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Macrophage infiltration and accumulation in the atherosclerotic lesion are associated with plaque progression and instability. Depletion of macrophages from the lesion might provide valuable insights into plaque stabilization processes. Therefore, we assessed the effects of systemic and local macrophage depletion on atherogenesis. To deplete monocytes/macrophages we used atherosclerosis‐susceptible Apoe−/− mice, bearing a MaFIA (macrophage‐Fas‐induced‐apoptosis) suicide construct under control of the Csf1r (CD115) promotor, where selective apoptosis of Csf1r‐expressing cells was induced in a controlled manner, by administration of a drug, AP20187. Systemic induction of apoptosis resulted in a decrease in lesion macrophages and smooth‐muscle cells. Plaque size and necrotic core size remained unaffected. Two weeks after the systemic depletion of macrophages, we observed a replenishment of the myeloid compartment. Myelopoiesis was modulated resulting in an expansion of CSF1Rlo myeloid cells in the circulation and a shift from Ly6chi monocytes toward Ly6cint and Ly6clo populations in the spleen. Local apoptosis induction led to a decrease in plaque burden and macrophage content with marginal effects on the circulating myeloid cells. Local, but not systemic depletion of Csf1r+ myeloid cells resulted in decreased plaque burden. Systemic depletion led to CSF1Rlo‐monocyte expansion in blood, possibly explaining the lack of effects on plaque development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organized crime's governance raises questions about mechanisms facilitating the exercise of illegal authority in society. The present research tested the association between masculine honor ideology and the justification of connivance practices facilitating criminal groups' activities. We examined the novel idea that national identification would attenuate and territorial identification would strengthen such a relationship, reflecting different sources of authority at the national and territorial levels. In Studies 1a and b (N = 398 and N = 399), we measured individuals' endorsement of masculine honor, justification of connivance practices, and national and territorial identifications. In Study 2 (N = 390), we experimentally manipulated the salience of these identities. Results supported the hypotheses that the link between masculine honor and justification of connivance was weaker at higher levels of national identification and stronger at higher levels of territorial identification. Implications and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the role of civic norms for social change after traumatic events, and how do those norms shape collective resistance? The present study seeks to address this urgent query by examining Sicilians' culture war against the mafia. Based on rigorous ethnographic research over a period of 7 years (2016–2023), an extensive database was created, which included 77 commemorative events, a guided city tour, 54 interviews with antimafia activists, and 89 audio–visual recordings totaling 1768 min. I introduce two analytical concepts, "informative rituals" and "transmissive rituals," that offer a new perspective on how activists leverage the civic norms of social bonds to realize their objectives. I argue that shifting civic norms in a post‐traumatic society is not only driven by collective resistance but also requires significant time in the presence of an oppressive force. This study proposes that, for a socially traumatized community attempting to shift civic norms, prolonged and strenuous endeavors are required in order to thoroughly permeate those norms among the general public. The findings demonstrate that the consolidation of civic norms within post‐traumatic societies is highly contingent upon its temporal context and sustainability, which explains why culture wars frequently necessitate a long‐term communal investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How have crime, conflict, and violence shaped the social structure of neighbourhoods across diverse spatial and temporal landscapes in marginalised urban communities? To address to this central question, this study examines the socio‐political dynamics of New York City and Palermo, as well as the role of authoritarian actors, by juxtaposing different historical periods and contrasting the influences of political institutions with extra‐legal entities such as gangs and mafias. Utilising visual images, archival documents, and geographical mapping, the study introduces the concept of 'justice‐based power vacuums'. This novel theoretical concept elucidates the mechanisms through which coercive power fosters social environments susceptible to extra‐legal domination, effectively entrapping vulnerable groups, be they ethnic or racial minorities or economically disadvantaged groups. I argue that while crime, conflict, and violence, especially under the auspices of gangs and mafias, often become the focal point, it is the obscured role of political authorities that stands as the genesis of such complex social problems. The present comparative historical social research indicates that recognising and addressing these obscured political influences is essential for a holistic understanding and subsequent mitigation