It appears to us. however. that one becomes a member only through family sponsorship. The Mafia fraternal ties are strengthened through intermarriage which brings about an increase of loyalty to the society through the ensuing blood and family ties. Between 1885 and the present day Mafia members have immigrated to the United States and settled in almost every principal city. During the last 38 years the immigration of the Mafia to the United States has been either clandestine or fraudulent. Many of these criminals fled Sicily to escape arrest and prosecution for crimes or to seek more lucrative fields for crime in the new world. The. first Mafia members who came to the United States lived as parasites on the great wave of the Sicilian and Italian immigrants who sought the new way of life in America. The MafiaBlack Hand criminals through violence. the. threat of violence. kidnaping. murder and a general reign of terror. extorted vast sums of money from thousands of frightened. hardworking :talian immigrants. What they could not extort these gangsters gradually gained through their swindles and crooked lotteries. With the coming of prohibition no group was better qualified to assume a dominant role in the golden age of crime in the United States than. the Mafia.
Identified stereotypes
Mafia members are described as parasites who extort money from hardworking Italian immigrants.