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Mafia

Mafia

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2008 | Copyright

Mafia , name given to a number of organized groups of Sicilian brigands in the 19th and 20th cent. Unlike the Camorra in Naples, the Mafia had no hierarchic organization; each group operated on its own. The Mafia originated in feudal times, when lords hired brigands to guard their estates in exchange for protection from the royal authority. The underlying assumption of the Mafia was that legal authorities were useless and that justice must be obtained directly, as in the vendetta . Italian attempts to curtail the Mafia have suffered from political corruption and the assassination of judges.

Through emigration the organization spread to the United States (where it was sometimes called the Black Hand). It is involved in many illegal operations—trade in narcotics, gambling, prostitution, labor union racketeering—and certain legal enterprises, such as trucking and construction, in the United States. In Nov., 1957, more than 60 of its alleged leaders were surprised at a secret meeting at Apalachin, N.Y. About one third of them were convicted of obstructing justice, but the convictions were reversed on appeal. In recent years, the Mafia has been linked with money-laundering and police corruption and has also been hampered by defections. While slowing its activities in extortion and racketeering in the 1980s and 90s, the contemporary Mafia has expanded into such white-collar criminal enterprises as fraud in health insurance, sales of prepaid telephone cards, and illegal stock market deals.

See also organized crime .

Bibliography: See M. Pantaleone, The Mafia and Politics (tr. 1966); D. Cressey, Theft of the Nation (1969); P. Maas, The Valachi Papers (1969); J. Albini, The American Mafia (1971); N. Gage, Mafia U.S.A. (1972); F. Ianni, A Family Business (1972); J. Fentress, Rebels and Mafiosi: Death in a Sicilian Landscape (2000); T. Reppetto, The American Mafia (2003); J. Dickie, Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia (2004); S. Raab, Five Families (2005); S. E. Scorza, compiler, Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime (2007).

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Mafia

A Dictionary of World History | 2000 | Copyright

Mafia An international secret society originating in Sicily. In its modern form the Mafia (Italian ‘boldness’) can be said to date from the period 1806–15, when, under British pressure, attempts were being made to break up the huge estates of the Sicilian feudal aristocracy. In the 1880s many Sicilians emigrated to the USA and the Mafia, as Cosa Nostra (Our Business), became established in New York and Chicago. In the 1920s the fascist government in Italy brought Mafia leaders to trial, but some escaped to the USA, where they were active during the PROHIBITION ERA. After World War II, notably after the opening-up of the former Soviet bloc, Mafia activities spread worldwide, increasingly centred on the drug trade. The Mafia is also involved in organized prostitution, fraud, theft, and kidnapping. In the USA, the Mafia is notable also for its infiltration of legitimate business; for example, in transport, construction, gambling, and fast-food, and its use of these businesses for money-laundering. Mafia members are required to live by a code of silence and eschew all cooperation with legitimate authorities: any violation of this code is severely punished.
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Mafia

The Oxford Companion to World War II | 2001 | | Copyright

Mafia, criminal organization which originated in Sicily and subsequently spread to mainland Italy and the USA, among other places. Suspecting that members of New York's large Italian community might be feeding intelligence about Allied convoys to the Germans, in 1942 the US Navy enlisted the help of the Mafia which controlled the workings of the port of New York. As a result, Italian-speaking US Navy officers, who had been given the names of local Mafia members by their US brethren, made contact with with them at the start of the Sicilian campaign to help gather intelligence. ‘The question of the American Mafia's contribution to the liberation of Sicily is clouded with ambiguity and contradiction’ ( C. D'Este, Bitter Victory, London, 1988, p. 627). But the island's liberation was undoubtedly followed by a resurgence of Mafia activity—repressed under Mussolini—as the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT), which organized a civilian administration in Sicily and Italy, unknowingly recruited local Mafia members and could not prevent the black market, by which Mafia fortunes were revived, from flourishing.
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I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Mafia." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 4 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Mafia." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (February 4, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Mafia.html

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Mafia." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Retrieved February 04, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Mafia.html

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Mafia

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

Ma·fi·a / ˈmäfēə/ • n. (the Mafia) [treated as sing. or pl.] an organized international body of criminals, operating originally in Sicily and now esp. in Italy and the U.S. and having a complex and ruthless behavioral code. ∎  (usu. mafia) any similar group using extortion and other criminal methods. ∎  (usu. mafia) a closed group of people in a particular field , having a controlling influence: the conservative top tennis mafia.

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Mafia

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | | Copyright

Mafia an organized international body of criminals, operating originally in Sicily and now especially in Italy and the US and having a complex and ruthless behavioural code, developed during the 18th–19th centuries. The word comes from Italian (Sicilian dialect), originally in the sense ‘bragging’.
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Mafia." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 4 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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Mafia

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

Mafia (It. ‘boldness’) Organized groups of Sicilian bandits. Originating in feudal times, the Mafia spread to the USA in the early 20th century and became involved in organized crime during the Prohibition era.
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mafia

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | Copyright

mafia violent hostility to law and order; body of people manifesting this. XIX. — Sicilian It.
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T. F. HOAD. "mafia." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 4 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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Mafia

Dictionary of American History | 2003 | Copyright

MAFIA

MAFIA. SeeCrime, Organized .
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Mafia

The Oxford Companion to United States History | 2001 | | Copyright

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Paul S. Boyer. "Mafia." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 4 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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Mafia

Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes | 2007 | Copyright

Mafia •Gambia, Zambia •Arabia, labia, Swabia •Libya, Namibia, tibia •euphorbia •agoraphobia, claustrophobia, homophobia, hydrophobia, phobia, technophobia, xenophobia, Zenobia •Nubia • rootbeer • cumbia •Colombia, Columbia •exurbia, Serbia, suburbia •Wiltshire • Flintshire •gaillardia, Nadia, tachycardia •steadier • compendia •Acadia, Arcadia, nadir, stadia •reindeer •acedia, encyclopedia, media, multimedia •Lydia, Numidia •India • belvedere • Claudia •Cambodia, odea, plasmodia, podia, roe-deer •Mafia, raffia, tafia •Philadelphia • hemisphere •planisphere • Montgolfier • Sofia •ecosphere • biosphere • atmosphere •thermosphere • ionosphere •stratosphere • headgear • switchgear •logia • nemesia • menhir

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Mafia booms despite crackdown on capos.
Newspaper article from: Sunday Business (London, England); 1/30/2005
Pasquale Natella. La parola mafia.(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Italica; 12/22/2003
Proving the Mafia aren't goodfellas; REVIEW.
Newspaper article from: The Mail on Sunday (London, England); 2/8/2004

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Mafia. Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

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