of the structural challenges in urban social life that create deprived neighbourhoods across time and space similarly and perpetuate marginalisation in these communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that the value of a house depends both on the physical characteristics and on some features of the neighborhood in which it is located. If so, organized‐crime activities can significantly affect urban real estate values. Antimafia policies, in turn, can be intended as a tool to influence those external features. This paper compares the effects on real estate values of the two main antimafia policies implemented in Italy since the 1990s at the municipal level. While we do not find any significant effect of dismissal policies on house prices, we find a statistically significant effect of reassignment policies depending on the specific destination of confiscated property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GIS analyses use moving window methods and hotspot detection to identify point patterns within a given area. Such methods can detect clusters of point events such as crime or disease incidences. Yet, these methods do not account for connections between entities, and thus, areas with relatively sparse event concentrations but high network connectivity may go undetected. We develop two scan methods (i.e., moving window or focal processes), EdgeScan and NDScan, for detecting local spatial‐social connections. These methods capture edges and network density, respectively, for each node in a given focal area. We apply methods to a social network of Mafia members in New York City in the 1960s and to a 2019 spatial network of home‐to‐restaurant visits in Atlanta, Georgia. These methods successfully capture focal areas where Mafia members are highly connected and where restaurant visitors are highly local; these results differ from those derived using traditional spatial hotspot analysis using the Getis–Ord Gi* statistic. Finally, we describe how these methods can be adapted to weighted, directed, and bipartite networks and suggest future improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of almost 7000 Italian municipalities from 2002 to 2019, we investigate how the removal of mafia‐infiltrated firms affects commercial sale and rental prices. We conjecture that targeting mafia businesses leads to a reduction in local disamenities and an increase in the demand for commercial properties. Applying the latest methodologies based on difference‐in‐differences approaches, we show that antimafia policies aimed at confiscating and reassigning mafia firms have positive spillover effects on commercial real estate prices, driving values upward by about 4%. This is especially true for small–medium municipalities in mafia‐ridden provinces. The evidence we provide supports the enforcement of antimafia policies with an economic content, as they pose a threat to criminal financial interests and curb the mafia influence in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workers in the informal transport sector are often exposed to multiple forms of workplace violence, for instance by the police and their colleagues. Through a collection of rich ethnographic stories and using the concept of popular resistance, this article investigates how and under what conditions rickshaw drivers in Bogotá resist violence in their workplace. The results reveal that rickshaw associations have been essential in articulating acts of everyday resistance to the legal ban on this activity, such regulating routes, fees and stops. However, associations have created new forms of oppression, being labelled as mafia‐like organisations, showing that resistance can also translate into new forms of domination. Contrary to the argument that everyday resistance is uncoordinated, this article shows that acts of everyday resistance can be organised by actors that switch between different individual and collective strategies. Thus, organisations can provide a framework to resist the law on an everyday basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Criminal Contagion: How Mafias, Gangsters and Scammers Profit from a Pandemic" is a book written by Tuesday Reitano and Mark Shaw, international crime experts. The book examines how criminals took advantage of the global pandemic to benefit themselves, while ordinary people faced the burden of both a public health crisis and an increase in crime. The authors argue that the flawed government response prioritized policing citizens rather than criminals, endangering public safety and security. The book analyzes various forms of crime that increased during the pandemic, such as cyberattacks, environmental violations, human trafficking, corruption, and fraud. The authors call for immediate action to address the problem of crime and its impact on communities, and they emphasize the importance of reliable information and independent media in combating crime. The book concludes by recommending stronger law enforcement, better governance systems, and respect for human rights to prevent future crime outbreaks. Overall, "Criminal Contagion" provides a critical analysis of the relationship between the pandemic and the growth of criminal activity, filling a gap in the academic literature on this topic. [Extracted from the article]

