Mafia rules. The role of criminal codes in mafia organizations

Maurizio Catino

Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2015, vol. 31, issue 4, 536-548

Abstract: How can organizations that lack mechanisms of legal dispute resolution and cannot create binding contracts work efficiently? They establish and enforce organizational rules. Rules are an essential aspect in the life of any organization, and they are even more important for criminal organizations because they serve to regulate interaction among dishonest people. Using a wide range of sources, this article analyzes the role of rules in mafias, in particular in the Sicilian “Cosa Nostra” and the American “La Cosa Nostra”. The main contribution of this paper is to unveil the organizational rationality of mafia rules. Through a comprehensive analysis of the few written, and several unwritten rules, I find that rules in mafias serve three main goals: (1) to ensure organization, coordination, and cooperation among members; (2) to settle conflicts and contain violence; and (3) to maintain secrecy and conceal information.

Keywords: Organizational rules; Mafias; Criminal organizations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956522115000652
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:scaman:v:31:y:2015:i:4:p:536-548

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/872/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/872/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2015.10.001

Access Statistics for this article

Scandinavian Journal of Management is currently edited by Janne Tienari

More articles in Scandinavian Journal of Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().