Institutional Mistrust, Instrumental Trust, and the Privatization of Law: The Mafia as a Territorial Ruler

Abstract

This article explores the link between trust and law through the prism of the mafia phenomenon. Mafias spread in a context of “endogenous mistrust” and manage to privatize law by imposing an unwritten system of rules in their territory. This alternative system of law has consequences in terms of distorted access to economic opportunities for non-Mafiosi as it is oriented in favor of its affiliates and external backers. It also leads to the emergence of negative social capital benefiting Mafiosi but unable to create relationships based on genuine trust.

Keywords:

• law
• mafia
• network
• social capital
• trust

JEL Classification Codes:

• B52
• J3
• J4
• J5
• L2

Notes

1 Article 416 bis of the Italian penal code states: “An association is of a Mafia type when those who belong to it use force of intimidation from the associative tie and from the condition of subjection and code of silence which derive from it in order to commit offences, to acquire by direct or indirect means the management or at least the control of economic activities, concessions, authorizations, adjudications and public services or to gain profits or unfair advantages for themselves or others, or else with the purpose of preventing or hampering free exercise of the vote or procuring votes for themselves or others at election times…” In Italy the term refers to the Sicilian Cosa nostra, the camorra in Naples and its region, to the ‘ndrangheta in Calabria and to the Sacra corona unita in Puglia. The Italian penal code also makes it possible to use the terms for other criminal organizations, even foreign ones, if the necessary characteristics are met.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clotilde Champeyrache

Clotilde Champeyrache is associate professor in the Department of Criminology ESDR3C at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France.