Distance bounding protocols guarantee a credible distance upper bound between the devices which require the spatial distance as a security parameter to defend Mafia Fraud attacks. However, in RF systems, the realization of distance bounding protocol faces obstacles due to low spectrum efficiency, since the distance bound estimation consumes a significant amount of frequency band in existing schemes. This hinders RF distance bounding from being practically deployed, especially in commonly used ISM bands. In this work, we propose an alternative, spectrum-efficient scheme for RF distance bounding. We build the physical layer as well as a protocol design based on SFCW signal and SFCW ranging. Thus, comparing existing schemes that consume many frequency bands, our scheme frees many spectrum resources. We propose solutions to the unique challenges facing such an SFCW-based scheme design, namely, data communication over unintelligent SFCW signals, and secure synchronization in the SFCW-based challenge-response exchange. We evaluate our scheme via the security analysis and physical layer simulations. The results show (i) its resistance to attacks commonly concerned in distance bounding, (ii) the feasibility of the physical layer design such as accurate ranging and data communication function, and (iii) the communication noise tolerance and the ability of multipath signal discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the occurrence of entrapment, invasion and phobic functioning 'in' and 'out'(side) the consulting room as well as states of mind connected with safety and survival. Patient and therapist set sail on a troubled analytic journey beset by dangerous, terrifying mother imagoes, a mafia gang and a watchful life‐saving ally. It is an epic journey into the unknown that involves inter alia thrills, braving the elements and the antagonistic forces of Thanatos and Eros. 'No one dies and no one is hurt', but emotional storms are created in media res. The patient then takes many flights. Firstly, into the place of her worst 'nightmare' and secondly, into action and inaction. In reality, a truly secure space and object cannot be found – only a feeling of captivity and disintegration remains. The use and function of potent and evocative objects may be significant for the patient in terms of safeguarding against re‐experiencing primitive disasters, while achieving (a retroactive) control and mastery over the original trauma and helplessness. The author navigates a wide range of psychoanalytic theory, finding correspondence between classical and contemporary psychoanalytic traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mafia Raj provides fascinating ethnographic insight into South Asia's criminal bosses. But is "Mafia Raj" reducible to rule by bosses? And what explains the criminalization of capitalism in South Asia? While the volume does not answer these questions, it illuminates the need for an agrarian political economy of criminal capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What happens when a criminal organization operating through hierarchical relations establishes a cooperative institution committed to equal participation? This article explores the organizational intersection of a Mafia cooperative, drawing from a trial case involving several Sicilian mafiosi sharing a social life (convivenza) with laypeople in an agrarian winemaking cooperative. This intersection begs exploration of the Mafia's striving for social consent, which is a relatively understudied feature of organized crime. The Mafia's use of egalitarian practices and lawful organization reveals a process of converting cooperative egalitarianism into a hierarchy. This article explores the Mafia cooperative as a paradoxical institution, and it examines the empirical collapse of conceptual dichotomies of coercion-consent and hierarchical-egalitarian systems of social organization. By investigating a Mafia cooperative and its associated convivenza, the article moves beyond such apparent dichotomies to analyze complex outcomes of this social life and to propose a Gramscian attention to consent rather than the traditional focus on violence in Mafia studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminal organizations have a strong influence on social, political, and economic life in Italy and other parts of the world. Nonetheless, local populations display collective passivity against organized crime, a phenomenon known as omertà. Omertà is linked to the concepts of honor and masculinity. That is, in order to fit ideological constructions of manliness, individuals should display indifference toward illegal activities and should not collaborate with legal institutions. In two studies, we investigated the link between endorsement of a masculine honor ideology and collective action intentions against criminal organizations (antimafia). Study 1 ( N = 121) involved a Northern Italian sample, and Study 2 ( N = 301) involved a Southern Italian sample. Across studies, results showed that endorsement of masculine honor ideology was associated with lower willingness to engage in social activism against criminal organizations. This relationship was mediated by attitudes toward criminal organizations (Study 1 and 2) and, in line with the notion of omertà, by lower levels of collective motive and more anxiety about interacting with police (Study 2). Directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular and political discourses about drug trafficking are premised on a gender binary based on sexist stereotypes. Simply put, popular and political discourses about drug trafficking tend to describe men as the brains and women as mere bodies. Academic research on drug mules and drug trafficking tends to rely on, rather than problematise, this gender binary, limiting contemporary enquiry and knowledge about drug trafficking. Furthermore, this gendered binary informs anti-drug trafficking policy international in harmful ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a model that can contribute to the detection of legally registered firms defined as Mafia firms ( LMFs) due to having been confiscated by