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FORG 272 Mafia FORG/ITAL/LACS 272 Mafia Schedule & Room TBA Instructor: John Alcorn • [email protected] • Seabury 110 Office hours: MWF 8:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m. & 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m., & by appointment. Course description: This seminar will explore two kinds of order without law: (a) criminal organizations and (b) informal systems of social control. We will focus mainly on the Sicilian Mafia (Cosa Nostra). We will also (i) analyze vice markets, (ii) debate prohibitions that foster organized crime, and (iii) compare gangs and ‘order without law’. Students are encouraged to reflect on their own unwritten rules of campus life. The course is designed as an introduction to interdisciplinary social science. The particular approach is methodological individualism—jargon for the common-sense idea that we should explain social phenomena from the bottom up, by identifying what individuals do (behaviors), why they do what they do (motivations), and how their behaviors have unintended consequences (social mechanisms). We will integrate concepts from history, economics, political science, psychology, and anthropology. The assessments are designed to hone useful skills in expository writing and public speaking. Course requirements (graded assignments): • Writing: (1-4) Four short papers. Each paper is approx. 1,250 words plus bibliography. One is a position paper on a debate topic. (5-6) Weekly forum posts about assigned materials. • Seminar participation: (7) A seminar presentation. (8) A debate about whether to legalize vice markets. (If possible, within the guidelines of the Institutional Review Board, students will interview lawmakers, law enforcement officers, offenders, and advocacy groups to prepare for the debate.) If there are more students than debate slots, then some students will write a position paper instead. (9-10) Regular attendance & discussion. Note: Some students might replace a paper with a second seminar report, in order to fill all report slots. Note: ITAL 272 students will do a portion of the course work in Italian in consultation with the instructor. Grade policy: • The cumulative raw score is on a scale of 100 points. The letter grade may be calculated on a curve. • Each assignment is graded on a raw scale of 10 points and is worth one tenth of the course grade. • Papers, debates, & presentations alike are graded on five criteria: focus, integration of assigned materials, argument (or analysis), evidence, & prose (or presentation). • A seminar is a joint enterprise in which we learn from one another and count on one another. Penalties apply to chronic tardiness or truancy (chronic = more than three classes) and to any unexcused absences from guest lectures and public lectures. A seminar requires full attention during class - Mobile phones & texting must be turned off. Purchase (or rent) list: • David Critchley, The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 (Routledge, 2008). • Jon Elster, Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences (Cambridge U. Press, 1989) • Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia (Harvard U. Press, 1992) • Jim Leitzel, Regulating Vice (Cambridge U. Press, 2008) • Alexander Stille, Excellent Cadavers (Vintage, 2005) or the 2006 film documentary based on the book: http://www.amazon.com/Excellent-Cadavers-Marco-Turco/dp/B004OQLCF8/ • Film DVD or online stream/download: The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (Coppola restoration editions) • Film DVD or online stream/download: Donnie Brasco • Film DVD or online stream/download: Goodfellas Note: The Godfather films are available also as free digital streams at TrinFlix: streaming.trincoll.edu/ Suggested (not required): Peter Maas, Underboss (Harper, 1997) [Memoir of Sammy The Bull Gravano] SYLLABUS An asterisk denotes assignments available as digital files (.pdf). Part One: The code of honor General assignments: The Godfather films, Elster (1989), & Gambetta (1992) Week 1 Mafia: A loose cartel in illicit protection markets Organized crime Varese (2009)* Lecture How do mafias organize? Catino (2014)* Lecture Why do mafias organize? Koivu (2015)* Report: Week 2 Motivations & behaviors Rational choice Elster (1989) II-IV Lecture Emotions & social norms Elster (1989) VII, XII Report: Protection & extortion Varese (2013)* Report: Week 3 Onore: The code of honor and its component norms Norms 1: Vendetta Elster (1990)* Report: Norms 2: Omertà Alcorn (P.D. & Omertà) Lecture Norms 3: Gender norms Pizzini (1999)* Report: 1st paper due Part Two: The breakdown of omertà in Sicily General assignments: Stille (1995) & Elster (1989) Week 4 Grassroots anti-mafia in Sicily The Devil’s Pact Alcorn (Slides) Lecture I Cento Passi* Elster XIII Lecture Assassination & outrage: 1 Elster (1989) XI Report: Week 5 Judicial