CHAPTER 2 The Power of LimitsRead more at location 773
Note: xchè il mondo del crimine ipersegnala? 1 non può scoprirsi 2 tra disonesti è difficile costruire la fiducia imho: da qui la buona stampa della sincerità la legalità dei criminali la crudeltà razionale: enfocement... ma la violenza attira atenzione tagliarsi i ponti alle spalle il tatuaggio in faccia come segno di abbandono della vita normale mostrare incompetenza in tutto ciò che nn è crimine "comportarsi da bianco"... il caso dei baroni univrsitari xchè nominare degli incompetenti... il potere dei senza talento... provenzano non sapeva neanche viaggiare la proverbiale incompetenza dei mafiosi l essenza della mafia: un tribunale di conciliazione la povertà dei mafiosi e il loro disinteresse x il denaro parallelo con il celibato dei preti Edit
Cheats, furthermore, do not have to fear the law when they dupe other criminals,Read more at location 781
Third, they are more likely to have motivations to defect than most ordinary peopleRead more at location 782
Fourth, they are more likely to have the dispositions to defect,Read more at location 783
villain's paradox: a criminal needs partners who are also criminals, but these are typically untrustworthy people to deal with when their self-interest is at stake.Read more at location 787
Crime fiction, whether in writing or film, often exploits the tensions that arise from distrust (which may further enhance distrust among real criminals, who, as we shall see in chapter 10, are affected by fiction).Read more at location 796
in Hammett's story, Angel Grace shows that there can be honor among thieves.Read more at location 805
The evidence for loyalty in the real underworld, however, is close to nonexistent. True, there is a bias due to the fact that when things go wrong we are more likely to hear about them than when they go smoothly. Yet the evidence of cheating and betrayal is just too large to think that the problem of untrustworthiness troubles the underworld in merely the same way as it does ordinary business. Criminals dupe each other,Read more at location 806
When the trustee knows that the truster is prepared to resort to violence, he will be more careful before taking advantage of him. This solution is attractive, for one does not need to worry about whether the trustee is trustworthyRead more at location 834
Longo said: Clearly I am not happy to come out in the newspaper for being suspected of the murder of Bottari. But I reckon that all considered those who do not hold me in much consideration are going to be scared. Maybe all this will be positive publicity, at least in certain Calabrese and Sicilian quarters.Read more at location 848
First, being suspected of murder, a stigma in polite society, can be a bonus in the underworld.Read more at location 854
Using violence, however, has drawbacks. There is, of course, a contingent one, namely that thanks to its use criminals are more likely to attract police attentionRead more at location 858
The situation faced by a truster and a trustee can be understood by considering briefly the basic trust game developed by Michael Bacharach and myself.Read more at location 904
When I did some fieldwork in Naples in the late 1980s, where the illegal lottery run by the Camorra was very popular, several people told me with admiration how prompt the bookies were in paying their wins—showingRead more at location 929
In his autobiography Henry Williamson, a criminal who was involved in robberies and drug dealing, says: “I had gave [sic] a few guys my telephone number. That way a guy'll trust you more.”Read more at location 951
Facial tattoos are the ultimate abandonment of all hope of a life outside.Read more at location 960
“Tattoos worn on the face or neck are the most visible, and thus suggest a higher level of commitmentRead more at location 962
An ‘honorable’ prison tattooist doesn't want to be responsible for helping to ruin a young prisoner's life, particularly if an individual is going to be getting out of prison any time soon.Read more at location 965
One way of convincing others that one's best chance of making money lies in behaving as an “honorable thief” is by showing that one lacks better alternatives.Read more at location 976
Mae West's advice that “brains are an asset if you can hide them.”Read more at location 1021
There are, to be sure, reasons other than trust-inducing incompetence for selecting low-quality candidates.Read more at location 1026
the less likely the appointee is to outdo his appointers;Read more at location 1027
the more grateful he will feel for having been appointed (as Machiavelli wrote,Read more at location 1028
Caligula, who made his horse into a senator).Read more at location 1031
The perception and use of incompetence as a constraint on defection extends beyond academic corruption. Selection in the world of politicsRead more at location 1035
Credible partners or loyal employees need not be globally inept, merely selectively incompetent at the relevant brand of activity that could reward their defection.Read more at location 1040
The power of weaknesses has been also identified by Thomas Schelling with reference to bargaining situations:Read more at location 1061
The mafia's principal activities are settling disputes among other criminals,Read more at location 1068
a mafioso must be feared by all parties, but he must also be thought capable of being disinterested in his deliberationsRead more at location 1075
A lot of these wiseguys did not have the ability to move around the country.Read more at location 1084
“They cannot run a restaurant to save their lives,”Read more at location 1089
The pentiti, mafiosi who turned state's evidence and testified in the large Sicilian trials of the 1980s, could name the occupation of only 40 of the 114 bossesRead more at location 1091
31 percent were employed in agriculture, mostly as landowners. Most of these occupations are a facade anyway.Read more at location 1093
Japanese yakuza too display this self-deprecating attitude. “No one here's a rocket scientist,” Hara, the Hara-gumi yakuza boss, likes to say. “If anyone had half a brain, they probably wouldn't be in the yakuzaRead more at location 1111
They need to display stronger signals of disregard for pecuniary success,Read more at location 1118
ceaselessly eager to show that they are not in the business so much for the money as for “respect.”Read more at location 1119
“Cumannàri è megghiu ca futtiri!” (better to have power than sex).Read more at location 1121
All mafiosi who turned state's evidence declared that asking questions “is a sign of reckless curiosity and it may, indeed, be misinterpreted.”Read more at location 1137
For instance, according to Catholic writer Thomas Keneally, “the idea of priestly celibacy as a total renunciation of sex found widespread favor as a means of inspiring trust in the clergy—and as a way of filling churches.Read more at location 1147
The norms on marital fidelity adopted by mafiosi, a few of whom contemplated a career in the church before opting for the Honored Society, can be interpreted as a blander version of the same trust-inducingRead more at location 1151
“A steady marriage and proper behaviour”—Pizzini-Gambetta writes—”were excellent ways to prove one's trustworthiness:Read more at location 1154
Gaspare Mutolo, a mafioso who turned state's evidence, said:Read more at location 1157
signaled their detachment from the petty family or financial mattersRead more at location 1161
