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...business principles that operate in the 'upper-world' must, with suitable modification for change in environment, operate in the underworld as well." Indeed, there is a distinct "typology of underworld business." One major group is black markets, which sell "commodities and services contrary to law," such as dope, abortions and-through scalpers-New York theater tickets. A second is racketeering, which includes extortion and other businesses "based on intimidation...
...established, that it could have arisen in the first place as a monopoly in the face of competition. Some rackets, too, depend on the law itself--some labor rackets, some blackmail, even some threats to enforce the law with excessive vigor. But it is the black market crimes--gambling, dope, smuggling, etc.,--that are absolutely dependent on the law and on some degree of enforcement. Without a law that excludes legitimate competition, the basis for monopoly probably could not exist...
...organized?" The answer is not easy, and there may be too many special characteristics of this market to permit a selection of the critical one. The consumer and the product have unusual characteristics Nobody is a "regular" consumer the way a person may regularly gamble, drink, or take dope. (A woman may repeatedly need the services of an abortionist, but each occasion is once-for-all.) The consumers are more secret about dealing with this black market, secret among intimate friends and relations, than are the consumers of most banned commodities. It is a dirty business, and too many...
...between black-market crimes and most others, like racketeering and robbery, is that they are "crimes" only because we have legislated against the commodity they provide. We single out certain goods and services as harmful or sinful; for reasons of history and tradition, and for other reasons, we forbid dope but not tobacco, gambling in casinos but not on the stockmarket, extra-marital sex but not gluttony, erotic but not mystery stories. We do it for reasons different from those behind the laws against robbery and tax evasion...
...probability, though not with certainty, consumption of the proscribed commodity or service is reduced. Evidently it is not anywhere near to being eliminated, because the estimates of abortions run to about a million a year, the turnover from gambling is estimated in the tens of billions per year, and dope addiction seems to be a serious problem. The costs to society of creating these black markets are several...