33 - The Italian Mafia

Summary

INTRODUCTION

It is widely known that the Italian Mafia, which is more appropriately termed the Sicilian Mafia, is a very specific form of organized crime; a criminal organization that may share some characteristics with its counterparts operating in other countries, while retaining some peculiar traits making it somewhat unique. In order to highlight this uniqueness, a crucial preliminary distinction should be made. According to Block (1980), there are two main types of criminal syndicate. One is the “enterprise syndicate,” which operates exclusively in the arena of illicit businesses such as prostitution, gambling, contraband, and drugs. The second he calls the “power syndicate,” which is predominantly engaged in extortion as a form of territorial control rather than enterprise. Territorial control is certainly one of the central objectives of the Sicilian Mafia, making it an organization of the second type in Block’s classification. Its overriding aim appears to be the control over territory and the people who are part of it (Catanzaro, 1988).

THE MILITARY MAFIA

The history of the Italian Mafia runs parallel with the history of the unitary Italian state, and though predating 1860 (the date of the unification of Italy), the Mafia is best understood against the background of the political and economic events occurring in the country in the last century and a half or so. Historians have shown that landowners in Sicily employed groups affiliated to the so-called military Mafia as their private law enforcers, entrusting them with the collection of rents, taxes, and agricultural produce. This private army also played a political role, in that it acted as a violent deterrent power against the rural labor force and its attempts to organize collective bargaining through associations of mutual aid and trade unions.