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r <br />•. <br />Extent of Organize d Crime Involvement in Pomooraohy (1978). Sturman, who <br />reportedly controls half of the $8 billion United States pornography industry, was <br />recently indicted by a federal grand jury in Las Vegas for racketeering violations and by <br />a federal grand jury in Cleveland for income tax evasion and tax fraud. Newsweek. <br />August 8,1988. p. 3. <br />Evidence of the vulnerability of sexually oriented businesses to organized crime <br />involvement underscores the importance of criminal prosecution of these businesses <br />when they engage in illegal activities, including distribution of obscenity and support of <br />prostitution. Prosecution can increase the risk and reduce the profit margin of <br />conducting illegal activities. It may also disclose organized crime association with local <br />pornography businesses and increase the costs of criminal enterprise in Minnesota. <br />In addition to prosecution, forfeituro of property used In the illegal activities related <br />to sexually oriented businesses can cut deeply Into profits. Regulation to permit license <br />revocation for conviction of subsequent crimes may also expose and increase control <br />over criminal enterprises related to sexually oriented businesses. <br />PROSECUTORIAL AND REGULATORY ALTERNATIVES <br />The regulation of many sexually oriented businesses, like other businesses dealing <br />in activity with an expressive component* is drcuniscribed by the Rrst Amendment of <br />the United States Constitutlon.3/ Nonetheless, the First Amendment does not impose <br />a bam*er to the prosecution of obscenity, which is not protected by the Fast <br />Amendment, or to reasonable regulation of sexually oriented businesses if the <br />3/ The Rrst Amendment provides: <br />Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of <br />religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the <br />freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably <br />to assemble, or to petition the government for a redress of grievances. <br />The constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, often the basis for challenges to <br />regulation of sexualy oriented businesses, restricts state as well as federal actions. <br />See, e^g.. Rske v. Kansas . 274 U.S. 380,47 S. Ct. 655 (1927). <br />•20-