The mafia promotes this industry as it has developed in Sicily over the last 150 years. In Sicily itself, the mafia is not the only organization involved in marketing protection; it grudgingly shares the market with smaller groups that also deal in protection. As the author's analysis unfolds, the mafia begins to resemble any other business. In a society where trust is in short supply, this business sells protection, a guarantee of safe conduct of commercial and social transactions. Much of the author's evidence for his economic theory of the mafia is based on the work done by Judge Giovanni Falcone and his colleagues in Palermo and Agrigento in the 1980's. Drawing on the confessions of eight mafiosi and the trials their revelations triggered, the author explains various kinds of peculiar mafia marketing strategies that have been misinterpreted in the past. The study compares the mafia's business of protection with ordinary industries, such as automotive, insurance, and advertising. Subtle distinctions are drawn between protection and extortion, in which the protector poses a threat to the client. This new approach to interpreting the mafia reshapes traditional interpretations. Applying informal economic analysis, the author shows how a recognized evil can perform a real service and how such service can inflict great harm on a society. Chapter notes, a 216-item bibliography, and a subject index