Territorial ties to fences and shelter make mobile criminals controllable and protectable.
Evidence
Why is it that this improbable sector is susceptible to organization? Partly because of the general efficiency of protection in Palermo, and partly because, since there are so many perpetrators (not least because there are so many protectors), it is not in fact out of the question that two might in fact try to snatch the same bag. In any district in the city center one can find at least ten of these characters at work. In addition, the need for a reliable fence and shelter from both police and other criminals ties muggers to a particular area, and this makes them controllable. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 614
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- QUESTION: A self-reinforcing dynamic: protectors create more perpetrators, which in turn justify more protection. Worth probing how this feedback loop squares with the feasibility argument.
Related
- Muggers become controllable because they need territory-bound fencing and shelter. (similarity 0.92)
- Rural protection firms supply refuge and policing value that city families need (similarity 0.82)
- Mafia protection only emerges where territory can be cheaply monitored (similarity 0.80)
- Criminal protection moved inland from the coast, not only cityward (similarity 0.79)
- Local embeddedness makes small territories optimal for protection firms (similarity 0.79)
- The mafia has remained confined to western Sicily for over a century (similarity 0.79)
- Protection thrives where local familiarity lowers the cost of intelligence (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Rural territory is policed more easily than dense urban ground
#corroborates(0.82) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 280