protection rackets
Pay or else
Protection rackets are criminal schemes where a group extorts money from businesses by threatening violence or property damage, then "protects" them from those same threats.
The protection is from the racketeers themselves—pay up or suffer consequences.
The mob ran protection rackets throughout the neighborhood.
The term extends to any coercive arrangement where someone creates a problem and charges to solve it.
- syndicatesOrganized groups sharing enterprise
- threatsDeclarations of intended harm
- gangstersOrganized crime members
- blackmailCoercion through damaging threats
- extortionObtaining through threats
coercion · mafia · mob boss · wise guys · pay up · pay or else · intimidation · concrete shoes · organized crime · enforcement · shakedown · mobsters · territorial disputes · crimes · tribute · storefront · gang warfare · hierarchy
- organized crimemafia, mob, the mob, syndicate, crime syndicate
- vicevice, debauchery, prostitution, depravity, immorality
- Yakuzayakuza, full body tattoo, sworn brotherhood, syndicate, syndicate boss
- black marketblack market, illegal trade, smugglers, contraband, traffickers
- war economieswar profiteering, war economy, war bonds, war debt, military spending
- underground economyblack market, shadow economy, cash in hand, off the books, under the table
protection racketsinsurance policies
Contracts transferring financial risk
police protection · state security · insurance companies · neighborhood watch · home security systems
protection racketsmutual aid societies
Groups pooling resources collectively
protection, racket, protect, protects, protected, protecting, protective, protector, protectors