Team Rocket is a group of organized crime, led by the sinister and mysterious Giovanni (who is also Viridian's gym leader, though this is not known). The Team is known to commit anything from minor crimes, like swiping a wallet, to bigger things like arson, museum thefts, prostitution, and even murder. Not all members are evil criminal masterminds, and in fact most aren't, but to play a Rocket is to go to a deeper and darker place than most other characters will experience. Due to plausability issues, please note that by applying for a Rocket, you are granting consent for your character to possibly be caught in their wrongdoing at some point in time. This will rarely actually happen, but it is possible that on-screen capers will have consequences!
Team Rocket has several levels of structure. At the very top is Giovanni. He is the Boss and he is to be obeyed or else. While he can directly command any member of the Team, he generally directs his attention to other affairs and delegates much of his authority to his second in command, who answers to no one but him. Also directly under him are the five hunters, a group of fanatically loyal Rockets who keep an eye on their teammates to be sure that no one is getting too ambitious or plotting against Giovanni. Many do not even know of their existence, and their identities are kept secret from all but the Boss. Because of this, they also have other responsibilities and answer to one of the lieutenants depending on their specialty.
The second in command has two lieutenants to further delegate some responsibility, while the SIC deals with beaurocratic nonsense that Giovanni would rather not deal with. One of the lieutenants is over the specialists. These include scientists, communications officers, spys, engineers, torturers, breakers, and similar specialties.
Like hunters, the identity of the torturers is kept secret. When a Pokeforce officer is captured, a spy is found in the Team, or a Rocket turncoat is discovered, most often that person would end up in the hands of the torturers. As their name implies, they get information out of people by any means necessary. There are three Rocket torturers total
Pokemon are thinking, feeling creatures. Rockets get their pokemon through stealing, and often times the pokemon are not thrilled with their new owners. They might have seen their trainers hurt or killed, they may have been lied to, or worse yet, told the truth. When a pokemon needs an "attitude adjustment", they are sent to the breakers. As indicated by the name, they break the spirits of pokemon, and rebuild the personalities as needed. Pokemon who have been broken are totally different creatures when returned to their new Rocket owners: Mean, nasty, cold, uncaring.
The other lieutenant gets to deal with the rest of the rabble. These include the petty thieves, bank robbers, kidnappers, all the jobs that do not take years of schooling or training to accomplish. These are the people who have proven to have what it takes to be a member of the team, and are those that certainly keep the cash flowing, but many are fairly interchangeable and can be replaced. The specialists tend to look down on these folks and are generally better favored, even while both groups are technically of the same rank.
At the very bottom of the totem pole are the new recruits. Most of these are, though they don't know it, intended as decoys. These are intended to cause as much havoc as possible to help distract PokeForce from the real danger of Team Rocket. There are always a couple of decoy hideouts, currently in Saffron and Neon, that are the only places the decoys know about to betray when they are almost inevitably captured.
A few of the new recruits know enough about what they're doing and avoid capture, eventually getting a mentor and moving up into the real ranks of the Team. Other talented youngsters may be trained by mentors in the first place, and for the most part, bypass the dangerous new phase, though this is less common. Even those directly brought into the Team experience a sort of limbo, when everyone watches them, waiting for them to mess up. Jesse, James, and Meowth are permanent members of this limbo. They're incompetent, but always manage to avoid capture, and so they are watchfully tolerated, though never liked or respected.
Questions about Team Rocket should be directed to Flutterby.