Investopedia overviews the types of crimes that fall under the racketeering umbrella. In the U.S. these crimes get separated into state and federal-level activities. State racketeering offenses include, “murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matters, and drug crime,” while federal racketeering offenses include, “bribery, gambling offenses, money laundering, obstructing justice or a criminal investigation, and murder for hire.”
Things get complicated when we turn to The United States Department of Justice Manual, Title 9, Organized Crime and Racketeering. Sections include discussions of when to indict someone on racketeering charges, when racketeering crimes involve state vs. national judiciaries, which kind of violent crimes are prosecutable in relationship to racketeering (e.g., murder, kidnapping, maiming, assault), and lots of information regarding procedural aspects of prosecution.
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Most critically, racketeering in the United States was addressed via its 1970 RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) Act. Herman Law, P.A. very handily breaks down the RICO Act, including its original goal of being a kind of mafia-busting tool. Before RICO, crimes could only be prosecuted on a one-by-one basis, and couldn’t be tied together through any overarching case that addressed larger criminal enterprises. As the reader can imagine, this would have made it very difficult to take down such enterprises. RICO, however, is designed to allow prosecutors to tackle all levels of a criminal organization, from the street thug all the way to the big boss sitting behind a mountain of cash at his desk.
