Mafiosi report car thefts when silence risks implicating them in crimes

Evidence

But even the commissione itself has made exceptions in certain cases. According to both Buscetta and Calderone, if the theft of a mafioso’s car was not reported, and the car was then used to commit a crime, the mafioso would risk being taken for the perpetrator; better, it was agreed, to report the theft (TB: III, 137; AC: II, 363). This exception also suggests that, far from being immune, as they are held to be in popular myth, even mafiosi can fall prey to undaunted Sicilian thieves. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 311

Categorization

• QUESTION: This is a striking case where the reputation rule yields to a worse reputational outcome — how does Gambetta’s model weight which violation costs more? Worth comparing to the legal-system tradeoffs in the Milgrom material.