Mafia Capitale e dintorni. Espansione criminale e azione antimafia

The judiciary inquiry named «Mafia Capitale» by the roman judges has sparked a lively debate in the public opinion, the political class, the magistracy and among scholars from different disciplines as well. In this Introduction we discuss some aspects of this debate. The first aspect regards the possibility to recognize the mafias outside the areas they are rooted. The second one is about the nexus between mafia and corruption. On the whole, the debate is about the article 416 bis of the Italian Criminal Code and its use against criminal organizations other than Cosa nostra, ’ndrangheta, camorra and Sacra corona unita, as well as against systemic corruption. On this respect, in order to understand what mafias are, we think it is necessary to first understand how antimafia acts and how magistrates and other public officials use the legislative tools at their disposal. In the second part of this introduction we present the articles included in the monographic section, in turn divided into two parts: the first one collects the articles about Mafia Capitale; the second one brings together some essays dealing with other aspects of the mafia phenomenon.