judicial authorities, in relation to alleged connections of their owners with Italian organized crime. The model correctly classifies 76.41% of firms within a matched sample of 852 firm-years including LMFs and lawful firms. Furthermore, we present an analysis of financial statement characteristics of singular private firms which are socially irresponsible by nature and whose incentives, modus operandi and legal financial statement formats differ from those of listed companies. In particular, we show that specific accruals and earnings management proxies may provide more insight into accounting manipulation patterns of LMFs. More importantly, our paper can help practitioners and regulators identify accounting signals that can be used in risk assessment models or in the detection of criminal infiltrations and related illicit practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Background In popular culture, Mafia members are often portrayed as ruthless, callous and remorseless, but there is no empirical research on their personality traits. Aims The goal of this research was to examine levels of psychopathic traits among Mafia members who have been convicted of a criminal offence. Methods The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) rated 30 Italian adult male prisoners who had been convicted for Mafia-related crimes (86% resident in one 6-month period) and 39 next adjacent convicted men who were not enrolled in any criminal organisation. Results Mafia members obtained lower PCL-R total scores, interpersonal and affective (PCL-R factor 1) scores and lifestyle scores (factor 2) than the other offenders. Logistic regression analysis showed that lower PCL-R factor 1 scores with higher factor 2 scores in the absence of a history of substance misuse disorder distinguished Mafia from non-Mafia offenders. A probability curve confirmed an exponential growth in the probability of classification as a Mafia member in relation to lower PCL-R factor 1 scores. Conclusions Our findings bring new hope for resocialisation of convicted Mafia members, because they showed significant antisocial traits but they maintained a capacity for emotional connection and greater likelihood of engaging with training and resocialisation programmes than other imprisoned offenders in Italy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop an agency model of organized crime accounting for the main trade-offs involved in the introduction of an accomplice-witness program. We characterize the optimal policy and identify its main determinants in a framework where public officials can be dishonest. Our predictions are tested by using data for Italy before and after the introduction of the 1991 accomplice-witness program. As predicted by the model and the earlier antitrust literature, the program appears to have strengthened deterrence and enhanced prosecution. Moreover, consistent with a novel prediction of our theory, the evidence suggests that the program efficacy is affected by the judicial system efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the reception of the architectural style known as ' Mafia Baroque' within the professions of architecture and urban planning in Bulgaria. The debate within these professions was strongly linked to the general decline of power among former intellectual elites and the specific decline of architects and planners, who were sidelined as arbiters of 'good taste' and disempowered as regulators of urban growth. The reaction to this style also highlights the rise in public concern over corruption and organized crime and dissatisfaction with post-socialist urbanization. This paper chronicles the extent of changes in construction and regulation in Bulgaria during the 1990s and argues that planners and architects were challenged not only by their professional marginalization but also by a deeper embarrassment over cultural change. It then relates this debate to broader post-socialist anxieties over insufficient regulation of urbanization and fear of failing to meet Western European goals for economic and political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT As the concept of radio-frequency identification (RFID) relay attack has been successfully implemented and demonstrated, the research of RFID distance-bounding protocols to deter RFID relay attacks has drawn much attention from both the industry and academia. Conventionally, researchers adopted linear composition of secrets to resist terrorist fraud attacks. Recently, Peris-Lopez et al. studied the weaknesses of previous RFID distance-bounding protocols and proposed that non-linear composition of secrets and inclusion of more random nonce could help RFID resist key disclosure attack and terrorist fraud attack. In this paper, we will show that non-linear composition of secrets cannot help enhance the security actually. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, paramilitary groups and the Colombian state have jointly policed marginal neighborhoods of the city of Medellin. Using evidence from events that have marked the history of this Colombian city, I argue that the murky pact between paramilitary and state forces reveal the nature of the state, as a force of capture, and of its sovereignty. Building on the analysis of the Italian word intreccio (intertwining) that Jane and Peter Schneider use to analyze the Sicilian Mafia and its link to the Italian state, and using Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the 'war machine' acquired by the state for reterritorialization, I suggest that the intertwinement between the state and organized crime is a manifestation of the presence of the state, not of its absence at the margins. I conclude that this intertwinement is not a sign of the state's weakness but of its power; a proof of the state's effectiveness, not of its failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abstract presents social science abstracts that deal with such topics related to collective memory as Italian colonial history and social memory attached to Spain's Alhambra palace complex, along with the contemporary mafia's connection to international capitalism.

