How Did The Mafia Come To Power

In the early 1900’s Italian immigrant had few job opportunities and were forced into poverty. As most Italians saw the Mafia as an ideal opportunity to make some money for themselves and their families, it's no wonder the numbers of mafia members boomed, however,

MAFIA - "a secret association having for its object the illicit control of any enterprise, legitimate or illegitimate, which it decides to infiltrate" (Allen 6).

During the late 19th century and early 20th century, America was having a lot of immigrants coming from Europe and Asia, waves of Italians were going to America for a chance to live a better life. Most of the immigrants were law-abiding, but, some criminals were a part of the immigrant's migration to America. These criminals formed neighborhood gangs, often living off from their own communities. This lead to one of most well-known groups of Organized Crime “The Italian-American Mafia”. The word Mafia tends to mean “manly.”

Because the organization is so large and has an abundance of memebers, they are able to commit an abudance of crimes. Their mostly known for crimes such as: “Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, pier thefts, and fencing”. The Mafia keeps their illegal activities current with the times. When Prohibition was in effect, the familes of the Mafia sold, and disbrubuted alchochol. In the 70’s when illegal drugs became popular, they sold the drugs.

The American Mafia, commonly known as the mafia, is an Italian-American criminal society. The American Mafia had the greatest impact among any criminal organization on the United States throughout its history. The business aspect, structure, and sense of “family” the mafia lived by were extremely strong and contributed to the success they have had. The shows mafia direct ties to United States Government branches, both on a small and large scale, and in both, good and bad ways. Also, the American Mafia has done reconnaissance work for military branches.

The Mafia wasn't just handed there power, control, success, and wealth. The American Mafia had to find a start in its plan to take America. The Mafia first crime in America was prohibition, at this time in America alcohol was illegal, but a profitable business that the Mafia

Police resources became preoccupied, diverting themselves from control within other crimes to the Mafia. The Mafia consequently intensified their ruthlessness, sparking gang wars for control within the illegal practices in order to obtain money for further extortion. High ranking mob members had the ability to loan money at extreme interest rates - 50 to 250 percent a year and their implementation of fear through practice of murders and kidnappings meant the law-enforcement agencies were ineffectual at stopping the Mafia’s growth. The gangsters and collaborating politicians, police and citizens’ unstoppable nature ultimately was recognised as the “corruption of

The Sicilian Mafia was the first of its kind, originating in the late 19th century. It set the precedent for other mafia organizations that later developed all over the world. The American Mafia started in the early 1900’s, with prohibition and prostitution playing a big role in its dominance. In addition, it is important to know that the American Mafia was a completely different group from the Sicilian Mafia, however, the American Mafia did use some of their traditions. Although the groups worked on their own, they have multiple aspects that make them very similar (Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods).

Imagine living in a world where crime ruled. A world where gangsters were more powerful than politicians, owned the police, and ran the city in whatever way they felt. They robbed whom they wanted and killed when they didn't get their way. Now stop imagining and realize that this happened here in the United States of America in the 1920's. It was run by an organization made up mainly of Italians called the Mafia.

The Italian Mafia in the U.S. can trace its origins all the way back to the Sicilian Mafia which was founded in Sicily during the 1800’s (Italian Organized Crime). After thousands of years of different armies with different nationalities conquering Italy and exploiting its people, the Sicilians became to be more clannish and family focused. Originally they were just resistance fighters that were protecting their friends and family. They were relied on for protection, justice, and survival. Nobody cared if they got money from it because it came from the oppressive authorities. Members of these groups were known as “Men of Honor” and they were well respected and even admired because they looked out for their family and kept silent sometimes even unto death. They didn’t become an organized crime group until the 1920’s however (Italian Organized Crime). It was around this same time that the US began to see what later became La Cosa Nostra or “our thing,” better known as the American Mafia which was aided by the “thousands of Italian organized crime figures, mostly Sicilian Mafiosi” who came to the United States illegally (Italian Organized Crime). The modern American Mafia is credited to Charles “Lucky” Luciano who came over in the 1920’s (Italian Organized Crime). Luciano structured La Cosa Nostra just like their Sicilian

“It was during the troubled years of the 1860s that the Italian kingdom’s ruling class ruling class first heard talk of the mafia in Siciliy” (Dickie, s38, 2004). In this quote we find a potential reason to why the idea that the mafia was born during the making of the modern Italian state has become leading with scholars. Most likely this event shaped the mafia into what it has become because of the political influence that the Italian state bestowed upon Sicily. However, it is not unlikely that the mafia wasn’t already existing in Sicily during this time, and most definitely that criminal gangs of Sicily before this time had traits that were transferred into the mafia as it evolved under the new Italian kingdom. While the mafia is largely

The American Mafia, an Italian-American sorted out wrongdoing system with operations in urban communities over the United States, especially New York and Chicago, rose to control through its accomplishment in the illegal alcohol exchange amid the 1920s Prohibition period. After Prohibition, the Mafia moved into other criminal endeavors, from medication trafficking to illicit betting, while additionally invading worker 's parties and honest to goodness organizations, for example, development and New York 's article of clothing industry. The

The Mafia was first developed in Sicily in feudal times to protect the estates of landlords who were out of town. The word Mafia, derived from the Sicilian word, Mafioso, means family. Today, Mafia is a name which describes a loose association of criminal groups. These groups can be bound together by blood, oath or sworn secrecy. Many people had considered the Sicilian Mafia as the most ruthless mobsters of the twentieth century.

     Exactly what is the Mafia? Mafia, more specifically the Italian-American Mafia, is a group of criminals organized into "families," and operating primarily in North America. Also known as La Cosa Nostra, at one time there were 26 families in the United States - roughly one for each major city. The Mafia composed of bosses of numerous families, mostly New York, was the overseeing authority for all of the other La Cosa Nostra families. New York City is the place of origin for organized crime in the United States. Currently, there are five families in the New York City outfit of the La Cosa Nostra. The five families are, the Gambinos, Genovese, Colombo,

The Mafia way of life may seem like a romantic updated version of the western movie played out on the streets of the big cities where the good guys and the wise guys who share the same instincts and values do battle before an enthralled public but it is actually very different. The Mafia is really just a group of uneducated thugs making money by victimizing the public. Initially, the Mafia was setup as a prominent supplier of bootlegged liquor, but it has spread into many different areas of crime. During this research paper I will discuss three aspects of the Mafia which are crime, structure and decline in leadership.