Let’s turn now to Mafia Life by Federico Varese, which you’ve already mentioned as a good starting point for learning about the mafia. This book is not just about Italy or America, but the mafia way of life around the world, and what it’s like. 

<<Federico Varese, who is a criminology professor at Oxford, has here written a highly accessible account of mafia-type organizations internationally. He has an unrivalled knowledge of mafias beyond the Italian context. What he shows is the remarkable similarity in methods and behavior between criminal brotherhoods in all sorts of different geographical locations. That’s why the Italian word ‘mafia’ has become so widespread: because it describes a form of criminal organization that can be found around the world.>> John Dickie, author of Cosa Nostra, Professor of Italian History, UCL