Citation

Nelli HS. Am. J. Sociol. 1969; 74(4): 373-391.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1969, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/224663

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

To most contemporaries in the period to 1921, Italian crime in the United States and specifically Chicago meant the Black Hand or Mafia. Critics ignored-or were too involved to perceive-important aspects of Italian crime, including its role in group adjustment, its breakdown into two major levels (one operating entirely within the ethnic colony, the other in the wider American community), the variety of non-Black Hand crimes within the colony, and the strong groundwork laid in the pre-Prohibition era for Italian dominance of Chicago's crime during the decade of the 1920's.