TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2013//
TI  - They can't shoot everyone Italians, social capital, and organized crime in the Chicago Outfit
JO  - Journal of contemporary criminal justice
A1  - Corsino, Louis
SP  - 256
EP  - 275
VL  - 29
IS  - 2
N2  - 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 "boys," 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 "structural holes."<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1043-9862
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1043986213485634
ID  - ref1
ER  -