David Chirko, A.B.
Psychological researcher/author
Sudbury, Canada
Come sir bruscia questa Santa cosi si brucera la mia anima
Origins
The Mafia (“swagger,” in Italian), also termed Cosa Nostra (“Our Thing”), Dorigo (1992) explains originated in nineteenth century Sicily. Another crime group, from Calabria, southern Italy, was Onorta Societa, or the Honored Society (also labelled ‘Ndrangheta [Calandra and Antonino, 2016]). Dorigo adds that, markedly more urban than the aforementioned two was Camorra, from Naples, Italy. Also arising from there, the unorganized Black Hand, an extortion racket in lieu of a gang.
Dorigo says these Mafia type groups proliferated probably via sheer opportunity, in an Italy disunited and in tumult, which created a breeding ground for miscreants. Coupled by the Industrial Revolution, opulence flourished. Subsequently, this offered Mafiosi technological tools to purloin from a citizenry who, materially, now had more to lose.
When Italians came to America many first resided in impoverished, sordid sectors of Chicago and New York City. Concomitant with this was, sociologically speaking, the fruition of “ethnic succession in organized crime” (Dorigo, 1992, p. 10). Further, every new wave of immigrants ushered in displaced the present entity. Thus the Italians displaced the Jews, who displaced the Irish, before them. Through hard work and personal aggrandizement they advanced, but some got ahead by resorting to criminal activities—as thugs and/or racketeers. The youth turned to bootlegging illegal liquor, most lucrative in the Prohibition Era of the 1920’s. Zion (1994) avers gambling and prostitution were soon added to those activities.
Environmental Influences
Le Vien and Papa (1993) recount how Mafioso Sammy “The Bull” Gravano (Gambino Family underboss) apprised defense lawyer Albert Krieger that he grew up in a certain environment, with a seemingly satisfactory lifestyle, fostering crime. Therein he felt impelled to freely choose, sans any victimization, to join local gangs. Moreover, in the above text, criminal psychologist Gerald Lynch maintains the Mafia is a criminal subculture with its own expectations. Further, he explains, it is through a criminal life in the Mafia one can be accepted as a man (identification). Nevertheless, members may shift responsibility on the culture they were exposed to, saying fatuously that they were not totally cognizant of their antisocial actions performed at the time (denial).
Regarding how gangsters thought of themselves Al Capone, in 1929, summarized it succinctly: “Don’t get the idea that I’m one of those…radicals. My rackets are run along strict American lines. This…system of ours…capitalism…gives…every one…a great opportunity if we…seize it…. I make…money…supplying…public demand. If I break the law, my customers are as guilty as I am. I call myself a businessman” (Zion, 1994, OBC).
Mafia Influence on Environment
Extrapolating from the previous observation, Zion (1994) personally describes how some Irish, Jewish, and Italian gangsters pursuing the American dream worked in tandem with vitiated law enforcement personnel and politicians. Subsequently, those employed in banking, business, entertainment, medicine, organized labor, etc., all profited. By the 1960’s they would lose their stronghold after liquor and gambling were legalized. They then turned to marketing drugs for money. Thus a more precarious turf enveloped operations and the Mafia began battling itself, through murder, for gain—later squealing to the law, when necessary for survival. Combined with the fact prosecution became more vigorous and laws enhanced to apprehend mobsters, marked a lessening of Mafia manipulation in American society.
Family Structure
There is a hierarchical structure in the Mafia. Scarpinato (2016), alluding to Lo Verso (1998, 53), explains that, before being an organization of a criminal nature, a family system was psychologically organized whereby disobedience to it was intimidating and exorbitant guilt and terror could ensue. Its modalities are adumbrated below.
“The Mafia member builds his identity in a saturated family, in…that a thinking autonomy cannot be conceivable for children.” This is all reflected by the intentions of criminal hegemony. In these families there are a plenitude of secrets that must not be betrayed. Therefore, culturally, pluralism is not embraced (regarding trust with outsiders).
They are influenced profoundly when, Scarpinato (2016) explains, “…a dichotomic thought prevails (black–white), which supports…separation between social Us (enemy) and familiar Us (friend)…. “ (splitting). Moreover, offspring, like people in a military or church, are to be unswervingly obedient. Here ambivalence, spontaneity and critical excogitation are not tolerated. Therefore, any subjectification is rescinded because the biological family is colored by the Mafia’s saturation of its evolutionary development (Lo Verso, 1998, 56). One’s individual psyche is supplanted by a collective psyche of his world.