Like modern capitalism, mafia phenomena are seeing considerable development reflecting both major socio-historical transformations and continuities. In the present article, based on a reading of the abundant literature in Italian, English, and French on the mafia and other criminal phenomena, we shall target and analyse three basic, interdependent characteristics of today’s mafia: (1) the growing internationalisation of economic enterprise by mafias in processes of globalised capital accumulation, requiring both a great capacity for integration into the transnational flow of international trade and strong roots in socio-economic territories to be controlled and exploited; (2) a capacity to exert recognised political authority legitimated by segments of the political authorities (central and local government) functioning in simultaneous competition and cooperation with mafia bosses; and (3) approval and support from certain strata in local populations, which may address demands for authority, goods, and services to mafia members who are in a position to provide them with jobs and services, amounting to a real mafia welfare system in certain territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Apulian (South of Italy) territory saw the birth of a criminal organization called Sacra Corona Unita (SCU, United Holy Crown) which transformed the rules of traditional mafia organizations. This work examined 83 victims of the SCU between 1980 and 2000. The bodies were mainly of SCU members and in some cases, of police and law enforcement officers and other citizens caught in the crossfire. Some of these were discovered; thanks to the collaboration of “repented” SCU members who became police informers. The condition of the bodies varied in relation to the date and manner of killing. In some cases anthropometric research methods were necessary. In 73% of the cases, lesions of the head were the only marks left on the body. In conclusion, the existence of some social aspects connected with the symbolisms and membership rites that characterized the origin, evolution, and decline of the SCU is stressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between caste identities and electoral democracy in India. Drawing from fieldwork in Bihar, I suggest that at the center of what is popularly referred to as “caste politics” is the influence of local relations of dominance and subordination on electoral practice, resulting in what I refer to as “territorial democracy.” The article examines how a politics of caste empowerment has challenged a long history of upper caste hegemony, contributing to a breakdown of state institutions as newly elected lower-caste politicians have clashed with an overwhelmingly upper-caste bureaucracy. The article seeks to demonstrate the radical potentiality of democracy and argues that an ethnographic mapping of the ways in which electoral practice is embedded within local power configurations is necessary in order to understand the dynamics and implications of democracy in the postcolonial world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 1990s, due to increasing immigration to the Czech Republic, a middleman system has been established in order to organise (irregular) labour of migrants mostly from Ukraine. Due to its extent, the breadth of activities involved and interconnection with Mafia structures, this system is relatively specific and plays a significant role within the labour migration environment. With respect to the fact that the middlemen and the migrant workers are mostly from Ukraine, we regard the entire system as a type of ethnic economy. This system has two hierarchic levels, the first of which deals with the procurement of irregular migrant labour. The second level is based on the relations between middlemen and organised crime. The paper tries to explain the causes for the establishment of the middleman system of labour organisation, to describe its operation, and the roles and mutual links among individual actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the disjointed, incomplete and often malfunctioning techno-natural networks that make up the Sicilian hydraulic system and the social power relations associated with them, which shape access to and distribution of water in Sicily. We focus on how the perceived, and occasionally real, water scarcity on the island may be understood as a socio-environmental or techno-natural problem deriving from a combination of ecological, political and socio-economic factors. First, we show how a particular set of socio-environmental relations and entanglements has characterized this region since the unification of Italy in the mid-nineteenth century. These relations have proven to be extremely resilient over time because of their ability to adapt to changing political and economic contexts. We examine those relations and entanglements through considering the techno-natural water infrastructures on the island and how they express particular political and social power configurations. Our main empirical focus is on the Sicilian water crisis of summer 2002, which was a particularly revelatory moment as far as the socio-natural power relations involved in access to water were concerned... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the strategic interaction between a firm, an extortionary mafia, and a potentially corrupt government. The model identifies several results. First, government spending is not monotonic in revenues. Second, although the firm wants the government to challenge the mafia (it uses the threat of electoral sanctions to induce the government to do so), in equilibrium, the firm does not directly appeal to the government for protection even though it is extorted. The more likely the government is to uncover mafia extortion independent of an appeal from the firm, the more effective the firm's threat of electoral sanction is at motivating the government to invest in law enforcement. This is because the electoral threat to punish failure on the government's part is only a compelling reason to invest in law enforcement when the government actually expects to confront the mafia. This same logic also implies that the relationship between mafia strength and government corruption is somewhat counterintuitive. When the mafia is strong in equilibrium (i.e. pervasive and extorting large fees), the government is not very corrupt. When the mafia is weak, the government is highly corrupt. Finally, an extension shows that if the mafia and government can collude, then the harsher the threatened sanctions against the mafia, the less likely the government is to challenge the mafia because the mafia is more willing to bribe the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the social politics of two contemporary gangster/gangsta narratives, David Chase's television series The Sopranos and Jim Jarmusch's film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. A pragmatic portrayal of the Mafia in mainstream American culture, The Sopranos dramatizes the struggle of the middle-class American family as mob life. The Soprano clan's vitality lies not in the impermeability of its mob organization so much as in its sense of entitlement to social status and financial success. David Chase's series sets out in broad strokes a complex portrait of a mob fully entrenched in American capitalism. The Sopranos and Ghost Dog taken as fin de si'ecle gangster stories depict a logical evolution of their respective narrative expectations and contemporary social conditions. Each narrative foregrounds the importance of a code, but whereas Ghost Dog becomes and succumbs to the warrior role of his code, Tony struggles to bridge the gap between the power of the Godfather in a fictional mobster past and his baby-boomer middle-age anxieties. Both contemporary gangster/gangsta narratives reflect social order: the family and class anxieties central to Italian American culture contrast the social alienation and disenfranchisement in African American culture.

