The Genesis and Reproduction of a mafia: the case of the Neapolitan Camorra

This contribution wants to be primarily a methodological proposal, I am suggesting a perspective for the analysis of the criminal phenomenon of the camorra. Due to the specific characteristics of the camorra (variability of organizational orders, fluidity of groups, extension and spread of violence in the Neapolitan context available as a tool for economic goals for several actors not only belonging to the camorra families in the strict sense) we should consider this phenomenon as part of the context rather than a separate one. My perspective aims to analyse Camorra groups and families as an emergent phenomenon within social and economic spaces, strictly related to the violent regulation of legal and illegal markets. The perspective of conventional criminology and functionalist sociology don’t help us to understand the way camorra clans emerge.