Mafia Underworld: The Evolution and Weakening Of Organized Crime

Organized crime is one of the major plot elements that gets involved in movies, novels, video games, and pop culture in general. Whenever the criminal underworld is mentioned in those aspects, the term “Mafia” will most likely be included. In this article, the Russian Mafia will be the focus of the discussion.

The term Mafia is known to originate in Sicily, Italy. But since then, the word is applied to almost any criminal organization that does not really fit with the original Mafia concept, let alone being recognized by the original Mafia ancestry of the Italians. It is clear then that establishing criminality and the groups that comprise them is a major aspect of society.

How Mafia Groups Came To Be

Why the Mafia and other similar groups have thrived so well is due to the fact that they are established as some kind of a “family.” Regardless of who they are and where they are formed, Mafia groups are bound together by familial rules and guidelines. It is the reason why they are so hard to dissolve and topple down.

The rise of Mafia organizations can be attributed to the Rational Choice Theory by philosopher Adam Smith. In such a theory, it is speculated that people would oftentimes make the best choices that are most comfortable for them. It is declared in such a study that it is not always about what’s right and wrong. Most of the time, it is just about people responding accordingly to a certain stimulus without caring too much about the morality that surrounds it.

Because of the need to feed themselves, their loved ones, and in order for their families to continue surviving in society, some people choose a certain course of action without weighing the pros and cons pertaining to it. “Survival of the fittest” seems to be the notion behind this. It’s not about how wrong or right you are, it’s just about avoiding discomforts and whatever gruesome situations that life in the real world may bring.

As historians and researchers put it, The Italian Mafia and the Russian Mafia share very common traits. In fact, they perform and execute the same operational model. Why this is so is because, during the time when they are established, the politics and governance that we have today are not that stable yet. For instance, we can observe a significant rise of organized crime groups during the first world war, the second one, and even during the great depression.

It is clear then that whenever the governance around a certain country drops in quality, people will create their own rules of law, thereby giving rise to the prominence of the Mafia and similar organizations. This is because instead of relying on the police to handle social disputes, some people resort to paying protection money to Mafia mob bosses so they can be protected against disorganized criminals and common street thugs.

Such a scenario is very common during the Post-World War II years because governments all over the world are pretty much in shambles. So regardless if it’s about the Italian Mafia, Russian Mafia, or any other similar crime groups, the core concepts remain the same.

The Origin of Russian Crime Groups

It is important to note that Russian crime groups date as early as the 17th century, much earlier before either world wars erupted. Just like in other areas in Europe, a lot of determined criminals are resorting to robbery as they establish their “Robi-Hood-like imagery” in which they steal from the rich to give to the poor. This further cemented the reputation of crime syndicates being not too wicked from the eyes of the people, especially the low-level ones and those that belong to the grassroots level.

In 1917, when the Bolshevik Revolution of Russia took place, it was referred to as the “golden age” of Russian crime groups as evidenced by the rise of the “Thieves’ World” fame. Although Vladimir Lenin, a revolutionary politician tried intensely to wipe them out, those crime groups survived even up to the time of Joseph Stalin.

Why Mafia Groups Are No Longer As Powerful Now

If we are going to fast-forward the evolution of Mafia-related groups up to these times, we can have the discernment that they are not as prominently strong as they were half a century ago, when they are known to be at their peak.

Because of better justice systems in most parts of the world today, organized crime is having a hard time maintaining its once-solid grip during the times when the world was pretty much disorganized due to big global events such as the world war and the economic depression.

Also, because of organizations that sprout due to citizen watch groups and citizen social media broadcasting, it seems pretty hard these days for even the most methodical criminals to continue to wreak havoc and destruction to society. It is apparent that people nowadays are more cognizant of the nature of cause and effect.

For instance, if they see that certain behavior is becoming rampant among people, they will do something instantly, thinking that they can prevent a certain situation from worsening. Causal Theory will then put itself into play, even without people not knowing about it, or not really understanding the logic behind it.

Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam can then be declared as right in their assumption when they established their own theory during the 1970s, pertaining to the matter. They established the idea that people just see gold as a valuable substance without ever knowing that it has an atomic number "79" and that its symbol in the periodic table is Au.

Conclusion

Crime groups such as the Russian Mafia are still operating these days but they are more clandestine now than they ever were. If they operate openly as before, their chances of getting apprehended and prosecuted will be much higher because of better police surveillance tactics, better law enforcement methodologies, and much improve rules of engagement.

There was a time when the likes of Semion Mogilevich were dominant in the scene, but those days are gone. There are much newer leaders in recent times like Aleksandr Torshin, but due to much better law-enforcement tactics, they cannot be as strong as before mainly because police officers and common citizens are much more vigilant now compared to those days when Mafia gangs were so prominent a century ago.