The Mafia
The mafia is an organized criminal network that was based in Italy and America during the 19th and 20th centuries. In Italy, the group traces its roots from Sicily, which is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. During this period, residents of the island experienced frequent invasions from mainly hostile forces originating from French, Spanish, and Roman nations. Following these attacks, the residents of this island formed private armies to help in fighting off the attackers (Calderoni, 2014). By the mid-19th century, these armies had developed into organized groups that extorted the residents in exchange for their safety, thus the birth of the mafia. In 1943, during the Post-Fascist period, the levels of crime in Sicily were high, because of the many bandits escaping prisons. In this period, the mafia reformed itself to absorb these marauding bandits making it grow and establish itself. I addition to that, the economic conditions in Sicily facilitated the operations of the mafia from the rural settings to the more urban environment (Calderoni, 2014). These factors, among others, are attributed to the rapid growth of the mafia during this period.
In the 1870s, soon after Sicily had become a province unified under Italy, the island was characterized by chaos and crime. Unable to take care of the situation on the island, the then young Italian government turned to the mafia to help it control the situation (Moro, Petrella, & Sberna, 2016). In turn, the mafia would be at liberty to conduct its business in the area with minimum government intervention. With time, the mafia clan got involved in hunting of other independent criminal gangs on behalf of the local government and communities as a way of protecting the landowners. With time, the mafia had gained ground in the economic and political matters of Sicily, to the extent that the group could now manipulate the Sicily people to vote for specific politicians, who had the best interest of the group at heart. The influence of the mafia had grown so deep that even the catholic church was involved with the group. The catholic church turned to the mafia for help in monitoring its properties and in managing the tenants on church farms. Finally, the mafia began conducting initiation ceremonies for the Sicilian clans, where individuals were required to pledge their loyalty to the clan (Moro, Petrella, & Sberna, 2016).
References
Calderoni, F. (2014). Mythical numbers and the proceeds of organized crime: estimating mafia proceeds in Italy. Global Crime, 15(1-2), 138-163.
Moro, F. N., Petrella, A., & Sberna, S. (2016). The politics of mafia violence: explaining variation in mafia killings in southern Italy (1983–2008). Terrorism and Political Violence, 28(1), 90-113.