Showing 1 – 2 of 2 results.
Curated
Restricted
Soviet Emigre Organized Crime Networks in the United States, 1992-1995 (ICPSR 2594)
Released/updated on: 2006-03-30
Geographic coverage: United States, New York (state), New Jersey, Pennsylvania
The goal of this study was to assess the nature and scope of Soviet emigre crime in the United States, with a special focus on the question of whether and how well this crime was organized. The research project was designed to overcome the lack of reliable and valid knowledge on Soviet emigre crime networks through the systematic collection, evaluation, and analysis of information. In Part 1, the researchers conducted a national survey of 750 law enforcement specialists and prosecutors to get a general overview of Soviet emigre crime in the United States. For Parts 2-14, the researchers wanted to look particularly at the character, operations, and structure, as well as the criminal ventures and enterprises, of Soviet emigre crime networks in the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania region. They were also interested in any international criminal connections to these networks, especially with the former Soviet Union. The investigators focused particularly on identifying whether these particular networks met the following criteria commonly used to define organized crime: (1) some degree of hierarchical structure within the network, (2) continuity of that structure over time, (3) use of corruption and violence to facilitate and protect criminal activities, (4) internal discipline within the network structure, (5) involvement in multiple criminal enterprises that are carried out with a degree of criminal sophistication, (6) involvement in legitimate businesses, and (7) bonding among participants based upon shared ethnicity. Data for Parts 2-14 were collected from a collaborative effort with the Tri-State Joint Project on Soviet Emigre Organized Crime. From 1992 through 1995 every investigative report or other document produced by the project was entered into a computer file that became the database for the network analysis. Documents included undercover observation and surveillance reports, informant interviews, newspaper articles, telephone records, intelligence files from other law enforcement agencies, indictments, and various materials from the former Soviet Union. Every individual, organization, and other entity mentioned in a document was considered an actor, given a code number, and entered into the database. The investigators then used network analysis to measure ties among individuals and organizations and to examine the structure of the relationships among the entries in the database. In Part 1, National Survey of Law Enforcement and Prosecutors Data, law enforcement officials and prosecutors were asked if their agency had any contact with criminals from the former Soviet Union, the types of criminal activity these people were involved in, whether they thought these suspects were part of a criminal organization, whether this type of crime was a problem for the agency, whether the agency had any contact with governmental agencies in the former Soviet Union, and whether anyone on the staff spoke Russian. Part 2, Actor Identification Data, contains the network identification of each actor coded from the documents in Part 3 and identified in the network data in Parts 4-14. An actor could be an individual, organization, concept, or location. Information in Part 2 includes the unique actor identification number, the type of actor, and whether the actor was a "big player." Part 3, Sources of Data, contains data on the documents that were the sources of the network data in Parts 4-14. Variables include the title and date of document, the type of document, and whether the following dimensions of organized crime were mentioned: sources of capital, locational decisions, advertising, price setting, financial arrangements, recruitment, internal structure, corruption, or overlapping partnerships. Parts 4-14 contain the coding of the ties among actors in particular types of documents, and are named for them: indictments, tips, investigative reports, incident reports, search reports, interview reports, arrest reports, intelligence reports, criminal acts reports, confidential informant reports, newspaper reports, social surveillance reports, other surveillance reports, and company reports.
Curated
Restricted
White-Collar Criminal Careers, 1976-1978: Federal Judicial Districts (ICPSR 6540)
Released/updated on: 2006-03-30
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1976-01-01--1978-01-01
This study examined the criminal careers of 1,331 offenders convicted of white-collar crimes in the United States District Courts to assess the relative effectiveness of court-imposed prison sanctions in preventing or modifying future criminal behavior. The white-collar crime event that was the central focus of this study, the "criterion" offense, provided the standard point of entry for sample members. Researchers for this study supplemented the data collected by Wheeler et al. in their 1988 study (NATURE AND SANCTIONING OF WHITE COLLAR CRIME, 1976-1978: FEDERAL JUDICIAL DISTRICTS [ICPSR 8989]) with criminal history data subsequent to the criterion offense through to 1990. As in the 1988 study, white-collar crime was considered to include economic offenses committed through the use of some combination of fraud, deception, or collusion. Eight federal offenses were examined: antitrust, securities fraud, mail and wire fraud, false claims and statements, credit fraud, bank embezzlement, income tax fraud, and bribery. Arrests were chosen as the major measure of criminal conduct. The data contain information coded from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal history records ("rap sheets") for a set of offenders convicted of white-collar crimes in federal courts in fiscal years 1976 to 1978. The seven federal judicial districts from which the sample was drawn were central California, northern Georgia, northern Illinois, Maryland, southern New York, northern Texas, and western Washington. To correct for a bias that can be introduced when desistance from criminality is confused with the death of the offender, the researchers examined the National Death Index (NDI) data to identify offenders who had died between the date of sentencing for the criterion offense and when data collection began for this study in 1990. This data collection contains three types of records. The first record type (Part 1, Summary Data) contains summary and descriptive information about the offender's rap sheet as a whole. Variables include dates of first entry and last entry on the rap sheet, number of separate crimes on the rap sheet, whether the criterion crime was listed on the rap sheet, whether the rap sheet listed crimes prior to or subsequent to the criterion crime, and date of death of offender. The second and third record types are provided in one data file (Part 2, Event and Event Interim Data). The second record type contains information about each crime event on the rap sheet. Variables include custody status of offender at arrest, type of arresting agency, state of arrest, date of arrest, number of charges for each arrest, number of charges resulting in no formal charges filed, number of charges dismissed, number of charges for white-collar crimes, type of sanction, length of definite sentence, probation sentence, and suspended probation sentence, amount of fines, amount of court costs, and restitution ordered, first, second, and third offense charged, arrest and court disposition for each charge, and date of disposition. The third record type contains information about the interim period between events or between the final event and the end of the follow-up period. Variables include date of first, second, and third incarceration, date discharged or transferred from each incarceration, custody/supervision status at each incarceration, total number of prisons, jails, or other institutions resided in during the interval, final custody/supervision status and date discharged from incarceration for the interval, dates parole and probation started and expired, if parole or probation terms were changed or completed, amount of fines, court costs, and restitution paid, whether the conviction was overturned during the interval, and date the conviction was overturned. A single offender has as many of record types two and three as were needed to code the entire rap sheet.