Mafia Vs Mafiya

Mafia v. Mafiya: Comparative Perspective on Organized Crime

The Mafia is what many in our society believe to be a secret criminal organization. While it certainly is no secret, mafia is a word that is broader in meaning depending upon the national origin of the group. To the Sicilian-Italian's, the mafia is not just a title for a gang; it means to act as a guardian and affirms their belief that their families should be protected no matter what the cost The Italians have the ability to exhibit "self control in the face of adversity" (Abadinsky, 2003, Ch. 7, ¶ 5). To the Italian mafia, is more than an organization, it's the Italian's way of life.

The Italian mafia dates back over thousands of years. The mafia consists of one main boss, usually called "the boss of all bosses"; two men based on relation, and at the center are four to five blood relatives and friends of friends. The most powerful member is the godfather. The members had to ensure that the godfather was "prosperous, respected, and feared" (Abadinsky, 2003, Ch. 7, ¶ 6). The godfather is responsible for settles disputes among all family members and making all decisions for the family. The godfather right can be attained through a show of dominance.

The Italian mafia stressed the importance of respect, honor, and did not believe in inter-racial relationships in business or otherwise. In addition, the oath of silence among the Mafia was extremely important and the mafia would take these values with them when they began to immigrate to United States (U.S.). In doing so, the Italian Mafia would unknowingly end up evolving into what society now knows as the American Mafia.

The evolution took place with the help of a gangster named Lucky Luciano who became involved with the mafia through his bootlegging endeavors during the prohibition era. Through this, not only did he become a member but he would essentially end up taking over the whole organization and would reconstruct the whole organization (Lucky, n.d.).

Lucky was "Joe the Boss" chairman in the 1920's. Joe the Boss at this time was considered to be the largest Mafia family that existed in New York. Even though Lucky was Sicilian-Italian, he came to the U.S. at age nine and was raised on the streets Harlem, New York, and was no stranger to crime having been busted for shoplifting, various murders, and bootlegging for the mafia. Believing that his ideas were more realistic he thought that the Italian mafia needed to be restructured and his opportunity to do so would arrive when a man named Salvatore Maranzano moved in to take over the territory which started a war called the Castellammarese War. During the Castellammarese War, Lucky laid low and associated with the second-in-line members of the Maranzano family and found out through them that no one was happy with either boss. Luciano did not want to wait any longer because he was afraid that his betrayal of befriending the other side was dangerous, especially because several gangsters had been killed through this war. Lucky invited his boss, Masseria, to diner where the boss was assassinated. Through Masseria's death, Maranzano's family won the war and out of gratitude, Lucky was given the position of number two man in the Maranzano crime family.

This promotion was a fluke and with Maranzano wanting to become a supreme boss of the entire US Mafia, he had to have his two main competitors wiped out; giving an all new meaning to the phrase "keep your friends close but your enemies closer". The two on Maranzano's list were, none other than, Al Capone and Lucky Luciano himself. As soon as Lucky got word that there was a hit on him, he set an order to have Maranzano killed. With Masseria and Maranzano gone, so was the traditional Italian mafia. With the two biggest mafia bosses dead, he took over the empire and incorporated a new crime syndicate that was non-discriminatory which enabled him to transact business dealing with other nationalities to enable him to make money in other markets. The old mafias main goal was power however, with this power also came greed, in America. Lucky wanted to do away with the Mafia all together but decided to keep it for protection and prestige and began reconstruction of the mafia.Even though he was the boss, he did away with the title of being "the boss of bosses" (¶ 13). With the new title he began enterprising and began to take control over not only bootlegging but he got into some of the other criminal enterprises that the old bosses had forbid such as prostitution, selling drugs, labor racketing and loan-sharking. He also began to change the face of the organization by dressing in fashionable flashy suits; which made an impression about the U.S. Mafia from that point on.

