The Mafia originally referred to a very specific type of organized crime entity that emerged in Sicily, but which

eventually expanded into Italy and beyond. The primary activities of this original mafia included

protection rackets along the lines of, this is a nice store you've got here, it would be a shame

if anything were to happen to it, but they also tended to be involved in gambling, loan sharking, drug trafficking, prostitution, and other industries that fell outside

the realm of legal behavior in their area. So they tended to invest themselves anywhere where

their muscle and willingness to act outside the law and their relationships and reputation would allow them to

profitably insert themselves as middlemen to skim some of the resources from that particular

activity. The mafia label has in more recent times been applied to other groups and other cultures

that operate according to similar

principles and business models. In Japan, they have the Yakuza. In Russia, they have the

Braavah, but there are variations on this theme pretty much everywhere, and the complexity

of their schemes and manipulations have grown increasingly complex and intermingled

with the law and politics and religion,

and essentially every other aspect of society as well.

This intertwining, of course, is part of what allows such group to operate with, if not complete, impunity,

with at least a high level of indemnity from the law.

Their activities garner resources,

and resources pretty much everywhere, can help a person or a group gain access to privileges that others don't have access to. A mob boss, then, can be at the center of countless

violent crimes, but the FBI might have trouble ever getting enough evidence and witnesses together,

enough witnesses that survived to testify at trial, at least, to build a strong case.

The boss of a Chicago-based mafia-like syndicate called the Chicago outfit,

Al Capone, sometimes called Scarface, was famously put in prison

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