Prohibition and the Rise of Organized Crime Assignment

Prohibition and the Rise of Organized Crime - Assignment Example An action initiated by the government or by the court of law to renounce people from indulging in activities or behaviours that harm them may be termed as prohibition. On the face of it, this prohibition should prove beneficial and should serve the intended purpose. However the outcome may not be the same as desired. There can no better example of prohibition going awry and turning out to be a problem for the society than the Volstead Act of 1920 which banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol in the United States from 1920 through 1933. In response to prohibition human beings do not abstain from the substance or refrain from the action so prohibited, rather they contrive to indulge in it, a situation that perpetuates organized crime. Simply put, the urge is so overwhelming that it does not permit any rational thinking. To serve the individual black-markets thrive. The positive correlation between prohibition and organized crime makes sense from the economics standpoint. Proscription will invariably lead to a demand supply mismatch of the product so prohibited. This is where the organized crime creeps in to cash in on the sparse supply. Analogous to competing firms in an industry, it is the gang wars in the dominion of the underworld which hold the society to ransom as different. In order to stamp their authority and maximize their illegal cash inflows these gangs indulge in organized crime. The menace spreads as government and law enforcement agencies are bribed to enable the cause of the gangsters. The aforesaid discussion leaves beyond doubt that prohibition perpetuates organized crime.