Challenging the Mafia Mystique

Challenging the Mafia Mystique PDF Author: Rino Coluccello
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137280506
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
The Sicilian Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, is one of the most intriguing criminal phenomena in the world. It is an unparalleled organised criminal grouping that over almost two centuries has been able not only to successfully permeate licit and illicit economy, politics and civil society, but also to influence and exercise authoritative power over both the underworld and the upper-world. This criminal phenomenon has been a captivating conundrum for scholars of different disciplines who have tried to explain with various paradigms the reasons behind the emergence and consolidation of the mafia. Challenging the Mafia Mystique provides an analysis of the changes the Sicilian mafia has undergone, from legitimisation to denunciation. Rino Coluccello highlights how, from the very emergence of the organised criminal groups in Sicily, a culture existed that was protective and tolerant of the mafia. He argues that the various conceptualisations of the mafia that dominated the public and scientific debate in the nineteenth and more than half of the twentieth century created a mystique, which legitimised the mafia and contributed to their success. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of organised crime, Italian politics and Italian literature.

Challenging the Mafia Mystique

Challenging the Mafia Mystique PDF Author: Rino Coluccello
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137280506
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Sicilian Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, is one of the most intriguing criminal phenomena in the world. It is an unparalleled organised criminal grouping that over almost two centuries has been able not only to successfully permeate licit and illicit economy, politics and civil society, but also to influence and exercise authoritative power over both the underworld and the upper-world. This criminal phenomenon has been a captivating conundrum for scholars of different disciplines who have tried to explain with various paradigms the reasons behind the emergence and consolidation of the mafia. Challenging the Mafia Mystique provides an analysis of the changes the Sicilian mafia has undergone, from legitimisation to denunciation. Rino Coluccello highlights how, from the very emergence of the organised criminal groups in Sicily, a culture existed that was protective and tolerant of the mafia. He argues that the various conceptualisations of the mafia that dominated the public and scientific debate in the nineteenth and more than half of the twentieth century created a mystique, which legitimised the mafia and contributed to their success. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of organised crime, Italian politics and Italian literature.

The Mafia Mystique

The Mafia Mystique PDF Author: Dwight C. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mafia
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This text examines the imagery linked to the term "mafia". The author aims to break down the mystique surrounding the word, attributing its buildup to sensational reporting, hidden agendas and the public's fascination with the idea of a secret criminal society. In tracing this mystique through history, the author determines how much of that image comes from actual events.

Mafia and Organized Crime

Mafia and Organized Crime PDF Author: James O. Finckenauer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1780741650
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
A compelling introduction to the global impact of organized crime Famous for being ruthless, cruel, and cool, the Mafia has always captured the darker side of the imagination. Here, James Finckenauer debunks the myths surrounding the Mafia to reveal the harsh realities of global organized crime from Japan to Russia to Colombia. Despite popular appeal, these incredibly complex organizations destabilize society on a global scale, perpetuating untold economic, physical, psychological, and societal damage. "Mafia and Organized Crime: A Beginner's Guide" provides vital insight into the real stories behind the world's richest and most successful criminals.

Made Men

Made Men PDF Author: Antonio Nicaso
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442222271
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
The novel The Godfather (1969) and the movie of the same name (1972) entrenched the myth of the Mafiosi as valiant knights, men of honor, and defenders of the traditional concept of family. As a result of this movie and other popular portrayals, the image of mobsters as “men of honor and tradition” has become iconic throughout America. Yet the truth of the matter belies this more noble image. The Mafia is a ruthless organization. Their concept of family is a twisted one. But viewed through the lens of popular culture, it is often difficult to separate the fiction from the reality. Made Men demystifies this image by dismantling the code of honor that Mafiosi live by, including its attendant symbols, rituals, and the lifestyle that it demands. Since the end of World War II, the Mafia in Italy and America has undergone major changes, which are charted by the authors through the present day. Nicaso and Danesi also consider all kinds of related organizations, not only the Italian ones, including the Yakuza, the Triads, and the Russian Mafia. The authors look at organized criminal culture in general, attempting to explain why its symbols, rituals, and practices continue to draw people in, both as literal members, or as consumers of the pop culture that glorifies them. This story traces and decodes the origins, history and success of the mafia in the U.S., bringing a better, and more accurate understanding of this ultimately brutal, violent, and corrupting “family business.” It is a story that has rarely been told in this way, but which is believed, nonetheless, important to tell.

