Guns and Garlic: Myths and Realities of Organized Crime - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0911198377 ISBN 13: 9780911198379

Publisher: Purdue University Press, 1974

Synopsis

“With the appearance of Homer's study, it is no longer possible to base any serious work about organized crime on the superficial debate over whether or not this set of activities is dominated by one or more particular ethnic groups,” writes political scientist Michael A. Weinstein in his introduction. Homer removes the study of organized crime from the realm of sensationalism and ethnic chauvinism, and places it in the context of contemporary American social structure. He reviews prevalent myths and hypotheses about organized crime and critically analyzes them in the framework of contemporary organization theory. In this context, organized crime is analyzed in its economic, political, ethnic, and social class dimensions. This book will pose a dilemma for American citizens, Weinstein concludes: “Will we choose to ease our consciences by pretending that organized crime is an anomaly in American society to be eliminated by punitive action against particular groups, or will we recognize that criminal matrices functionally interlock with many other aspects of everyday life? Only the latter recognition will permit us to make a free decision about how we will act with respect to organized crime.”

Listed among the outstanding books of 1974 by both American Scholar and Society, Guns and Garlic is a recommended selection of the National Criminal Justice Reference Center, a division of the Law Enforcement Assistance Association of the United States Department of Justice.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael A. Weinstein, the author of eleven other books on political theory and philosophy and of more than forty scholarly articles in political science, sociology, philosophy, and criticism, is a professor of political science at Purdue University.

Review:

“Many books, exposes, and articles on organized crime perhaps make good detectives reading, but they offer little to the social scientist. Guns and Garlic . . . amply fills this gap and establishes a firm foundation for future research . . . . This study is a solid contribution.

Library Journal
(Library Journal)

“The matrix concept is significant and should provide an approach for further studies and discussion.”

Choice
(Choice)

About this edition

• Publisher: Purdue University Press
• Publication date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 0911198377
• ISBN 13: 9780911198379
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 226