ions to be a far greater punishment that simply an assassination. If one's family is killed in a particularly
4 See material in Pino Arlacchi, Mafia Business, (London: Verso Press, 1986), passim; Francis Ianni and Elizabeth Reuss Ianni, A Family Business, (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1972), passim. brutal fashion, it is said to send signals to other members of the organization. Nevertheless, Latin criminals have mistresses and casual sexual assignations that are considered part of the "manly" image within the subsection of Latin criminal society.5
As one of the most visible organizations in organized crime, at least in part due to the numerous fictional books and media representations, the Mafia, or La Cosa Nostra, did not begin as a criminal agency. As an organization, it rose to prominence in the thirteenth century as a response to foreign oppression in Sicily. The organizational methods, secrecy, and utter loyalty upon pain of death were further developed through the centurie
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