Comparison of Legal and Illegal Markets - in Relation to the Organized Crime

Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Sociology - Medical Care, grade: 1,7, http: //www.uni-jena.de/ (Soziologie), course: Studies on Mafia and Economic Sociology, language: English, abstract: Cigarettes smuggling, gambling, prostitution, waste disposal, extortion, tax dodging and drug selling sounds like typically characteristics for the Mafia. It's clear, that these "branches" fall automatically into the hands of organized crime because they have nothing to do with legality and fair-play in modern state. But it's also clear, that illegal markets exist and that they work very efficient and profitable. For example the worldwide drug traffic achieved a various volume of ca. 600 to 1000 billion US $ each year (Schneider, 2006). That's more money used for drugs than for public research in the United States. So we can assume that illegal markets have a basis in supply and demand and they are important and present in every economy. On the other side there is a general liability to pure capitalism in every economy - legal and illegal. This mean, that entrepreneurs are stronger confronted by business competition, changing politics and locations, the phenomenon of globalization and fast changing trade conditions everywhere. The main target is still the same: having low costs as possible and a maximum of profit to survive. This paper wants to show the different terms and methods of legal and illegal markets and their entrepreneurs especially the organized crime. It also shows that legal and illegal activities particularly overlap.