The Outfit as a Complex Organization

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Chicago Outfit as a complex criminal organization, with particular emphasis on its hierarchical structure, chain of command, and division of labor. After describing the formal structure of the Chicago Outfit and its criminal activities, the chapter shows that people who are connected to organized crime are, in fact, part of the organizational structure. It then considers the people with whom the Outfit is regularly in contact and suggest that they, too, are an integral part of the organization. It also looks at the positions within the criminal organization and the public that the Outfit serves. Accounts of the activities of the Outfit suggest that positions exist for bosses, members, and associates, who are said to be “connected.” The chapter argues that the Chicago Outfit has an organized public, made up of gamblers, thieves, and “wannabes” (people who want to be associated with the Outfit), that has provided a ready source of participants for organized criminal activities as well as recruits for the group itself.