Intolerance, forgiveness, and promise in the rhetoric of conversion: Italian women defy the Mafia

Mafia and psychopathy

“…According to Lo Verso and Lo Coco (), for example, Italian Mafia organisations actively deter individualism in order to strengthen their own interests; Mafia members are not allowed to gain personal authority without the help of their boss and their family, so they are entirely reliant on the organisation for their criminal career development and for receiving social and psychological support. Thus, members may feel virtually incapable of acting against the will of the group: after the individuals join actively in the Mafia organisation, they lose the ability to differentiate between their own goals, objectives, friends and enemies and those of their family (Fabj, ; Bovenkerk, ).…”

“…Examination of the few clinical interviews recorded with Mafia members and their relatives suggests that personality traits may play a relevant role in this: past members reported that from childhood, they viewed the Mafia as a way to obtain pride, prestige and money. They reported feeling no guilt for crimes, including murder, and few could recall ever feeling afraid but rather feeling respected by others and seeing themselves as ‘honourable’ criminals with strong values and beliefs (Fabj, ; Lo Verso and Lo Coco, ).…”

Jamaican Dons, Italian Godfathers and the Chances of a ‘Reversible Destiny’

“…Finally, although often understated in the assessments of the reasons behind Mafia decline, civil movements worldwide are on the rise, and an ethical and civil progression can be noticed (Fabj, 1998; Kaldor, 2003; Kymlicka, 2001). This is an interesting development, which is not unrelated to the point made above of the existence of a plurality of cultures, not all of which are Mafia‐friendly, even in regions renowned for Mafia ‘infestation’.…”

“…Noteworthy is the role of women in this regard. The Association of Women against the Mafia in Palermo as well as spontaneous movements like the Committee of the Sheets have also played important roles, as have the increasing number of female mayors who have been elected in Sicily's countryside over the last few years (Fabj, 1998, p. 205; Schneider and Schneider, 2003, pp. 294–5).…”

The State of the Art in Feminist Scholarship in Communication

“…Articles in the past 5 years have reiterated the utility of juxtaposition (Campbell, 1998;Cooper & Pease, 2002), petitioning (Zaeske, 2002), letter writing (Gring-Pemble, 1998), and humor or the comedic (Cooper & Pease, 2002;Demo, 2000). Most feminist scholars no longer expect to find "pure" tactics that can never go awry or be co-opted (Papa, Singhal, Ghanekar, & Papa, 2000), but they have argued that often devices such as synecdoche (Foss & Domenici, 2001), satire (Campbell, 1998;Gring-Pemble & Watson, 2003), reversal (Campbell, 1998;Hayden, 1999b), and narrative (Cooper & Pease, 2002;Fabj, 1998;Ford & Crabtree, 2002;Gring-Pemble, 2001;Schely-Newman, 1998) have affinities with feminist goals of dismantling patriarchal structures. In addition, new work is identifying mediating strategies for helping children to resist the stereotyping all too prevalent in the mass media (Durham, 1999;Nathanson, Wilson, McGee, & Sebastian, 2002), while other essays have identified transformational strategies within mass media (Natharius & Dobkin, 2002).…”