A scheme in which an organized criminal group extorts regular payment from a business or individual in exchange for protection from violence or property damage that the group itself threatens, or would otherwise inflict, distinguishing it from ordinary extortion by its recurring, subscription-like structure and its close historical association with organized crime groups such as the Sicilian Mafia, whose Italian term pizzo specifically denotes such a protection payment. Documented protection rackets have operated across a wide range of settings, from individual shopkeepers and market vendors to entire industries, and law enforcement and prosecutors in a number of countries have used organized-crime statutes, such as the United States Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, specifically to target protection-racket operations as part of a broader criminal enterprise.
Facts
Elements of OffenseCoercing payments on a regular basis from an individual or group in exchange for agreeing not to harm them 1 Notable ExamplePizzo protection payments to the Sicilian Mafia by businesses in Palermo, Sicily 1 Classification
Offense GradeSerious or Indictable Offense 1 Connections
Sources
1. Protection racket (Wikipedia)
Overview
coerces payments on a regular basis from an individual or group in exchange for agreeing to not harm them
Examples
businesses in the city of Palermo pay pizzo, or protection money, to the Sicilian Mafia
In Group: Extortion and Protection Rackets, Lead sentence
A protection racket is a racketeering scheme, usually perpetrated by a criminal organization, that coerces payments on a regular basis from an individual, group, or business in exchange for agreeing to not harm them (or for purportedly "protecting" them).
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