“The Commission,” a governing body, is germane to Mafia social structure, organized under five individual (capitalized “F”) Families: Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese. They operate and/or influence various areas of New York City and its environs (Lupo, 2015). (Not to mention Chicago, et al, with their bosses, too.) Sonny (2014) purveys ten rules Mafiosi must live by: a third person must introduce any member to a member of another Family; never covet any friend’s woman; eschew police; don’t frequent clubs and bars; always avail yourself to the Mafia; keep your word; treat wives respectfully; say the truth; maintain your finances; and, remember, one cannot be “made” if their close relative is a cop, so never associate with such “unethical” people.
Mafia Group Power Structure
Le Vien and Papa (1993) itemize the various positions pertinent in Mafia group operations. The main ones defined as:
Administration: upper echelon of a crime Family, comprised of boss, underboss and consiglieri.
Associate: somebody who works with Mafiosi, but has yet to be sworn in as a fully fledged member of a crime Family; latter also called borgata, or brugad.
Boss: the don or chairman, who has the unique power to “make” or accept someone as a “wiseguy,” or to have them “whacked” or killed. He derives profits from all operations of the Family.
Consiglieri: one who provides advice to the boss and settles disputes in the ranks.
Made Man: Mafia member; also called a button, goodfella, Man of Honor, soldier, or wiseguy.
They are initiated through a private ceremony, wherein members of a Mafia Family, with relatives, witness finger pricked blood sharing between an initiator and a recruit, rubbed on a holy card, then burned. The utterance of sacrosanct words in Italian (as in the epigraph), follow, translated: “As burns this Saint so will burn my soul” (p. 54). Omerta, the code of silence and honor, is then accepted.
Rat: also known as a canary, snitch, squealer, or stool pigeon, is a member who disobeys Omerta.
And Nagpal (2023), lists:
Capo: abbreviation for a “capodecina,” who is the skipper with a working crew. Also called a caporegime, captain, or lieutenant. His crew can contain 20 to 1,500 (foot) soldiers.
Underboss: one assuming the role of boss when the latter cannot fulfill his role, if said is in, say, an insalubrious state.
Mafia Psychology Research
Mafia dynamics, and its ruinous impact on the psychosocial, economic and environmental dimensions, will be examined through the mobsters who were victimized.
Calandra and Antonino (2016), in group studies on the Mafia, revealed the following:
“…common traits and…specific characteristic of the…Mafia…are detected through…group analytic assumptions relating to Mafia Psychism.” Therefore, family roots, blood ties, territory, and power mold a (tribal) culture which is identified psychologically and anthropologically. The tools to accomplish this are generational throughout the societies. It is commonplace for former Mafia associates who collaborate with the justice system to designate all of the responsibility for their previous crimes on their roots, they say they ineluctably came from, and thus had no control over (projection and externalization). Intervention models are essential in assisting former Mafiosi, so to preclude psychopathology, like identity problems via drug addiction, depression, or personality disorders, and issues within their families and society.
Regarding psychopathology, issues like a mobster’s feelings of guilt, if they experience such, were dealt with via confession to a priest. However, this became unfeasible since Pope Francis began excommunicating Mafiosi in Italy and elsewhere (Rome Reports, 2014).
Some Mafiosi are psychopathic, entailing, according to “…the Big Five Model of Personality [sans the “openness” factor]…a mixture of high extraversion, low conscientiousness and agreeableness, and a combination of low and high neuroticism (depression [if clinically plausible?], low anxiety, self-consciousness, vulnerability to stress, high impulsiveness, and hostility)” (Tharshini, et al, 2021). However the dark triad includes the aforementioned, also narcissistic personality disorder (egotistical, attention seeking), Machiavellian personality (personality construct, where ends justify means) and, lately, sadistic personality (enjoyment of violence)—producing the dark tetrad. Some argue these traits are interchangeable (“Dark triad,” 2024). Surely, many mobsters share some of them, expedient in assisting them to carry out egregious tasks they are assigned.
Schimmenti, et al (2014), delved 30 Mafia convicts in Palermo, Sicily. None of them scored above the 30 point cutoff in the PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist Revised). They aver that, regarding personality profiles, empirical studies are lacking, but emotionality is prevalent in Mafiosi. Members can be resocialized and rehabilitated, and few possess substance abuse disorders. Neuroskeptic (2019) reminds us Mafia bosses were not interviewed. Moreover, historically, because Omerta could be violated, Mafiosi never expressed their personal issues to psychotherapists. In fact, alluding to the inaccuracy of the glorified TV show The Sopranos, where boss Tony Soprano visited a psychiatrist, Michael Franzese (former Colombo Family caporegime) sets the record straight, stating that “If a mob boss was ever visiting a psychiatrist he’d be in the trunk of his car by the end of the week, along with the psychiatrist” (La Vecchia, 2023). Franzese told Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson that, regarding the Mafia, “…I don’t know any family of any member of that life…that hasn’t been totally devastated and I…blamed them in a big way early on.” He adds, “I had a real resentment for them” (Bite Size, 2022).
