View source for Crime family

{{short description|Unit of an organized crime syndicate}}
{{unbalanced|date=January 2013}}

A '''crime family''' is a unit of an [[organized crime]] syndicate, particularly in [[Italian organized crime]] and especially in the [[Sicilian Mafia]] and [[Italian-American Mafia]], often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activities. In its strictest sense, a ''family'' (or ''[[clan]]'') is a criminal [[gang]], operating either on a unitary basis or as an organized collection of smaller gangs (e.g., ''cells'', ''factions'', ''crews'', etc.).  In turn, a family can be a sole "enterprise" or part of a larger [[syndicate]] or [[cartel]]. Despite the name, most crime families are generally not based on or formed around actual familial connections, although they do tend to be ethnically based, and many members may in fact be related to one another.  Crime "families" tend to be associated more directly with their respective territories than the individuals to whom their members may or may not be related.

==Origins==
The origins of the term come from the [[Sicilian Mafia]]. In the [[Sicilian language]], the word ''[[cosca]]'', which is the crown of spiny, closely folded leaves on plants such as the [[artichoke]] or the [[thistle]], symbolizes the tightness of relationships between members.  The word ''cosca'' is also used for ''[[clan]]''. In the early days of [[Sicilian Mafia|the Mafia]], loose groups of bandits organized themselves into associations that over time became more organized, and they adopted the term based on both of its meanings.

As the Mafia was imported into the [[United States]] in the late 19th century, the [[English language|English]] translation of the word ''cosca'' was more at ''clan'' or ''family''.

The term can be a point of confusion, especially in [[popular culture]] and [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]], because in the truest sense, crime families are not necessarily blood [[families]] who happen to be involved in criminal activity, and they are not necessarily based on blood relationships. In Sicily and America, most Mafia bosses are not related to their predecessors.<ref>Diego Gambetta. The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection. 1993</ref><ref>The Everything Mafia Book: True-life Accounts of Legendary Figures, Infamous Crime Families, and Nefarious Deeds. Scott M. Dietche. Everything Books, 2009. Page 80</ref> Films like ''[[The Godfather]]'' and a spate of late-1980s "Mafia princess" television movies underscore this confusion.

It can further be speculated that the Mafia was simply emulating, to a certain degree, a more medieval order in which a [[Italian nobility|noble family]] would more or less serve as the power in a local village, in a sort of inverted [[hacienda]] culture.

The [[Calabria]]n ''[['Ndrangheta]]'' is, however, purported to be organized along familial lines as ''[['ndrine]]''.

Nevertheless, the term stuck, both in the minds of popular culture as well as the national law enforcement community, and eventually began to be used to describe individual units of not only Sicilian gangsters, but those whose origins lie in other parts of Italy (e.g., the aforementioned '''Ndrangheta'', the Neapolitan ''[[Camorra]]'', the Apulian ''[[Sacra Corona Unita]]'', etc.). Indeed, the "family" mystique persists to such a great degree that in the late 1990s, after many [[Camorra]] leaders were imprisoned during a large-scale crackdown in [[Naples]], many of their wives, girlfriends, daughters, and even mothers took temporary control of their gangs, in a widespread phenomenon of Camorra "godmothers".

Sometimes the term is used to describe distinct units of crime syndicates of other ethnic and national origin, such as the [[Irish Mob]], Japanese ''[[Yakuza]]'', Chinese ''[[Tong (organization)|Tongs]]'' and ''[[Triad society|Triads]]'', ''[[Indian mafia]]'', Colombian and Mexican ''[[drug cartels]]'', [[Albanian mafia]], [[Russian mafia]]. Although not necessarily the norm, some of these entities, like the 'Ndrangheta, may also be organized along blood-family lines.

==Crime families==
{{main|List of Italian Mafia crime families}}

== See also ==

* {{annotated link|Crime boss}}
* {{annotated link|Drug cartel}}
* {{annotated link|Drug lord}}
* {{annotated link|Gun moll}}
* {{annotated link|List of crime bosses}}
* {{annotated link|List of criminal enterprises, gangs and syndicates}}
* {{annotated link|List of political families}}
* {{annotated link|Mafia}}
* {{annotated link|Organized crime}}

==Footnotes==
<references />

==Bibliography==
*Gambetta, Diego (2009). Codes of the Underworld. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-691-11937-3}}

{{American Mafia}}
{{Mafia}}

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[[Category:Organized crime terminology|Family]]
[[Category:Crime families| ]]