Organised crime in Kiravia
Organised crime in Kiravia (Kiravic: Iskorvibalv Kiraviē) is a fairly pervasive phenomenon and has been a perpetual challenge for law enforcement throughout the modern era.
The vast majority of criminal organisations in Kiravia have an ethnic or caste basis.
Major Ethnic Crime Families
Nightworkers, Gravediggers, and other Backward Kir
The largest and best-known organised criminal groups in Kiravia originate among the lower castes of the Kir people, the wordhere and the similarly positioned "village menial" castes. During the industrial era, many people from lower-caste backgrounds fled the rigid social structures of rural Kirav to seek better lives in the cities, but found themselves still at the bottom of the economic ladder and often turned to criminal enterprise after being shut out of legitimate opportunities for advancement.
Paisonic Mob
Ethnically Paisonic crime families are the second-largest, but perhaps most powerful organised criminal element in Kiravia.
Paisonic crime syndicates sit alone at the top of the food chain in Valēka and most other cities in Kiygrava and Niyaska, Primóra, and Vondor. They compete for dominance with the Nightworkers in Escarda and other industrial cities of the interior.
Ĥeiran Mob
Ĥeiran Coscivians were the face of modern, truly organised crime in Kiravia from its beginnings with the rise of industrial urbanism until the [DECADE]s, when fierce competition from Paisonic Mob and other groups wore down their dominance in most places. Ĥeiran crime families are still preëminent in Northeastern cities like Béyasar and Livern, and some smaller cities such as Glengarry-Glenross and Dēvlinsar. Historically, most Ĥeiran mobsters have been Æran Coscivians, with some members from other Ĥeiran subgroups or from Celtic-Kiravian backgrounds. In Valēka and Eriadun, Ĥeiran and Gaelic organised crime have more or less merged, whereas in Béyasar families with Ĥeldican Coscivian and Kiravian Gaelic members face competition from newer and more violent criminal groups organised among recent Gaelic immigrants.
Street Gangs
Street gangs form in Kiravia's working-class urban neighbourhoods. Like the neighbourhoods themselves, street gangs are often mono-ethnic, but roots in the gang's neighbourhood of origin and social affinity with existing members, rather than ethnicity, are the essential criteria for membership. Modern street gangs consist primarily of young adult men and adolescents - older members generally "age out" of the lifestyle or "graduate" into criminal careers as crime family associates, though in some cities like Escarda or Primóra gang affiliation and activity may be lifelong.
The street gang business model centres on maintaining control of a localised "territory" and extracting value from that territory by engaging in stationary banditry and monopolising illicit transactions within its boundaries. Their main activities are the extortion of local residents and businesses, and the sale of drugs and other contraband, and rent-seeking from other criminals active on their turf. As street gangs often attract youth with severe behavioural issues, it is common for street gangs to engage in opportunistic violence without designs on monetary gain. Most gang-related violent incidents reported to police involve conflict between opposing gangs over the control of territory or social rivalry.
Prison Gangs
See also: Incarceration in Kiravia
Prison gangs in Kiravia generally function as pragmatic alliances among the organised crime groups to which many of the most dangerous repeat offenders in the Kiravian prison system belong outside of prison, though they also induct previously unaffiliated inmates as members and have expanded their activities beyond prison walls.
Rural Organised Crime
Closely related to agrarian paramilitarism in Kiravia.
Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs
Biker culture was imported to the Kiravian Union from Levantia after the Great War, bringing the outlaw biker subculture with it. The Kirosocialist government heavily encouraged the adoption of motorcycles as a mode of transportation for the working man, especially in smaller cities and towns, in part to compensate for production shortages at the state-owned automobile plants and long waiting lists for cars. Biker culture boomed after the end of Kirosocialism amid the social dislocation brought on by market liberalisation, and outlaw biker gangs proliferated rapidly
Unlike most other criminal organisations in Kiravia, outlaw motorcycle gangs do not limit their membership to a specific ethnicity, though most only recruit from a specific "nationality". For example, Hell's Irate Puppies recruit mainly among the Kir and other [FLX Nation] groups.
OMCs occupy a certain niche in the Kiravian criminal ecosystem. Most OMCs have a nationwide or extended regional footprint, with chapters spread across multiple states, forming useful networks for smuggling and drug distribution. They have a deeper reach into suburban and rural areas than the ethnic crime families, which concentrate their activities in urban areas. They are often sought after as hired muscle and as contract killers.