ses they seek some benefit from their testimony. In the case of Sammy Gravano, police used him as an informant to prosecute nearly a dozen others involved in the crime ring, and in turn police allowed Gravano to bargain for a lighter sentence. It is the uses of informants who are attempting that get out from under a serious criminal charge that makes the most controversy. When there is no undercover police officer, an informant is used to get into the area where the crime is being committed. In the case of Gravano, he was probably more accepted by the crime family because he was already a part of the underworld of the Mafia. But if a police officer had posed as a criminal, he might not have been accepted as easily or he could have risked his life had those involved found out. These are just some of the ways that the stories about Gravano and about the book itself are relevant to the impact on Organized Crime itself. It is a perfect application of the information. The book, however, also applies to our class work. "Underboss" was easier to understand after reading some of the class notes. Informants, for instance, are critical to organized crime. Informants usually offer their help when an agency is coming down on them, when their organization is after them, when they want out of their life, or when they want revenge. And, as we learned in class, the first person to become an informant usually gets the best deal. Understanding how crime families were formed was also easier to understand because I had learned some of the things from class. A crime family usually begins with a criminal group. There are protectors from corruption, specialized support from people with specific skills - a pilot or arsonist for example, user support - drug addicts and prostitution rings who use the goods, and then of course there is the social support. The hierarchy of a traditional crime family runs from the boss, who is the leader a...
