Al Capone

“I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand.”1 A quote from the notorious American gangster Al Capone, one cannot help but wonder if there is a sliver of truth behind this statement. Acting as the boss of the famed Chicago Outfit, Capone ruled the world of organized crime with an iron fist from 1925-1931.2 With the United States government outlawing the “manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol from 1920 to 1933” through the Eighteenth Amendment, Capone took full advantage and made millions of tax-free dollars through bootlegging.3 Extremely violent and reactionary, Capone’s inability to escape the public eye swiftly gained him the attention of many Americans, who were both disgusted and enamored by his actions. However, a plethora of Progressive Era politicians and scholars recognized a trend for impoverished Americans: a path into the criminal underworld as a means of escape from poverty and a pursuit for better living conditions. After examining the environmental circumstances in which Capone was raised and his subsequent endeavors in illicit activities such as bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling, the framework of Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory offers an explanation to Al Capone’s entrance into the world of crime and his incredibly successful stint as the head of an organized crime empire.