Italian Mafias Practice Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the origins, structures, key figures, and anti-Mafia movements of the major Italian criminal organizations.

Mafia

A social system characterized by power, protection, and silence that acts as an alternative state in weak regions and controls territory through violence and corruption.

Omertà

The code of silence used by mafias to maintain control and prevent cooperation with authorities.

Cosa Nostra

The Sicilian mafia born in the mid-19th century following Italian unification, originating from rural landowners and middlemen called gabelloti.

Gabelloti

Middlemen in 19th-century Sicily who protected estates and were central to the origins of Cosa Nostra.

Cupola

The commission or oversight body responsible for managing families within the Cosa Nostra structure.

’Ndrangheta

A family-based mafia from Calabria composed of clans known as ’ndrine; currently the richest and most global mafia, controlling much of the cocaine trade in Europe.

’ndrine

The name for the family-based clans that form the organizational structure of the ’Ndrangheta.

Camorra

An urban mafia from the Campania (Naples) region active since the 18th century, characterized by a loose, horizontal organization of gangs and clans.

Sacra Corona Unita

A newer mafia group from Puglia founded in the 1980s, inspired by Albanian and Calabrian models, which operates smuggling routes across the Adriatic.

Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO)

The criminal organization founded and led by Raffaele Cutolo, who escaped from the Aversa judicial psychiatric hospital on February 5, 1978.

General Dalla Chiesa

An anti-Mafia figure who was murdered in 1982 after spending only 100 days in Palermo.

Maxi Trial

A major judicial proceeding from 1986 to 1987 in which 475 mafiosi were tried, with the investigation led by judges Falcone and Borsellino.

Addiopizzo

An anti-extortion movement that arose as part of the public reaction and renewal following the 1992 assassinations of Falcone and Borsellino.

Libera

An organization founded by Don Luigi Ciotti in 1995 that focuses on using confiscated Mafia lands for social cooperatives.

La mafia uccide solo d’estate

A 2013 black comedy and historical film directed by Pierfrancesco Diliberto (‘Pif’) that depicts life in Palermo between the 1970s and 1990s.