Mafia protection treats crime as disputes, not offenses

Evidence

But what exactly is the mafia? The hypothesis developed here is that the mafia is a specific economic enterprise, an industry which produces, promotes, and sells private protection. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 10 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Territorial jurisdiction, not function, organizes mafia protection markets; Mafia protection tracks opportunity, not moral principle or universal rules; Mafia professionals are customers, not producers, of protection (+3 more)

Related

• The mafia can be understood as an industry selling private protection (similarity 0.92)
• Mafia protection customers range from spot buyers to kin (similarity 0.90)
• The mafia protects everyone from peasants to arms dealers (similarity 0.90)
• Mafia protection requires maintaining relations with the underworld it polices (similarity 0.89)
• A free market in quality can dissolve the demand for mafia protection (similarity 0.88)
• Mafiosi are fundamentally protection entrepreneurs, not dealers in any protected good. (similarity 0.88)
• Mafia protection is a demanded commodity substituting for trust (similarity 0.88)
• The mafia is a protection business, not a parallel state (similarity 0.87)
• Mafia protection is often genuinely sought after by customers, not merely imposed (similarity 0.87)
• Mafia behavior is rational once considered as a protection-selling industry under competitive pressure (similarity 0.87)
• The mafia’s defining trait is supply-side autonomy, not any single profession (similarity 0.86)
• Mafia protection of thieves both encourages crime and drives victims to seek protection (similarity 0.86)
• Mafiosi are entrepreneurs in protection, not in the goods they protect (similarity 0.86)
• Private justice predates the mafia by centuries, but not as an enterprise (similarity 0.86)
• Mafia protection customers span legal and illegal enterprises alike. (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• The mafia can be understood as an industry selling private protection #expands (0.90) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 10
• Mafia professionals are customers, not producers, of protection #expands (0.85)
• Mafia protection of thieves both encourages crime and drives victims to seek protection #expands (0.82)