Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style (Studies in Crime and Public Policy)

Relying on previously undisclosed confessions of former mafia members now cooperating with the police, Letizia Paoli provides a clinically accurate portrait of mafia behavior, motivations, and structure in Italy. The mafia, Paoli demonstrates, are essentially multifunctional ritual brotherhoods focused above all on retaining and consolidating their local political power base. A truly interdisciplinary work of history, politics, economics, and sociology, Mafia Brotherhoods reveals in dramatic detail the true face of one of the world's most mythologized criminal organizations. Secrecy is one of the defining characteristics of the Italian Mafia. Wiretaps, financial records, and the rare informant occasionally reveal its inner workings, but these impressions are all too often spotty and fleeting, hampering serious scholarship on this major form of criminal activity. During her years as a consultant to the Italian government agency responsible for combating organized crime, Letizia Paoli was given unparalleled insider access to the confessions by pentiti (literally, repentants), former Mafia operatives who had turned. This mafia "hard core" came primarily from the two largest and most influential Southern Italian mafia associations, known as Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta, each composed of about one hundred mafia families. The sheer volume of these confessions, numbering in the hundreds, and the detail they contained, enabled the Italian government to effectively break up the Italian mafia in one of the dramatic law enforcement successes in modern times. It is on these same documents that Paoli draws to provide a clinically accurate portrait of mafia behavior, motivations, and structure.; Puncturing academic notions of a modernized Mafia, Paoli argues that to view mafia associations as bureaucracies, illegal enterprises, or an industry specializing in private protection, is overly simplistic and often inaccurate. These conceptions do not adequately describe the range of functions in which the mafia engages, nor do they hint at the mafia's limitations. The mafia, Paoli demonstrates are essentially multifunctional ritual brotherhoods focused above all on retaining and consolidating their local political power base. It is precisely this myopia that has prevented these organizations from developing the skills needed to be a successful and lasting player in the entrepreneurial world of illegal global commerce. A truly interdisciplinary work of history, politics, economics, and sociology, "Mafia Brotherhoods" reveals in dramatic detail the true face of one of the world's most mythologized criminal organizations Contents 15 Introduction 19 The Italian and American Mafia: A Comparison 19 The Italian Mafia: A New Paradigm 29 1. Mafia Associations and Ruling Bodies 40 Families and Members 42 Historical Background 49 The Ruling Bodies of Single Families 56 The Institutionalization of Superordinate Bodies of Coordination 67 2. Status and Fraternization Contracts 81 Rites of Passage 83 Ritual Brotherhoods 92 Mementos 101 An Idealization of the Mafia Phenomenon? 105 3. Secrecy and Violence 125 Variations in Secrecy 126 The Obligation of Silence 132 The Escalation of Secrecy 138 Alternative Legal Orders 144 Mafia Consortia as Illegal States? 154 4. Multiplicity of Goals and Functions 165 Money versus Power 168 Neither Enterprises . . . 178 . . . Nor States 188 5. Mafia, State, and Society 202 Competition and Complementarity 203 Mafia and Politics in Republican Italy 215 A Difficult Liberation 227 Conclusions 244 Notes 253 References 269 Names Index 299 A 299 B 299 C 300 D 301 E 302 F 302 G 302 H 303 I 303 J 303 K 303 L 303 M 304 N 305 O 305 P 305 R 306 S 306 T 307 U 307 V 307 W 307 Y 307 Z 307 Subject Index 309 A 309 B 309 C 309 D 310 E 311 F 311 G 311 H 311 K 311 L 311 M 311 N 311 O 312 P 312 R 312 S 312 T 313 V 313 "During her years as a consultant to the Italian government agency responsible for combating organized crime, Letizia Paoli was given unparalleled insider access to the confessions by pentiti (literally, repentants), former mafia operatives who had turned. This mafia "hard core" came primarily from the two largest and most influential Southern Italian mafia associations, known as Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta, each composed of about one hundred mafia families. The sheer volume of these confessions, numbering in the hundreds, and the detail they contained enabled the Italian government to effectively break up the Italian mafia in one of the most dramatic law enforcement successes in modern times. Paoli draws on these same documents to provide a clinically accurate portrait of mafia behavior, motivations, and structure."--Jacket Paoli Provides A Clinically Accurate Portrait Of Mafia Behaviour, Motivations And Structure. This Interdisciplinary Work Of History, Politics, Economics And Sociology, Reveals In Detail The True Face Of One Of The World's Most Mythologized Criminal Organizations. Mafia Associations And Ruling Bodies -- Status And Fraternization Contracts -- Secrecy And Violence -- Multiplicity Of Goals And Functions -- Mafia, State, And Society. By Letizia Paoli. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Argues that to view mafia associations as bureaucracies, illegal enterprises, or an industry specializing in private protection, is overly simplistic and often inaccurate. This book demonstrates that the mafia are essentially multifunctional ritual brotherhoods, focused above all on retaining and consolidating their local political power base. With this statement Tommaso Buscetta began his deposition before the investigating judge (giudice istruttore) Giovanni Falcone on July 21, 1984.