Organized Crime In The Prohibition Era

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Organized Crime in the Prohibition Era The 1920s in the United States are known as the “Roaring Twenties” and the jazz age, but is even more popularly known as the era of prohibition or the “Noble Experiment”. On January 16, 1919 congress passed the 18th amendment, which would go into effect the following year, and last for a total of 13 years. The 18th amendment established that the production, transport, and sale of alcoholic beverages were now illegal. Among the various landmark cultural changes in the 1920s, the prohibition sparked the beginning of one of the biggest and most well known illegal movements in American history. The 18th amendment, ratified on January 16, 1919, reads as follows, “After one year from the ratification of this …show more content…
According to Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, writers for The National Bureau for Economic Research, “We find that alcohol consumption fell sharply at the beginning of Prohibition, to approximately 30 percent of its pre-Prohibition level. During the next several years, however, alcohol consumption increased sharply, to about 60-70 percent of its pre-prohibition level. The level of consumption was virtually the same immediately after Prohibition as during the latter part of Prohibition, although consumption increased to approximately its pre-Prohibition level during the subsequent decade.” Not only did the ban prove to be ineffective in preventing the distribution of liquor, but it also later proved to be a risk to the health of those who still consumed the banned alcohol. With liquor no longer being manufactured in the pristine conditions of a professional brewery, the quality of alcohol sharply decreased. The quality of bootlegger alcohol was very poor and many people who consumed alcohol from speakeasies became sick. Deaths from alcohol poisoning rose by 400% in the United States, causing major concerns. Mark Thornton, the Assistant Professor of Economics at Auburn University, describes one of the many negative effects of the prohibition as, “It led many drinkers to switch to opium, marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, and other dangerous substances that they would have …show more content…
Organized criminal gangs began to abuse their power and crime rates began to grow at alarming rates. Bootlegging alcohol was not the only illegal activity on the rise in the 1920s. According to the FBI, “On the other side was law enforcement, which was outgunned (literally) and ill-prepared at this point in history to take on the surging national crime wave. Dealing with the bootlegging and speakeasies was challenging enough, but the “Roaring Twenties” also saw bank robbery, kidnapping, auto theft, gambling, and drug trafficking become increasingly common crimes.”6 With police forces not standing a chance against the power of organized crime gangs, crime rates went through the roof. The FBI reported that, “Rival gangs led by the powerful Al ‘Scarface’ Capone and the hot-headed George “Bugs” Moran turned the city streets into a virtual war zone with their gangland clashes. By 1926, more than 12,000 murders were taking place every year across America.” With crime growing at dangerous rates across America it began to become increasingly obvious that these illegal crime rings were being fueled by the prohibition. As the liquor flowed as much as ever, crime rates shot through the roof, and despite the large allocation of government resources in unsuccessful attempts to end the crime spree, it became increasingly obviously
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