In 1936, as Luciano was at the top of his game, the prosecutor of New York charged and convicted Luciano with compulsory prostitution charges. Luciano's family members were angry and one, named Dutch Shultz, wanted to kill the prosecutor to which Lucky demanded that he didn't do. Although Lucky did away with most of the Italian mafia traditions, he still stuck to the unwritten rule of the Mafia. "They don't go after cops. They don't go after American journalist and they don't go after prosecutors". However, Dutch Shultz left the room apparently adamant about the hit which Luciano instead had to have Shultz taken care of. In the end, Luciano conviction earned him 30-50 years for the charges, but it was business as usual except for the fact that he ran his operations from behind the prison walls.

In 1946, Luciano was granted parole for his wartime services; having ordered the mob to tighten the security of the New York harbor during World War II. After his release, he was deported back to Italy. While he was incarcerated, his life time friend, Bugsy Siegel, embezzled money from the syndicate and built a hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada and when Lucky found out, he went to Cuba to approve the hit on Bugsy. However, he was detected by law enforcement and was deported back to Italy where he continued to get monthly cuts from the American Mafia through couriers.

While Luciano was able to be apprehended and punished for less than what he deserved, the syndicate, now known as American mafia, or the La Cosa Nostra, still exists in the U.S. today through the "five families" that were established by Maranzano shortly before Lucky ordered his assassination. The most influential of the families is the Gambino family, who the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has been investigating for years (New York Times, 2008).

Focusing on the Gambino family's control of certain industries and corrupt unions, the FBI planted bugs while racketeering laws were being improved to enable them to have solid indictments and convictions. In 1992, the head of the Gambino family John Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering and through the rest of the decade most of the Gambino family was sent to jail; crippling the family structure.

America believed that the reign of the New York Mafia was over but it was not and to the shock of many people on the East Coast when last February, the news announced the "indictments of 60 people in connection with racketeering to which the entire leadership of the Gambino family was among those charged. However, this is not the only family that the FBI has to contend with in New York as there has been another criminal organization that is present in The U.S. called the Russian Mafiya.

The Russian Mafiya is a complex organization that is continuing to thrive in the U.S. They are a fairly new group that has only existed since the Soviet Union broke into independent states. After this, those who did not follow the communist rule often lost their material status in society often having to find other means to support themselves. In addition, the legal system fell apart, loosing several law enforcement officers and was very uncoordinated which led to corruption among the officials. Due to the corruption, many businessmen were in need of protection to which they enlisted some young men that had previously been members of sports clubs where the youth were taught "fighting skills, willpower, discipline, and team spirit". When the Soviet Union withdrew their sponsorship, the youth began to look for different avenues; and many found this in forming gang.

Moscow was urged by President Nixon in the 1970's to allow emigration of Soviet Jews to the United States. Years later, Fidel Castro also asked Moscow the same thing but this time they agreed, freeing thousands of criminals to find new homes in the U.S. This would be the beginning of the Russian Mafia in the U.S. The Russian mafiya's organizational structures are different than that of the American Mafia and are based on three different levels according to its size and influence. At the bottom of the ladder are "extortionists, thieves, swindlers, and drug traffickers, the mid level are large formations with connections on a regional level while the highest extends to multiple regions of the country" (Abadinsky, 2003, Ch.9, ¶ 15). According to CBS News, in 2000, there were Russian mafiya crime organizations running in all 50 states in America.

The Russian Mafiya and the American Mafiya have many commonalities but yet differ in many ways as well. Both of the organizations consist of groups of individuals who provide illegal goods and services, which at very least defines what a criminal organization is. Unlike the Italians who were primarily based in one locality who came from generations of farmers and unskilled laborers, the Russian Mafiya members are "very highly educated, skilled in technology and usually come from urban backgrounds."(Abadinsky, 2003, Ch.9, ¶ 6). With the skills and education the Russians have, it enables them to set up shop immediately upon arrival into the U.S.

In addition, The Russian Mafiya, like the Italians operate both legal and illegal businesses. Both being patron-client groups, the Russian Mafiya and the American Mafia conduct all business through face to face interaction; often killing with kindness. While the types of crimes are imitative of each other, the Russian Mafiya is more violent. When the author of the book Russian Mafia, Robert Friedman was performing interviews for his research, one retired New York police officer told him, "The Russian Mafia go after everybody. They'll shoot you just to see if their guns work" ( ¶ 10).