In the immediate aftermath of September 11, we circulated an essay outlining possible comparisons between the1980s and 1990s repression of organized crime in Italy and Sicily and the pending repression of the al-Qaeda network. Distributed in several countries, and as a contribution to the Anthropological Quarterly's reflections on September 11, the essay elicited critical and provocative commentary. Respondents questioned, in particular, our neglect of abuses of civil liberties in the antimafia process, our implied conflation of racketeering with religious extremism, and our positive assessment of the role of citizens' social movements in delegitimating terrorist violence. In this article, we address these and related criticisms, in part through expanding and clarifying the original argument. Our premise at the time, that the rhetoric (and pursuit) of a "war" on terrorism distorts what should be framed as a repressive action against a cellular and networked, violent and secretive organization, is reinforced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explain the reasons for the persistence and transformation of the mafia, a problem not addressed directly in the literature. The cultural codes of honour and of instrumental friendship are analysed. These codes served to train groups and individuals to competitiveness and to a particular relationship with the state. This led to the emergence of mafia when, with the Unification of Italy, the Sicilian periphery encountered the Italian national state. The promotion of economic development over the last thirty years has had the effect of helping the mafia to spread rather than that of eliminating it. The thesis of the article is that the continuity of the mafia derives from its capacity to adapt continually to change. This happens because the mafia groups are not relics of the past, but were formed as a result of a specific combination of ancient and modern, a mixture of private violence and the legitimate violence of the state, of competition for economic resources in the market and the absence of regulatory standards for economic activities other than violence. In this sense, the mafia is a phenomenon typical of what can be defined as a process of social hybridization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"What is the worth of moral values that only inform easy decisions but are impotent in more difficult circumstances?" Yet should one not at times tailor one's moral views to suit circumstances? Drawing on his personal business experience in Taiwan Peter Huang reflects on the ethical issues raised by trying to do business honestly in a climate of organised crime. Currently completing his MBA at London Business School, he is of Taiwanese origin and returned there from Canada to found his own design company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to a topic on "Bringing together scattered and localized actors: political consumerism as a tool for self-organizing anti-mafia communities" is presented.

