Definition
A racket is a planned or organized criminal act, usually in which the criminal act is a form of business or a way to earn illegal or extorted money regularly or briefly but repeatedly. A racket is often a repeated or continuous criminal operation.
Racketeering
What is ‘Racketeering’
Racketeering, often associated with organized crime, is the act of offering of a dishonest service (a “racket”) to solve a problem that wouldn’t otherwise exist without the enterprise offering the service. Racketeering as defined by the RICO act includes a list of 35 crimes. If convicted of racketeering, a person could serve up to 20 years and be fined up to $25,000.
Explaining ‘Racketeering’
Further Reading
- Information, Institutions, and Extortion in Japan and the United States: Making Sense of Sokaiya Racketeers – heinonline.org [PDF]
- Organized crime, transit crime, and racketeering – www.journals.uchicago.edu [PDF]
- Glasgow's 'Reign of Terror': street gangs, racketeering and intimidation in the 1920s and 1930s – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- United, yet divided: analysing the cohesion of Addiopizzo's anti-racketeering campaign in Palermo – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- The scale of the global financial structure facilitating money laundering – www.elgaronline.com [PDF]