Mafia Women
Carabellese, et al (2021), found in their study that, until 30 years ago, the female role in the Mafia, identified in judicial documents, et al, was not ascertainable, because the brotherhood had always been dominated by men. Women’s emancipation changed this, thus more women are prosecuted and incarcerated now.
The authors focus on how preponderant psychopathy is in this group. 20 convicted miscreants in Calabria from the ‘Ndrangheta, and in Campania from the Camorra, were delved. It was Carabellese, et al, who compared them to other female criminals in more common facilities. They noted the anti-social factor was, like with Mafia men, quite low. Data was arduous to acquire, however, just one woman had a PCL-R value beyond cut-off level evaluation (30 out of 40 points).
Since the 1970’s women criminally represented men, internally and socially, in Mafia activities. This, contingent with their work, customs and education. Mafia women inherit their roles from bosses, continuing the business of crime when required, during critical episodes, transiently, although they do not finalize decisions. Trafficking of drugs and financial issues were most common, but lately they often fill the role of a man who is on the lam or immured. They, as well, forward messages (ambasciate) from within prisons or hiding places, to elsewhere. The woman’s maternal role in the patriarchal Mafia family pertains to a meeting ground to demonstrate affection and strategize business dealings.
Mothers also teach daughters to place themselves below male authority, defend the man’s reputation, and choose spouses. Unwed women become the “sisters of Omerta.”
The Mafia cultural code is transmitted by women through their offspring’s socialization; children (and fresh recruits) observe and participate (internalization). It consists of values like silence, maintaining gender differences, disdain for any authority in society, and revenge (intraspecific aggression).
Mafia women, especially, remind their husbands and children about anyone who has wronged and shamed them in the organization. Shame is only mollified when revenge is exacted—even against someone’s relatives, and is called transverse revenge—which in turn preserves honor.
Conclusions
The Italian/Sicilian, later American, Mafia or Cosa Nostra, are criminals comprising Families which are quintessentially nepotistic, tribalistic, and hierarchical. Replete with rituals, traditions and, most importantly, rules enforced through Omerta–their private oath of silence. Anyone culpable of perfidy faces draconian consequences. Gratuitous violence, including murder, is preponderant when necessitated. Revenge is sometimes de rigueur.
Many men, although culturally predisposed, join the Mafia through their own volition, becoming masculinized. They emulate their fathers and are programmed by their mothers. Thus women play an increasingly larger position in Mafia life; besides nurturing they indoctrinate children and help new recruits acclimatize.
Personality profile via the Big Five Model was touched on, addressing psychopathy which was found not as prevalent as portrayed in media. Lives were nevertheless despoiled. Application of the dark triad–psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism–or tetrad, when including sadism, was explored and sometimes found pertinent. The Mafia psyche maintains group solidarity through collectivization, identification and splitting; justifying its actions via projection, externalization, internalization, and denial. Ambivalence and subjectification are not tolerated.
The omnipotence the glamorized Italian/American Mafia once enjoyed has waned, but the same group psychology remains.
References
Bite Size. (2022, November 15). Jordan Peterson & Michael Franzese / What the Mafia Is Really Like [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O pw7VYlmyAI.
Calandra, Francesca, & Antonino, Giorgi. (2016, December 13). The Mafia Psychology: The Study of the ‘Ndrangheta and the Cosa Nostra, pp. 135-177. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-44501-4_7
Carabellese, Felice, Felthous, Alan R., Montalbò, Domenico, La Tegola, Donatella, Carabellese, Fulvio, & Catanesi, Roberto. (2021, January 22). The psychopathic dimension in women of mafia. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. Volume 74, January-February, 2021, 101600. Amsterdam, NL: Elsevier Ltd. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160252720300595
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Dorigo, Joe. (1992). Mafia A Chilling Illustrated History of the Underworld. London, UK: New Burlington Books.
La Vecchia, Tom. (2023). Michael Franzese Tells Vlad What Would Happen If A Mob Boss Had A Psychiatrist. New Theory Podcast Hosted by Tom La Vecchia [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JlzS6-fyKvg
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Lupo, Salvatore. (2015). The Two Mafias: a transatlantic history, 1888-2008. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Scarpinato, Roberto. (2016, December 16). Focus on the Mafia’s Thinking Mindset. World Futures, 71(5-8), 125-136. http://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2015.1113765
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Tharshini, N.K., Ibrahim, Fauziah, Kamaluddin, Mohammad Rahim, Rathakrishnan, Balan, & Nasir, Norruzeyati Che Mohd. (2021, August 17). The Link between Individual Personality Traits and Criminality: A Systematic Review. In Paul B. Tchounwou (Ed.), National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391956/
Zion, Sidney. (1994). Loyalty and Betrayal: The Story of the American Mob. San Francisco, CA: Collins Publishers.