Women and the Mafia

Women and the Mafia PDF Author: Giovanni Fiandaca
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387365427
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
The insightful essays in this book shine a new light on the roles of women within criminal networks, roles that in reality are often less traditional than researchers used to think. The book seeks to answer questions from a wide range of academic disciplines and traces the portrait of women tied to organized crime in Italy and around the world. The book offers up accounts of mafia women, and also tales of severe abuse and violence against women.

The Media & the Mob

The Media & the Mob PDF Author: Ron Quartararo
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1479731277
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
The Media & the Mob: Exploring the Mafia Mystique is a fascinating look at the world of media stereotyping. Its a complex issue, shaped in large part my misperceptions, the need, at times, to hype stories for promotional purposes, and by some insensitivities incurred by writers in their haste to get stories completed. This book examines one of the most pervasive ethnic stereotypes that of Italians and Italian Americans and organized crime. While ethnic stereotyping is certainly not the sole province of Italians, it has certainly been one of the most prevalent in both entertainment and news media alike. In this book Quartararo has given the reader an inside look into the mindset of a large news media organization and the process it used for vetting news stories, along with insights into the perceptions and misperceptions that can be created in how news stories are packaged and presented. While this meeting between Italian American representatives from academia, politics and the community at large and high level television broadcast news executives at took place 30 years ago, the discussion is as relevant today as it was then! Both sides came away with a better understanding and appreciation of the other. We hope the reader will do the same.

Deconstructing Organized Crime

Deconstructing Organized Crime PDF Author: Joseph L. Albini
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786492996
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
What is organized crime? There have been many answers over the decades from scholars, governments, the media, pop culture and criminals themselves. These answers cumulatively created a "Mafia Mystique" that dominated discourse until after the Cold War, when transnational organized crime emerged as a pronounced, if nebulous, threat to global security and stability. The authors focus both on the American experience that dominated organized crime scholarship in the second half of the 20th century and on the more recent global scene. Case studies show that organized crime is best understood not as a series of famous gangsters and events but as a structure of everyday life formed by numerous political, social, economic and anthropological variables. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Mafia Organizations

Mafia Organizations PDF Author: Maurizio Catino
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108750931
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
How do mafias work? How do they recruit people, control members, conduct legal and illegal business, and use violence? Why do they establish such a complex mix of rituals, rules, and codes of conduct? And how do they differ? Why do some mafias commit many more murders than others? This book makes sense of mafias as organizations, via a collative analysis of historical accounts, official data, investigative sources, and interviews. Catino presents a comparative study of seven mafias around the world, from three Italian mafias to the American Cosa Nostra, Japanese Yakuza, Chinese Triads, and Russian mafia. He identifies the organizational architecture that characterizes these criminal groups, and relates different organizational models to the use of violence. Furthermore, he advances a theory on the specific functionality of mafia rules and discusses the major organizational dilemmas that mafias face. This book shows that understanding the organizational logic of mafias is an indispensable step in confronting them.

Deconstructing Organized Crime

Deconstructing Organized Crime PDF Author: Joseph L. Albini
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786465808
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
What is organized crime? There have been many answers over the decades from scholars, governments, the media, pop culture and criminals themselves. These answers cumulatively created a "Mafia Mystique" that dominated discourse until after the Cold War, when transnational organized crime emerged as a pronounced, if nebulous, threat to global security and stability. The authors focus both on the American experience that dominated organized crime scholarship in the second half of the 20th century and on the more recent global scene. Case studies show that organized crime is best understood not as a series of famous gangsters and events but as a structure of everyday life formed by numerous political, social, economic and anthropological variables. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

An Offer We Can't Refuse

An Offer We Can't Refuse PDF Author: George De Stefano
Publisher: Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux
ISBN: 9780865479623
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
The Mafia has maintained an enduring hold on the American cultural imagination--even as it continues to wrongly color our real-life perception of Italian Americans. Journalist and cultural critic De Stefano takes a look at the origins and prevalence of the Mafia mythos in America. Beginning with a consideration of Italian emigration in the early twentieth century and the fear and prejudice--among both Americans and Italians--that informed our earliest conception of what was the largest immigrant group to enter the United States, De Stefano explores how these impressions laid the groundwork for the images so familiar to us today and uses them to illuminate and explore the variety and allure of Mafia stories. At the same time, he addresses the lingering power of the goodfella cliché, which makes it all but impossible to green-light a project about the Italian American experience not set in gangland.--From publisher description.