How do mafias work? How do they recruit people, control members, conduct legal and illegal business, and use violence? Why do they establish such a complex mix of rituals, rules, and codes of conduct? And how do they differ? Why do some mafias commit many more murders than others? This book makes sense of mafias as organizations, via a collative analysis of historical accounts, official data, investigative sources, and interviews. Catino presents a comparative study of seven mafias around the world, from three Italian mafias to the American Cosa Nostra, Japanese Yakuza, Chinese Triads, and Russian mafia. He identifies the organizational architecture that characterizes these criminal groups, and relates different organizational models to the use of violence. Furthermore, he advances a theory on the specific functionality of mafia rules and discusses the major organizational dilemmas that mafias face. This book shows that understanding the organizational logic of mafias is an indispensable step in confronting them.

‘Mafia Organizations provides a deep analysis of these crime groups throughout Italy and around the world, capturing the essential fact that they are organizations, coping with the same problems with which all organizations must cope, but under extraordinary circumstances that make them unique, and uniquely interesting. Leveraging comparisons for analytic insight, Professor Catino has written what is not only the best book by a social scientist on organized crime, but a study that will fascinate and inform students of organizational behavior and social organization as well.'

Paul DiMaggio - New York University

‘Mafias are complex organizations that face many of the same managerial challenges as legitimate enterprises. Maurizio Catino is well qualified to bring insights from the vast organizational theory literature to understand how Mafias deal with these challenges. While drawing heavily on the many lengthy confessions of members of mafias in Sicily and Southern Italy, a strength of the book is its coverage of mafias in the United States, China and Japan. This is an important addition to the already rich literature on Mafias.'

Peter Reuter - University of Maryland

'Catino offers a fascinating study of the practices of Mafias, making a compelling case for analyzing Mafias from an organizational perspective. With its rich detail and refreshing analytical clarity, the book is an important contribution to our understanding of the role of organized crime in contemporary economies.'

Jens Beckert - Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and editor of The Architecture of Illegal Markets

‘Books on mafias have been available for decades. However, most are descriptive and tend to highlight the most horrific aspects of mafias: the killings or intergang rivalries that have led to public violence. In Mafia Organizations, Catino takes a more temperate approach by arguing that understanding mafias is copiously illuminated by drawing from organizational theory … This book is an innovative contribution to understanding mafias and other OCGs … Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students through faculty.’

J. P. Hoffmann Source: Choice

'This is a dense and serious book that is highly recommended for anyone who would like to understand the organizational codes of mafia groups. An important scholarly investigation, it unveils the organizational structure that plays a vital role in mafia groups across the world.'

Baris Cayli Source: Rutgers

'Those eager for a technical, theory-driven approach to studying mafia organizations will definitely find this book interesting and enjoyable.'

Joel Baum Source: Administrative Science Quarterly

'This book is a classic in organizational theory and criminal justice. It would be useful for graduate school in public administration or teaching classes in political science and organized crime. Law enforcement should read this book as well, and to be honest, so should the bad guys.'

James Timothy Linehan Source: International Criminal Justice Review

‘… the book is an invaluable read for students and scholars in the field who will find a copious amount of fodder for their future research. One must also not forget, given the clandestine nature of mafia operations, that compiling the vast amount of disaggregated information and data on mafia families of the chosen regions is a tall order. And for that, Catino richly deserves praise. Written lucidly … the book overall is a valuable repository of scholarly knowledge on both organizational theories and the mafia.’

Yugank Goyal Source: American Journal of Sociology