@article{ref1,
title="They can't shoot everyone Italians, social capital, and organized crime in the Chicago Outfit",
journal="Journal of contemporary criminal justice",
year="2013",
author="Corsino, Louis",
volume="29",
number="2",
pages="256-275",
abstract="Force and intimidation have always played a significant role in the success of the Chicago Outfit. Yet, violence is a highly inefficient mechanism for running illegal operations. A far more stable resource is social capital. This study examines these social capital processes by focusing upon the Chicago Heights &quot;boys,&quot; a critical component of the Chicago Outfit since the 1920s. Drawing upon interviews, newspaper accounts, census materials, and FBI files, I attempt to demonstrate that for the greater part of the 20th century, Italians in Chicago Heights experienced an abiding social, economic, and political discrimination. This resulted in a social and geographic isolation in Chicago Heights. This isolation inhibited the mobility of Italians along traditional routes but created a store of social capital which Italians used to organize labor unions, mutual aid societies, ethnic enterprises--and an organized crime empire. Specifically, leaders in the Chicago Heights Outfit acquired a social capital advantage because they could draw upon the closed networks in the Italian community and, at the same time, envision a range of illegal opportunities because they occupied a series of &quot;structural holes.&quot;<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1043-9862",
doi="10.1177/1043986213485634",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1043986213485634"
}