Mafia is a type of organized crime syndicate that primarily practices protection racketeering — the use of violent intimidation to manipulate local economic activity, especially illicit trade; secondary activities may be practiced such as drug-trafficking, loan sharking and fraud. Being bonded together by a code of honour, in particular the code of silence (or omertà in southern Italy), safeguards the Mafia from outside intrusion and law enforcement action.[1]
The term was originally applied to the Sicilian Mafia, but has since expanded to encompass other organizations of similar methods and purpose, e.g. "the Russian Mafia", "the Japanese Mafia", or "the Albanian Mafia". The term is applied informally by the press and public; the criminal organizations themselves have their own terms (e.g. the Sicilian and American Mafia calls itself "Cosa Nostra", the Mexican Mafia calls itself La Eme and the "Japanese Mafia" calls itself yakuza). When used alone, "Mafia" typically refers to either the Sicilian Mafia or the American Mafia.The Italian term "Mafia" (sometimes spelled "Maffia" in early texts) was created in Sicily, but there are several theories about its origin. That area of Southern Italy, in fact, was an Islamic emirate (the Emirate of Sicily) between 827 and 1091. Therefore, the Sicilian adjective mafiusu (in Italian: mafioso) may derive from the slang Arabic mahyas (مهياص), meaning "aggressive boasting, bragging", or marfud (مرفوض) meaning "rejected". In reference to a man, mafiusu in 19th century Sicily was ambiguous, signifying a bully, arrogant but also fearless, enterprising, and proud, according to scholar Diego Gambetta.[2] In reference to a woman, however, the feminine-form adjective "mafiusa" means beautiful and attractive.he public's association of the word with the criminal secret society was perhaps inspired by the 1863 play "I mafiusi di la Vicaria" ("The Mafiosi of the Vicaria") by Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaetano Mosca. The words Mafia and...