Information on the criminal organization Cosa Nostra in Sicily, Italy taken from a chapter of the book "Frommer's Italy, 2008" is presented. Members of the Sicilian Mafia, or Men of Honor, traditionally operated as a network of regional bosses who controlled individual towns by setting up puppet regimes of corrupt officials. It is noted that Sicilian Mafia was transformed into a world player on international drug trafficking. It mentions that programs are being conducted to loosen the stronghold of the Cosa Nostra.

Information on Italy's Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra from Chapter 17 of the book "Frommer's Italy, 2007" is presented. Members of the Sicilian Mafia traditionally operated as a network of regional bosses who controlled individual towns by setting up puppet regimes of thoroughly corrupt officials. The new generation was wiping out the old and turning the balance of power in their favor. Even in Palermo, the grip of Cosa Nostra is loosening. In 2000, the city hosted a United Nations conference on combating organized crime.

The article offers information about South Africa's police chief Jackie Selebi, who has been accused for his links to organized crime. Selebi, head of Interpol, after investigation admitted his friendship with Glen Agliotti, an alleged underworld figure. Selebi is claiming hi innocence, however, the Scorpions investigated him.

Information about illegal immigration discussed during the Euro-African migration and Development Conference is presented. All members of the European Union, five other states, and 28 African states participated in the conference. Spain, Morocco, and France created a plan of border reinforcement and security measures, repatriation of illegal immigrants, and close surveillance of mafias responsible for human trafficking.

The article presents information on the criminal organization called Mafia. In Sicily, Italy, people call the organization Cosa Nostra, which means "our thing" or "this thing we have." Members of the Sicilian Mafia, also known as the Men of Honor, traditionally operated as a network of regional bosses who controlled individual towns by setting up puppet regimes of thoroughly corrupt officials.

The article gives information on the Columbia Broadcasting System's well directed and acted movie version of Sidney Sheldon's best-selling novel, "If Tomorrow Comes." The heroine, a junior officer in a bank, becomes pregnant by her fiancé, a scion of Boston society. When her mother commits suicide, the heroine goes to New Orleans, learns that a Mafia had bought her mother's company with a small down payment, sold off the assets and diverted the cash, fired the employees who kept it profitable, ran it into the ground and let it go bankrupt. She is later sentenced to prison. Here she is stunned when the judge sentences her to 15 years in prison, unaware that both judge and defender also are the don's hirelings. By a succession of devices known to her as a trained computer user, she tricks the Mafia don into killing his hirelings and the Mafia commission in Chicago into killing their don. Later she becomes a female Raffles and joins a gang of jewel thieves in Paris run by a mastermind who explains that he only robs the very rich because they obtained their wealth by robbing the very poor.

The article recalls the history of the Sicilian Mafia, also called Men of Honor or Cosa Nostra, in Italy. The regional bosses in the Mafia establish puppet regimes of corrupt officials in individual towns. Low-level protection rackets and the awarding of public contracts to fellow mafiosi served as the sources of income of the Cosa Nostra in the 1960s and 1970s. Also noted is the emergence of the first Mafia turncoats due to changes in Mafia operation.

This section from Chapter 17 of the book "Frommer's Italy 2010" provides an overview of the history of the Sicilian Mafia. Members of the Sicilian Mafia operated as a network of regional bosses who controlled towns in Sicily. The younger generation of Mafia underbosses entered heroin and cocaine trades in the 1970s. The Mafia still exists in Palermo and the provincial capitals of Catania, Trapani and Agrigento.

The article focuses on the violence against African immigrant farm workers that started with a shooting incident on January 7, 2010 in the town of Rosarno in Calabria, Italy leading to the injury of 67 people. According to Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, the violence was due to tolerance of clandestine immigration. Peace and order were only restored in January 9 when the police moved and escorted the immigrants holding centers in Crotone and Bari. It notes that the violence was Mafia rooted.

Information on Men of Dishonor from Chapter 17 of the book "Frommer's Italy, 2009" is presented. Members of the Sicilian Mafia (or "Men of Honor," as they like to be called) traditionally operated as a network of regional bosses who controlled individual towns by setting up puppet regimes of thoroughly corrupt officials.