Scholarly knowledge of racketeer-influenced industries remains thin.

Evidence

Not much is known, however, about the specific conditions which foster the presence of the mafia. In the United States “the phenomenon of racketeer-influenced industries, despite a substantial journalistic interest, has attracted little scholarly attention” (Reuter 1987: 3). As for Sicily, research on this topic is virtually nonexistent. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 514