Why Don't They Kill Anymore? Organization, Violence and Changes in Italian Mafias

Why Don't They Kill Anymore? Organization, Violence and Changes in Italian Mafias

Italian mafias—Cosa Nostra, Camorra, and ‘Ndrangheta—are long-lived, resilient organizations that have evolved to adapt to environmental changes. They have different organizational models. While Cosa Nostra (in the past) and ‘Ndrangheta are characterized by a unitary, vertical structure and higher-level coordination bodies, Camorra has a plurality of organizational models; the majority of clans maintain a structure that is fluid, polycentric, and conflictual. In general, mafias with a vertical organizational order have greater control over conflict, and greater capacity to resist state power. In recent years there have been significant changes in the use of violence by the three Italian mafias. They greatly reduced killing each other, except in a few cases, and above all they have stopped committing high profile murders (judges, politicians, journalists, ecc.). Why? The talk will try to answer this question. 

Maurizio Catino, Professor of Sociology of Organizations, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan - Bicocca, Milan, Italy

Maurizio Catino is Professor of Sociology of Organizations in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Milan - Bicocca, Italy, and Visiting Scholar in the Department of Sociology at New York University. His research focuses on the dark side of organizations, and on the organizational aspects of organized crime. His work has been published, among others, in Organization Studies, Social Networks, European Journal of Sociology, Scandinavian Journal of Management. His last books are: Organizational myopia (Cambridge University Press, 2013); Mafia organizations. The visible hand of criminal enterprise (Cambridge University Press, 2019); Scapegoating in organizations (forthcoming).