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This specification is necessary to appropriately contextualize the organized crime phenomenon in Germany. Whereas in Italy we are faced with criminal associations powerfully rooted in the social and cultural fabric, in Germany we see the presence of variously organized criminal gangs. Traditional Italian mafias—Cosa Nostra, ‘Ndrangheta, Camorra, and Sacra Corona Unita—widely use the resources described in the foregoing list, whereas criminal groups active in Germany seem weakly rooted in the culture and exercise just as weak an influence over institutions. According to the 1999 Lagebericht Organisierte Kriminalitat Bundesrepublik Deutschland—the report on organized crime prepared by the federal police (Bundeskriminalamt)—out of 816 investigations and trials against organized crime conducted in 1999, only 88 cases showed attempts to influence politics, mass media, public administration, the justice system, or the economy through extortion, threats, or establishing relationships of dependence or corruption. We must begin from this situation to explain why women have not played a significant role in the criminal groups active in Germany. Whereas in Sicily, Campania, Calabria, and Puglia women take on growing roles within the group when the male criminal business is in difficulty, this does not happen in Germany. Here, recalling the work of Principato and Dino on the role of women in the mafia, there is no need for women’s role to change from “vestal virgin” to regent of a family empire because real clan structures do not exist in Germany. In some |
