians entered the U.S., and the following two decades
saw a further 3,200,000 Italians make the journey. This massive wave of migration to
the U.S. stopped with World War I and the introduction of immigration restriction in the
1920s and, particularly, the Immigration Act of 1924, after which the annual visa quota for
Italians was reduced to 4000. While initially the source locations were found in Northern
Italy, over time Sicily and the South provided a larger proportion of new arrivals, due
to labor unrest, population excess and, most of all, agricultural crises and commodity
price shocks.
The majority of these immigrants were agricultural workers, with low levels of literacy.
In 1901, about 80 percent of the Sicilian population was illiterate
Anthony Accardo, Chicago's boss-of-bosses for almost a half-
century (who has a record in the FBN data), was born in Chicago to Sicilian immigrants.
Both settled in the U.S. in 1905. When Anthony was 14 his parents led paperwork with
the authorities claiming that he was two years older than he actually was so that he could
leave school and go to work, a common practice
Criminal careers started quite early { FBN records show that in fifty percent of cases the very first recorded arrest
occurred before the age of 20.
The advantage of the 1940 Census is that it allows for a search by first and last
names as well as basic demographic characteristics and it was the rst U.S. Census to
ask questions at the individual level about highest grade of schooling attained, wage
income, whether any non-labor income was earned in the previous year and migration in
the past ve years and it also provides information on the house value or rent paid for each household.
Of our 414 mobsters only in 5 instances did mobsters with different sur-
names share the same Census page with other mobsters: Joseph Filardo and Joseph
Cusamano, Carlo Gambino and Gaetano Russo, Joseph Stracci and John Linardi, Agatino
Garu and Salvatore Maimone, Vincent Teriaca and Nicholas Bonina. In other words,
only 10 out of 414 known mobsters lived close enough to end up on the same Census page.