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Mafia organizations take many different forms. In this article I analyze three Italian mafia organizations, the Cosa Nostra (the Sicilian mafia), the Camorra (the Campanian mafia), and the 'Ndrangheta (the Calabrian mafia) and identify two different organizational orders: vertical and horizontal. Mafias with a vertical organizational order are characterized by the presence of higher levels of coordination, centralized power and systemic decision-making processes. In contrast, mafias with a horizontal organizational order are characterized by the absence of higher levels of coordination, and the use of distributed power and clan-based decision-making processes.
The distinction between vertical and horizontal order is relevant to understanding conflict and violence in mafias. Namely, the presence of higher levels of coordination allows mafia organizations to better control conflict and reduce the number of "ordinary" murders committed. At the same time, mafias with vertical organizational orders are in a better position to fight state repression, thus carrying out a greater number of "high-profile" killings (e.g. politicians, magistrates, and other institutional members). However, vertical orders are more visible and therefore more vulnerable to the repressive action of law enforcement agencies. I provide evidence of this argument using a mixed-methods approach that combines a qualitative, organizational analysis of historical and judiciary sources, in order to reconstruct the organizational models and their evolution over time, with a quantitative analysis of assassination trends, in order to relate organizational orders to the use of violence.
This article applies an organizational approach to understand the use of violence in mafia organizations. Organized crime, and mafia in particular, control large and remunerative illegal markets, and also operate in legal markets, sometimes affecting the economic development of entire territories. Nevertheless, organizational studies have not devoted a great deal of time to studying this phenomenon (i.e., cf. Perrow 1986; Handel 2003; Baum 2005; Clegg, Hardy, Lawrence and Nord 2006; Davis and Scott 2007). Furthermore, the few studies of conflict within and between organizations have principally, if not exclusively, related to legitimate organizations (Ackroyd 2009). Sociological studies of conflict have analyzed a wide range of individual and relational factors that account for violent and criminal activities (Collins 2010). In particular, recent studies of violence have brought to the fore the importance of moving from a focus...