Global Criminal Organizations

The course focuses on the topic of global criminal organizations by referring especially to the history of the Italian-American Mafia as one of its many expressions into the modern historical and social background. The course's main purpose is to frame the historical evolution of Italian organized crime in the United States and, at the same time, sociologically define the role of the mobster in the mass consumption society during the Twentieth century.

The course aims to give the students the necessary knowledge for understanding the interstate phenomenon of Italian organized crime in the United States through the analysis of its structural change elapsed between the late Nineteenth and the Twentieth century. In particular, the evolution of the Italian-American underworld from Black Hand to Cosa Nostra is explained through the transatlantic unlawful business that it was able to led (from counterfeiting to compulsory prostitution, from alcohol bootlegging to drug trafficking). At the same time, it is crucial to reconstruct the making of the law and police means in order to counter the Mafia rackets.