Essay On Organized Crime

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Recommended: Research paper could the rise in organized crime have been prevented during the prohibition period

Kosinski 1
Vanessa Kosinski
Mrs. Billingsley
English 4˚
24 March 2014
Prohibition: The Leading Cause of Organized Crimes
In the 1920s, the cities were the place to be and between 1922 and 1929 nearly 2 million people were leaving their farms and small towns per year. Life in the cities were vastly different than life on the farm and due to this it was hard for a lot of people to accept the changing values of the 1920s. People in the cities were more tolerant of drinking, gambling and casual drinking – actions that were considered shocking and sinful in small towns. (Danzer 641) One aggressive clash between small-town and big-city Americans began in January 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment, or Prohibition, went into effect. Prohibition halted the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages because it was made legally prohibited. (Danzer 642) Therefore, because of the provisions of the Prohibition movement, organized crime escalated dramatically in the United States during the 1920s.
“The reign of tears is over. The slums will soon be a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk upright now, women will smile and children will laugh. Hell will be forever for rent.” Reverend Billy Sunday said this during a speech at the beginning of Prohibition. As more time went on, Americans realized this was far from true and that things had, in fact, gotten worse. (Organized Crime and Prohibition) Due to Prohibition, organized crime received a major
Kosinski 2 boost because it provided a product that so many Americans wanted and were willing to break the law to get. The greatest supply of liquor during the 1920s was organized crime. Smugglers ...

... middle of paper ...

...lid “Prohibition: What If?”) The lasting repercussions of organized crime still endure in America today. Although, alcohol is very much legal once again, organized crime now lies in the hands of drug lords who smuggle various types of illicit drugs into the United States every day.

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Works Cited
"Al Capone." American History. ABC-CLIO, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
Danzer, Gerald A. "Chapter 21 The Roaring Life of the 1920s." The Americans. Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. 640-45. Print.
Eysturlid, Lee. "Prohibition: Need to Know." American History. ABC-CLIO, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
Eysturlid, Lee. "Prohibition: What If?: An Alternative History of Prohibition." American History. ABC-CLIO, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
"Organized Crime and Prohibition." Organized Crime and Prohibition. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.

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