The head of the organization, also called a godfather, is named Vyaacheslav Ivankov who was extradited out of Russia due to having killed too many people. Unlike the American Mafia, the leader has a distinctive tattoo depicting an eight pointed star that indicates that he is the highest ranking member of the Russian Mafiya. He was the first indication of the of threat to the U.S. that is coming out of Russia.

While the Russian Mafia does well in the laundering business, they also engage in extortion, cons, tax-evasion, scams, and work closely with the Columbian's to import mass quantities of illegal drugs. Another difference in the two is that the Russian mafiya organization is unstructured. Instead, they have what is considered to be a floating structure and only use this structure in application to certain crimes.

Both the American Mafia and the Russian Mafiya commit many of the same crimes. However, the Russian mafiya takes it further in the level of violence, finding ways to turn their physical assets of strength and their educated minds into cash by offering protection for a fee. Like the American Mafia, they will restrain competition for businesses whether the businesses enlist their help or not; in return the businesses are to share up to twenty percent of the companies profits.

If the business didn't agree with the American Mafia they were punished and sometimes violently but, the Russian mafiya will verbally threaten and sometimes shoot, or torture an intended target but, not only will the Mafia go after the target they will target their families too. If another business offers lower prices or better goods, they will set fires, or arrange for the business owner to be executed.

The Russian Mafiya is based on the authoritarianism type ideology meaning they want control of not only a territory but a whole state and in order to achieve this goal, they had to go further in their criminal endeavor than the Italians did and had the ability to do so through welcoming Russian military members who smuggle drugs, are into illegal businesses, coercion and violence. The Russian Mafiya also control banking institutions and use them to find businesses that they can extort money from, and also can launder money for.

The Russian Mafia also works with other groups in trade of services such as the Colombians who will trade drugs for money-laundering services. In addition they have produced and sell methadone and other narcotics. While Italians were known to have kidnapped some of its intended targets in order to fulfill a mission, the offense was often the last act before the target was killed. As for the Russian Mafiya, it is the beginning of a lucrative business investment.

The most nefarious activities of Russian crime are in trafficking women for the sex industry. They have been known to put local ads in the newspaper for positions such as a maid or secretarial work but when they get to the interview, the woman are kidnapped, told that there is no job, and that they owe money for their trip that they were about to take to the intended country of delivery to become sex slaves, prostitutes, strippers, or dancers. If they refuse to pay, they will be raped, beaten and sometimes murdered.

For a lack of better words, the American mafia had some type of morals when it came to innocent civilians where as Russian mafiya does not and in fact, is the reason why the group has become a major threat to the U.S. While the American mafia was able to get into the labor unions, legitimate industries, corruption of government officials and fix political races, the Russian Mafia has superseded the American mafia in ruthlessness, they have expanded globally, and have capabilities that are way beyond just having street smarts but according to the press, "they'll learn and they'll learn very quickly" ( ¶ 21).

The reason that the American Mafia thrived was because they built legal businesses such as the garbage and garment businesses which were used to pay off corrupt politicians, cops and prosecutors which enabled them to continue their illegal businesses. However, the Russian Mafiya has something that the American Mafia do not have; which is "their own state to work from and in fact, a former superpower" ( ¶ 6). They have become the most feared criminal organization in the United States and will continue to grow in size.

The American law enforcement entities will, for sure, be kept busy for the next several decades through trying to fight the crime of the Russian mafiya and compared to all of the hard work that has been invested by law enforcement to combat these types of crimes in previous years, it is believed that the work is nothing compared to the work that the authorities will be approached with in the future.

Author Robert Friedman said it best in an interview by CBS news when he stated "Italian organized crime in America is a pimple on a horses ass compared with Russian organized crime in America-and globally" ( ¶ 5). This statement alone severely separates the two mafia groups; as the American mafia provided a basic outline of organized crime, the Russian mafiya is taking it to all new and more dangerous levels; which is also the reason why the Russian mafiya continues to be the single biggest threat to the U.S.