全球收入最高的五大黑帮

    集团犯罪对经济和日常生活造成的影响，时不时地就会跃入我们的视线当中。而近些时日最突出的例证，莫过于知名连锁店家得宝（Home Depot）和塔吉特百货(Target)的信用卡数据接连遭窃了。

    这些网络安全事件往往占据新闻头条，而且由于电子商务是个相对新鲜的事物，商家和顾客都不太清楚要如何防卫黑客的攻击，因此它们显得十分恐怖。其实相比起有组织犯罪的全部收入，这不过是沧海一粟罢了。

    研究公司Javelin Strategy and Research在2013年的调查中估计，身份盗用每年给美国人造成的损失大约为200亿美元。但这其中大部分都花在阻止或挽回身份盗用的损失上，而不是流进小偷的口袋里。再来看看毒品贸易和人口贩卖等其他有组织犯罪的纯收益：据美洲国家组织（Organization of American States）估算，美国每年仅可卡因销售额就高达340亿美元。再把其他毒品贸易、人口贩卖、敲诈等收入加起来看，你就能很明显地发现，尽管犯罪团伙总是在寻找新的生财之道，但他们的大多数收入还是来自那些传统行当。

    那么，全球最大的有组织犯罪集团究竟是哪些？他们是怎么挣钱的？我们很难估计团伙犯罪的收入，因为罪犯通常会花大量时间来隐藏他们的所得。而且，“有组织犯罪”也是个定义不太明确的概念。从大型的毒品走私集团到小规模的偷车贼，都可以被归为有组织犯罪，而且全球范围内，不同犯罪集团的内部凝聚力也大相径庭。日本极道（Yazuka）等一些团伙组织有序、层级森严，因此日本的经济学家和打黑斗士们算出的极道组织总收入要远远高于世界其他犯罪组织。以下是根据预估收入排名列出的全球五大有组织犯罪集团：

    1、山口组(Yamaguchi Guri) 收入：800亿美元

    全球已知的最大黑帮名为山口组，它与其他几个日本团伙被统称为“日本极道”，意思类似于美国的“黑手党”。根据前日本国家警察局长菅沼宏光的介绍，山口组的最大收入来源是毒品贸易，其次是赌博和敲诈，“摆平纠纷”紧随其后。

    日本极道的历史可以追溯到好几百年前。《集团犯罪的经济史》（An Economic History of Organized Crime）的作者丹尼斯•麦卡锡表示，极道团伙是全球最为集权的组织之一。其他东亚团伙如中国的三合会（Triads）等，罪犯大多数是由家庭关系维系在一起，组织较为松散。而极道则有“精心设立的阶层”，成员一旦入伙，就必须抛弃其他效忠对象，一心一意忠于极道。尽管近年来日本政府大力打击极道，但这种集权化的结构使得山口组可以轻易攫取大量财富。

    It’s tough to go even a few months without seeing the effects of organized crime on the economy and everyday life. The most salient example these days is the rash of thefts of credit card data from big-name retail chains like Home Depot and Target.

    While these threats are headline-grabbing and particularly frightening because e-commerce is a relatively new phenomenon and businesses and consumers aren’t totally sure how to protect themselves from hackers, it’s still a drop in the bucket in terms of overall organized crime earnings.

    A 2013 survey from Javelin Strategy and Research estimates that the annual total loss to Americans due to identity theft was roughly $20 billion. But much of those costs comes from efforts to prevent identity theft or recover from its effects, rather than what thieves earn from their crimes. Compare that to estimates of pure revenue from other forms of organized crime like the drug trade and human trafficking: the Organization of American States estimates that the revenue for cocaine sales in the U.S. has reached $34 billion annually. When you add the market for other illicit drugs and revenue generators like human trafficking and extortion, it becomes clear that organized crime is still making most of its money from its legacy businesses, despite the fact that criminals are always looking for new ways to make a buck.

    So, who are the biggest organized crime gangs around the world and how do they make their money? Organized crime revenues are very difficult to estimate, as criminals often spend a significant amount of time trying to hide what they make. Also, “organized crime” is a loosely defined concept. Anything from a vast drug smuggling ring to a handful of car thieves can be classified as organized crime groups, and the cohesiveness of organized crime organizations around the world varies widely. Some groups, like Japan’s Yakuza, are highly organized and hierarchical, allowing economists and crime fighters in Japan to attribute much higher revenue totals to Yakuza groups than others around the world. Here are the top five criminal gangs, ranked by revenue estimates:

    1. Yamaguchi Guri—Revenue: $80 billion

    The largest known gang in the world is called the Yamaguchi Guri, one of several groups collectively referred to in Japan as “Yakuza,” a term that is roughly equivalent to the American use of “mafia.” The Yamaguchi Guri make more money from drug trafficking than any other source, according to HiromitsuSuganuma, Japan’s former national police chief. The next two leading sources of revenue are gambling and extortion, followed closely by “dispute resolution.”

    The Yakuza date back hundreds of years, and according to Dennis McCarthy, author of An Economic History of Organized Crime, Yakuza groups are among the most centralized in the world. While other East Asian gangs like Chinese Triads, which are a loose conglomeration of criminals bonded together mostly by familial relations, Yakuza are bound together by “elaborate hierarchies,” and members, once initiated, must subvert all other allegiances in favor of the Yakuza. Even with the Japanese government cracking down on Yakuza in recent years, this centralized structure has made it easy to attribute a massive amount of revenue to this single gang.