Mafia Organizations: The Visible Hand of Criminal Enterprise

Abstract

The author, Maurizio Catino, has undertaken a meticulous examination of criminal organizations that dominate the illicit marketplace throughout the world. The Mafia, Cosa Nostra, Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta, Triads, Yakuza, and the South American cartels are dissected and their respective nomenclatures compared and contrasted. Catino addresses their relationship to the illicit markets that they operate within and organize in order to minimize risks and maximize profits. Relying upon electronic surveillances, investigative reports, and intelligence sources, Catino takes this ethnographic data and molds it into a series of principles that govern each criminal organization. His research has profoundly advanced our understanding of criminal organizations and the illicit markets they supply. It will likely go down as the most seminal piece of research in the past thirty or more years.