Theft of the Nation by Donald Cressey

Author:Donald Cressey [Cressey, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Criminology
ISBN: 9781351472418
Google: QKw0DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-08T03:28:10+00:00

Both Samuel M. Strong and Clarence Schrag have suggested that groups characterize members in relation to the problems, lines of interest, and focal concerns of the group, and then attach distinctive names to these types. Since the problems, focal concerns, and lines of interest of prisoners and members of the criminal confederation are almost identical, it would not be surprising if the distinctive names attached to some types of organized criminals were not similar to the distinctive names attached to some types of prisoners. Before turning to an examination of the functions the code has in the governing of confederation members, I would like to suggest that investigators with access to criminals' conversations should be able to find among confederation members the three principal deviant roles found among prison inmates. Preliminary examination indicates that these roles are indeed present among organized criminals, despite the fact that I have heard no argot terms for them. I am convinced that the functions the code serves for the confederation will not really be understood until the relationships among the three informal roles are understood.

Prisoners who exhibit highly aggressive behavior against other inmates or against officials are likely to be called "toughs," "hoods," "gorillas," "ballbusters," or some similar name, depending on the prison they are in. The terms are all synonyms, and they refer to men likely to be diagnosed as "psychopaths," who hijack their fellow inmates when the latter are returning from the commissary, who attack guards and fellow inmates verbally and physically, who run any kangaroo court, who force incoming inmates to pay for cell and job assignments, who smash up the prison at the beginning of a riot. Precisely the same type is found among organized criminals. "Dutch Schultz" (Arthur Flegenheimer), one of the last Prohibition gangsters to hold out against "The Italian Society" that formed just prior to the 1930-1931 war, exemplified this type. The following description of a murder committed by Flegenheimer "was written by his lawyer, corrupter, and money mover. It reveals the "tough," or "gorilla," character of both the murderer and his victim:

Dutch Schultz was ugly; he had been drinking and suddenly he had his gun out. The Dutchman wore his pistol under his vest, tucked inside his pants, right against his belly. One jerk at his vest and he had it in his hand. All in the same quick motion he swung it up, stuck it in Jules Martin's mouth, and pulled the trigger. It was as simple and undramatic as that—just one quick motion of the hand. The Dutchman did that murder just as casually as if he were picking his teeth. . . . Julie was the bigmouthed ape who ran the restaurant racket for Schultz. He had two big labor unions terrorized and in two years he had shaken down $2,000,000 from the eating places in the Broadway section, including Jack Dempsey's. Once I had seen Julie with his bare hands beat up a man horribly. . . . Julie was saying that

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