Anti-Mafia Trinity Days The Maxi-trial Stille (1995) or (2006) Report: Assassination & outrage: 2 http://goo.gl/2kw7ZS Report: 2nd paper due Interlude: Vice markets - (More readings TBA by debate topic) General assignment: Leitzel (2008) Week 6 Concepts & mechanisms Violence Friedman (2001)* Report: Addiction Elster (1999a)*, Szalavitz (2014)* Report: Buyer licensing & exclusion Leitzel (2013) Report: Debates: Should we legalize vice markets? Week 7 Policy debates Debate 1: Drugs IQ2 (2012)*: http://goo.gl/ayDS9U Debate 2: Commercial sex IQ2 (2009)*: http://goo.gl/Puf5lT Debate 3: Gambling Elster (1999b)* Non-debaters’ position statement or analysis) due Part three: The breakdown of omertà in the USA Week 8 Case studies of mafia in America Origins of mafia: NYC Critchley (2008) Lecture Mafia-enforced cartels: 1 Alexander (1997)* Report: Mafia-enforced cartels: 2 Reuter (1993)* Report: Week 9 Surveillance & infiltration of the mafia Life in the ranks Donnie Brasco* Report: Life on mafia turf Goodfellas* Report: Paper-tiger effect. Reuter (1995)* Report: Week 10 Betrayal Gravano documentary http://goo.gl/YMa6ad Report: Sawyer-Gravano interview http://goo.gl/6y0zYj Lecture: Current situation TBA Report: 3rd paper due Part four: Comparative perspectives Week 11 Order without law Close-knit groups Ellickson (1986)* Report: Feud law Friedman (Draft MS) Report: Crime as social control Black (1986)* Report: Week 12 Informal social control among students A field study: Muller (2003)* & Giberson (2012)* Report: Update of field study Discussion Review of IRB procedures & field questionnaire Week 13 Gangs Gangs & community Akerlof/Yellen (1994)* Report: A case study of a gang Levitt/Venkatesh (2000) Report: Prison gangs Skarbek (2015)*: Report: http://goo.gl/OsG5Lc Week 14 Gangs (cont.) Hartford gangs Visit by Officer Lyons Guest lecture 4th paper due Bibliography of readings, other than purchase list A. Common Readings Akerlof and Yellen (1994). George Akerlof and Janet Yellen, “Gang Behavior, Law Enforcement, and Community Values”, in H. Aaron, T. Mann, and T. Taylor, eds., Values and Public Policy (Brookings Institution, 1994) 173- 209. Available online: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/gang-behavior-law-enforcement- community-values-akerlof-yellen.pdf Alexander (1997). Barbara Alexander, “The Rational Racketeer: Pasta Protection in Depression Era Chicago,” Journal of Law & Economics 40:1 (April 1997) 175-202. Black (1986). Duncan Black, “Crime as Social Control,” American Sociological Review 48:1 (1986) 34-45. Catino (2014). Maurizio Catino, “How do Mafias Organize?,” European Journal of Sociology 55: 2 (2014) 177- 220. Ellickson (1986). Robert C. Ellickson, “Of Coase and Cattle: Dispute-Resolution among Neighbors in Shasta County,” Stanford Law Review 38 (1986) 623-687. Elster (1990). Jon Elster, “Norms of Revenge”, Ethics 100 (July 1990) 862-85. Elster (1999a). Jon Elster, “Rationality & addiction”, in Pablo De Grieff, ed., Drugs & the Limits of Liberalism (Cornell U. Press, 1999) 25-45. Elster (1999b). Jon Elster, “Gambling and Addiction,” in J. Elster & O.-J. Skog, eds., Getting Hooked: Rationality and Addiction (Cambridge U. Press, 1999) pp. 96-136. Friedman (1992). David D. Friedman, “Less Law than Meets the Eye,” Michigan Law Review 90 (1992) 1444- 1452. Friedman (2001). David D. Friedman, “Drugs, Violence, & Economics,” Liberty (2001). MS PDF. Friedman (MS 2016). David D. Friedman, “Feud Law,” Chapter X in Legal Systems Very Different from Ours (Draft MS, 2016). Available online: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Legal_Systems_Draft/LegalSystemsDraft.html Koivu (2016). Kendra Koivu, “In the Shadow of the State: Mafias & Illicit Markets,” Comparative Political Studies 49:2 (2016) 155-183. Jinks (2012). Peter Jinks, “Letizia Battaglia: Shooting the mafia,” The Guardian, March 3, 2012. Available online: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/mar/04/letizia-battaglia-mafia-photographer-sicily Leitzel (2013). Jim Leitzel, “Toward Drug Control: Exclusion and Buyer Licensing,” Criminal Law & Philosophy (2013) 99-119. Levitt and Venkatesh (2000). Steven D. Levitt and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, “An Economic Analysis of a Drug- Selling Gang’s Finances”, Quarterly Journal of Economics 115:3 (August 2000) 755-789. MacCoun (2013). Robert J. MacCoun, “Moral Outrage and Opposition to Harm Reduction,” Criminal Law & Philosophy 7 (2013) 83-98. Muller (2003). Robin Muller, “Order without Law among Students at a Residential Liberal Arts College” (TCCTR, Trinity College, MS). Pizzini (1999). Valeria Pizzini-Gambetta, “Gender Norms in the Sicilian Mafia, 1945-86”, in M. L. Arnot and C. Usborne, eds., Gender and Crime in Modern Europe, London (University College Press) 257-76. Reuter (1983). Peter Reuter, Disorganized Crime: Illegal Markets
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