Organised crime is now endemic to all advanced societies, and it has been become customary to refer to it everywhere as a 'mafia'. The first problem is to ascertain if there are special characteristics which distinguish the criminality of the mafia in Sicily and in Italy from other forms of crime. Umberto Santino has written extensively on the Sicilian mafia and the growth of other 'mafias' worldwide. He considers the historical phases of mafia development, highlighting its capacity to conserve and alter certain defining characteristics. Antonino Cutrera, writing in 1900, examines the rural mafia active in his own time, but identifies many of the characteristics which will define the mafia in all phases. Giuseppe Fava was a novelist and playwright from Catania, killed in 1984 outside a theatre where an anti-mafia play of his was being performed. He considers the transition from rural to urban mafia in his play.