The Mafia and the ‘Problem of the Mafia’: Organised Crime in Italy, 1820-1970

Some years ago, Peter Lupsha explicitly referred to ‘degrees’ of organised crime, identifying three phases of organised crime development: a first ‘predatory’ one, marked by the use of violence to gain control of a given territory; a second ‘corrupting ’ one, during which criminal associations establish relations with the legitimate state authorities; finally, a third ‘symbiotic’ stage, in which they would merge with state authorities, this being an indispensable move in order to attain social legitimacy (Lupsha, 1996). This is an interesting analysis in many ways, yet it tends to regard the three phases as chronologically consecutive, whereas these functions tend to be simultaneously played by criminal associations since the beginning.