How Does Prohibition Cause Crime

The 18th amendment, Prohibition, did much more harm than good since it upset Americans. This led to Americans feeling the need to take action since they had to prevent the government from taking away the beloved alcohol Prohibition was keeping them from. After taking matters into their own hands, the people decided to change the system and create a way for them to obtain alcohol. This led to these people that were illegally getting alcohol to come up with the idea that they could sell the product to alcohol hungry Americans in turn making a HUGE profit. Soon selling alcohol the under the table became very popular so “speakeasies” or illegal bars were created for this use. The illegal bars created many problems which lead to crime rising even more so the government had a work overtime to help stop this rise in crime. Prohibition was considered to be the most negatively impacting amendment since it increased the number of speakeasies, created a demand for illegal bootlegging, and caused the
This in turn intensified peoples want for illegal alcohol so the prices started to rise on the drug. The price of spirits rose 24%. That of beer jumped 700% during Prohibition. (Lerner) This crime was very lucrative so gangsters such as Al Capone, gained great political power. In addition to this the taxes gained from bars selling alcohol was over a billion dollars. Putting prohibition into play costed the states a very big cut in the taxes. This loss of revenue created budget cuts to government programs so politicians and even policemen were easily bribed and blackmailed due to the cut in their salary. Soon the government employees that were left were overburdened since so many people were breaking the law and not everyone can be in jail without corrupting the system so the policemen and the justice system was worn out with all of the organized crime not being