What's the difference between gangs, underworld and mafia in America?

Mafia is actually a gangster, just a name they use in Italy. In fact, it is what we commonly call the underworld.

Mafia originated in Sicily, Italy and Corsica, France, and refers to the local secret criminal organizations. Today, these criminal organizations are not only active in Italy, but also all over the world, especially on the east coast of the United States, with Italian immigrants for more than 100 years (mainly in the early 20th century). Their power in the United States rose during the Great Depression and reached its strongest in the mid-20th century, until a series of investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1960s to 1980s disintegrated their power. Their actions include assassination, illegal trading and obstruction of justice. Although their influence is not as good as before, it still affects American trend culture. Many movies, TV plays and even advertisements are related to their image or life.

Today, the word "mafia" refers not only to these Italian criminals. Influenced by this organization, similar societies and organizations named Mafia have appeared in other countries in the world, such as Russian Mafia, Japanese Yamaguchi Group, China Gangdom and so on. These elements are sometimes called local mafia, but the daily mafia still refers to this group of criminals in Sicily, USA. On the other hand, the criminal organization in Naples, which is also Italian, is not called Mafia, but has another name "Camora".

What is the mafia? What we usually talk about most is the Italian-American mafia from Sicily. They are organized criminal groups, especially in North America. At its peak, there were 26 families in the United States, and almost every major city had one. Mafia Committee is composed of the main leaders of various families, among which new york is their mouthpiece, firmly controlling every move of all other mafia families.

The roots of the mafia originated in Sicily, Italy, where a stronger and larger mafia family once lived.

Prohibition gave birth to organized crime in the United States and spread rapidly. In order to gain power, the emerging mafia-style criminal groups triggered a wage war. They threatened citizens, and newspaper headlines began to release bloody news. The huge black funeral procession they held for their families became the most spectacular funeral procession in history. But all this originated from that evil land thousands of miles away.

Sicily is an unforgivable place, and the barren land cannot breed leniency and compassion. Long-term foreign invasion and war have made this land lose its beauty. It is the largest peninsula in the Mediterranean. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Normans, French, Spaniards and Austrians all occupied this land. For a long time, Sicilian farmers were not so much farmers as slaves of conquerors. So the mafia was born. At first, it was a secret underground society, protecting the poor and oppressed sicilian. "Racial hatred" originated from sicilian's "sense of justice".

Since then, the golden rule of the mafia? QuotOmerta "(honor) introduced. Sicilian does not believe in any form of government, which is caused by the background of being conquered by so many different people in history. The unwritten rules made them start to deal with their own affairs outside the government. ""Crime "is considered as a solution to personal justice and vendetta.

The literal interpretation of "omerta" is translated into the following sentence: those who use the law against their compatriots are either fools or cowards. People who can't protect themselves without the police are all. It is a coward's behavior to take others' infringement to court, even if you have been infringed yourself. It is despicable and cowardly for an injured person to reveal the name of the perpetrator. The correct behavior should be to openly challenge the opponent to seek revenge after the opponent recovers. What the injured person should say to the abuser is: If I live, I will kill you-if I die, I will forgive you.

The notorious underworld in the world, such as the mafia in the United States and Italy, the Yamaguchi group in Japan, the Julian gang in Taiwan Province Province, the 14 K in China and Hongkong, etc. It is notorious internationally. The famous film The Godfather profoundly reveals the little-known shady situation of Mafia, the most famous underworld in the world, and shows people its personnel composition, power structure and great influence on a country and even the world. Although it is a film and television work, it is a classic that comes from reality and profoundly reflects the reality of the international underworld. As the famous Italian anti-mafia fighter falcone said, "Mafia is by no means a simple criminal organization ... In fact, besides profiteering, Mafia also tries to control the economy." Mafia has accumulated huge wealth through smuggling, drug trafficking, manipulating the construction industry and collecting protection fees.

An authoritative sociological research data shows that the mafia's annual turnover accounts for at least 10% of Italy's gross national product, and heroin alone generates 40 billion dollars for the mafia every year. They also spend a lot of money on political investment, bribing officials, buying people's hearts or directly participating in political activities. In some countries, political scandals continue and are closely related to the underworld. The main topic of the United Nations conference held in Palermo, Italy, which was once the "Mafia Capital", was to further strengthen cooperation among countries and jointly fight transnational organized crime. Of the UN 180 Member States, 154 countries sent representatives to attend, among which 15 heads of state or government personally led delegations to attend.