Mafia emerged in prosperous divided-property districts, not poor ones

Evidence

Where wages are low and peasant life is less comfortable, in Patti, Castroreale, Siracusa, and Trapani, there are no symptoms of mafia [activity], and public safety is the same as in the most peaceful towns of the kingdom… By contrast, in Misilmeri and Parrinico, Monreale and Bagheria, where property is divided, where there is plenty of work for everyone, and the orange trees enrich landowners and growers alike—these are the typical sites of mafia influence. In Palermo, in its surroundings, in its orchards encircled by sinister walls, the most renowned and ruthless mafiosi are men of substance who live off the tabor of others. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 214

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence for Gambetta’s demand-side theory: mafia supplies protection where property is divided and trade thrives — the same conditions Puzo dramatizes with Vito Corleone’s patronage of wholesalers and entertainers.
• CANDY: Mafia crimes flourished where orange trees enriched everyone and work was plentiful — the sharpest inversion of the poverty-causes-crime assumption, a great one-liner for conversation.