desires of a significant sector of the public (Clark, 1970, 69-70).
The Mafia came to the United States in the nineteenth century and arrived along with immigrants from Sicily. In terms of the power it wields and the size of its membership, it is less significant today than it was in the 1920s, 1930s, or 1940s. Gang wars in the 1920s and 1930s exceeded anything seen since World War II. Millions of Italians have immigrated to America, and many of these came to escape the Mafia only to find it transplanted along with the immigrants. The early markets for the Mafia were the ethnic ghettoes of recent immigrants from Italy, but these have disappeared. The Mafia was historically a family affair, but the family tradition has weakened in the Mafia today as the strict discipline and tight organization of the mob have moderated. The federal government plays a strong role in the control of organized crime, for the incidence of interstate activity is high among the syndicates:
The major role of federal enforcement against organized crime is as a liberator of local law enforcement. Federal agents can strike at organized crime that has paralyzed local police. Federal action can place local law enforcement in control again (Clark, 1970, 77).
According to the President's 1967 Commission on Law Enforcement, if organized crime paid taxes on the money it made, everyone else would pay less in taxes. Organized crime has long been divided into groups or "families," each with its own boss. Underlings carry out the orders of the boss and report directly to him. A boss stakes out his own territory and is paid a portion of the profits from all the criminal activity in that area. These criminals do everything they can to keep their activities hidden. Written records are not kept, and the collection and distribution of huge amounts of cash are handled informally. The crime families generally operate in the large cities, such as New York, ...