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16 Rutgers L.J. 633 (1984-1985)
Racketeering Prosecution: The Use and Abuse of RICO

handle is hein.journals/rutlj16 and id is 641 raw text is: RACKETEERING PROSECUTION: THE USE AND ABUSE OF RICOt John Dombrink* and James W. Meeker** I. INTRODUCTION Law enforcement efforts against organized crime have undergone substantial changes in the seventeen years since a presidential commission' suggested increased penalties, creative remedies, and innovative strategies for the control of organized crime.2 One major change has been to focus attacks on powerful and entrenched criminal organizations rather than incapacitating individual offenders under discrete statutes. Aided by the conspiracy provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organiza- tion Statutes (RICO), an enterprise strategy of organized crime control has replaced the earlier, much maligned attrition strategy.5 At the same time, studies indicate increasing sophistication on the part of traditional criminal organizations.6 These groups are becoming t An earlier version of this Article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Society of Criminology, San Diego, California, February 1984. * Assistant Professor of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine. B.A., University of San Francisco, 1973; M.A. (1976), Ph.D. (1981), University of California at Berkeley. ** Assistant Professor of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine. B.A. (1973), J.D. (1978), Ph.D. (1982), State University of New York at Buffalo. The authors wish to thank student coders Felicia Bejarano, Janet Cartwright, Rogelio Delgado, Lindy Finkler, Marilyn Horn, Nancy Mai, Mark Mayer, Sue Melton, John Navarra, Randy Nelson, Heidi Skvarna, Sandi Stern, and Trudie Tongg; Jill Vidas for typing the manuscript; Julia Gelfand of the U.C. Irvine Library Reference Department; and John Claudi-Magnussen for assistance with the notes. 1. PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, TASK FORCE REPORT, ORGANIZED CRIME (1967). 2. Id. at 16-24. Recommendations included: increased use of investigative grand juries, enactment of state and federal witness immunity statutes, extension of wiretapping authority, passage of enhanced sentence statutes, deployment of specialized state organized crime prosecutorial units, development of police organized crime intelligence units in major cities, establishment of permanent citizen crime commissions organized by citizens and business groups, and increased resources and centralized intelligence capabilities for federal organized crime control units. 3. 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-1968 (1976). 4. Blakey & Goldstock, On the Waterfront'RICO and LaborRacketeering, 17 AM. CRIM. L. REV. 341, 350-54 (1980). 5. See infra notes 25-27 and accompanying text. 6. See generally J. JESTER, AN ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZED CRIME'S INFILTRATION OF

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