Mafia: The Sicilian Cosa Nostra

Arlacchi, Pino

doi:10.1080/13608749608559513

S. European Soc. & Politics

1996

DOI: 10.1080/13608749608559513

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Mafia: The Sicilian Cosa Nostra

Pino Arlacchi¹

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“…This will throw the criminal groups into chaos. Nobody will believe the others’ word, their vindications, and everybody will accuse the other fellow members of embezzling the goods and not keeping to the agreements’ (Arlacchi, 1994: 89). Buscetta suggests that the reasons to trust others in the underworld are few and far between.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Cooperation in criminal organizations: Kinship and violence as credible commitments

Campana

Varese

2013

Rationality and Society

126

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The paper argues that kinship ties and sharing information on violent acts can be interpreted as forms of 'hostage-taking' likely to increase cooperation among cooffenders. The paper tests this hypothesis among members of two criminal groups, a Camorra clan based just outside Naples, and a Russian Mafia group that moved to Rome in the mid-1990s. The data consist of the transcripts of phone intercepts conducted on both groups by the Italian police over several months. After turning the data into a series of network matrices, we use Multivariate Quadratic Assignment Procedure to test the hypothesis. We conclude that the likelihood of cooperation is higher among members who have shared information about violent acts. Violence has a stronger effect than kinship in predicting tie formation and thus cooperation. When non-kinship-based mechanisms fostering cooperation exist, criminal groups are likely to resort to them.

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“…Indeed, during the so-called Second Mafia War (Sicily, 1982–84), eight of Buscetta’s relatives – including two sons and a brother – were murdered, although they had no role in the Mafia (Gerino, 1984). After he defected, more were killed (Arlacchi, 1994).…”

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confidence: 99%

Cooperation in criminal organizations: Kinship and violence as credible commitments

Campana

Varese

2013

Rationality and Society

126

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Wie organisiert ist das organisierte Verbrechen?

Paul

Schwalb

2011

Leviathan

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Zusammenfassung: Kriminelle Organisationen sind relativ dauerhafte, nach außen geschlossene und intern gegliederte Gebilde. Mit der arbeitsteiligen Her-oder Bereitstellung illegaler Waren und Dienstleistungen haben sie zumeist eine dezidiert wirtschaftliche Komponente. Gleichwohl greifen verbreitete transaktionskostentheoretische Erklärungen krimineller Organisationsbildung zu kurz, da die Spezifika der Illegalität ökonomisch gedacht gegen die Ausbildung vertikal integrierter Organisationen sprechen. Wir zeigen am Beispiel der sizilianischen Mafia, dass kriminelle Organisationen sich nur dann behaupten können, wenn sie sich nicht primär als wirtschaftliche Unternehmen, sondern vor allem als politische Institutionen konstituieren.Abstract: Criminal organizations are relatively enduring, externally closed, internally differentiated entities. Generally speaking, organized crime is based on a specific division of labor; it supplies illegal goods and services, and thus contains an economic component. Nevertheless, popular and well-established explanations of criminal organization which find their bases in transaction cost theory are not adequate to account for this phenomenon. Properly speaking a pure economic interpretation of the specific features of illegal enterprise would contradict the establishment of vertically integrated organizations. Drawing on the example of the Sicilian Mafia, we show that criminal organizations do survive and prosper, but only if they become political institutions as well and act as such.

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Mafia: The Sicilian Cosa Nostra

Cited by 2 publications

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Cooperation in criminal organizations: Kinship and violence as credible commitments

Cooperation in criminal organizations: Kinship and violence as credible commitments

Wie organisiert ist das organisierte Verbrechen?

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