The mafia banned kidnapping on utilitarian not moral grounds.
Evidence
Tommaso Buscetta and Antonino Calderone both maintain that there was a rule in the Cosa Nostra forbidding kidnaping, and with a few exceptions the mafiosi tried to enforce it. “The commissione,” says Buscetta, “decided that kidnaping should no longer be committed in Sicily, not for humanitarian reasons but because of a straightforward utilitarian calculation. Kidnaping creates a general sense of hostility among the population, and this is counterproductive if it happens in those areas, such as Sicily, where the mafia is traditionally entrenched; besides, kidnaping attracts a lot of attention… from the police” — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 453
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- XREF: Puzo’s Godfather narrative would frame the ban on drugs/kidnapping as ethics and honor; here Gambetta strips it to pure market calculus — testable contrast between fictional and real enforcement logic.
Related
- The mafia banned kidnapping because it endangered paying clients. (similarity 0.88)
- The mafia killed anyone who planned unlicensed kidnappings. (similarity 0.85)
- The Mafia forbade kidnaping to protect its paying customers. (similarity 0.83)
- The mafia enforces moral codes as a form of territorial public safety (similarity 0.80)
- Mafia membership rules forbid harming members and outsiders while mandating secrecy (similarity 0.79)
- The kidnap prohibition may have emerged from an internal factional exploit. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Mafia protection tracks opportunity, not moral principle or universal rules
#corroborates(0.85) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 61 - Mafia membership rules forbid harming members and outsiders while mandating secrecy
#complicates(0.75) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 381 - Mafia protection treats crime as disputes, not offenses
#corroborates(0.70) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 85 - Mafia rules prohibit predation on members and require carefully mediated introductions
#complicates(0.70) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 731