Sicilian Mafia

The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra ( Italian: [ˈkɔːza ˈnɔstra, ˈkɔːsa -]; Sicilian: [ˈkɔːsa ˈnɔʂː(ɽ)a]; lit. 'Our Thing'), also simply referred to as the Mafia, is an Italian criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dating back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of local protection and control over land and agriculture, the Mafia gradually evolved into a powerful criminal network. By the mid-20th century, it had infiltrated politics, construction, and finance, later expanding into drug trafficking, money laundering, and other crimes. At its core, the Mafia engages in protection racketeering, arbitrating disputes between criminals, and organizing and overseeing illegal agreements and transactions.

The basic group is known as a "family", "clan", or cosca. Each family claims sovereignty over a territory, usually a town, village or neighborhood (borgata) of a larger city, in which it operates its rackets. Its members call themselves "men of honour", although the public often refers to them as mafiosi. By the 20th century, wide-scale emigration from Sicily led to the formation of mafiosi-style gangs in other countries, in particular in the United States, where its offshoot, the American Mafia, was created. These diaspora-based outfits replicated the traditions and methods of their Sicilian ancestors to varying extents.