Like most bad things, you can blame the current condition of the United States squarely on the Nazis.
In WW2, as the German advance near Stalingrad faltered, Hitler unleashed his secret weapons. From the nightmarish depths of the Buchenwald, dying Gypsy witches had shared an ages old blood curse with their torturers. Vampirism. The Wehrmacht, in an attempt to bolster it's fighting prowess, turned thousands of it's troops into bloodsucking monsters. Nightmarish myth became horrid reality, and Stalingrad fell almost overnight. But the Vampires weren't the only monsters waiting to be pulled out of the dark.
New Corinth is not the warzone that some of the major cities have become in the last decade or so. This is largely due to a peaceful impasse between the city government and a few of the independent, influential groups in the city. While the police forces technically are bound by law to arrest any members of the public who break the law, the reality is that "victimless" crimes by the various syndicates in the city (such as smuggling, prostitution, illegal gambling, and the sale of certain illicit substances) are largely ignored.
