A．organised crimes rampaged in the US during the era of……
TEXT D
To understand the
phenomenon of organised crime, it is necessary to study the social and economic
background of the criminal. He is usually a product of a neighbourhood in which
a low standard of living prevails. In many cases, he has been a member of a
teenage gang with its code of loyalty and exclusive "turf" rights. As a
result of the antisocial atmosphere that may prevail in certain neighbourhoods,
the gangs would tend also to exhibit evidence of antisocial behaviour of one
kind or another. Very often such activity would result in arrest and
imprisonment, and the person involved would be well on his way to becoming an
outlaw in the social sense. A sufficient number of arrests for minor offences
can brand a person as a potential criminal for the rest of his life.
Consequently, regular occupations may be denied to him, and he must content
himself in legitimate society with a position that is regarded as inferior to
others in terms of income and prestige. A reasonably intelligent and ambitious
person would tend to become bitter under such circumstances and revert to the
pattern of his boyhood group, which gave him a certain self respect.
Persons who enter careers in crime usually are also attracted by the
income, or easy money, which they expect to gain and by the prestige as tough
and cool manipulators which they can win in their in-group. Furthermore, the
standards and values of the teenage gang from which the potential criminals come
are often the same as those of an adult criminal conspiracy. This is the case
when it comes to loyalty to the leader and the gang. Finally, criminals have
shown willingness in the past to take care of their own by providing help for
the families of those unfortunate cronies who have been jailed or killed in
action. All these incentives combined with the social and economic factors
mentioned above contribute toward the personnel and leadership of organised
crime.
The great dividing line of the activity of organised
crime in the US was the year when the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the sale
of liquor was passed. Although certain pressure groups succeeded in having laws
enacted against drinking, the social habits of the American people could not be
regulated that easily. The demand for liquor remained, and organised crime
supplied illegitimately what had been legally provided previously. Crime and
violence reached an unprecedented degree until the hoodlums decided to
co-operate with each other to a certain extent. After the repeal of the
Eighteenth Amendment, the illegal production of liquor became negligible by
comparison to the volume supplied by gangsters during the era of
Prohibition.
To make up for the income that was lost as a result
of the repeal of Prohibition, organised crime turned to gambling. The same
sociological pattern is evident in gambling as in the case of drinking: the
American public could not be stopped from gambling by laws. Criminals organised
various gambling activities, sometimes on a nationwide scale. turnover of
business due to illegal gambling has been estimated at anywhere from 22 to 50
billion dollars a year.
Certain other types of illegitimate
activity are also rich sources of income for organised crime. One of these is
the handling and reselling of stolen goods, and another is trade in pornographic
literature. Although the turnover of business in the first case might be
extremely large, it is not clear whether the involvement of organised crime in
the latter trade is too great. Unfortunately, the evidence in both instances has
not been collected to a sufficient degree to warrant special treatment
here.
According to the passage, we can be sure that______.
A．organised crimes rampaged in the US during the era of Prohibition
B．organised crime can profit more from handling and reselling of stolen goods than from trade in pornographic literature
C．special measures have been taken to crack down any form of illegitimate activities
D．all of the above
