The Sicilian Mafia - Life Inside Cosa Nostra - World Documentaries

A mafia is a kind of orderly criminal activity syndicate whose primary activities are security racketeering and the settlement of disputes in criminal markets. Additional activities could be engaged in such as drug-trafficking, lending sharking and fraud. Being adhered with each other by a code of honor, specifically the code of silence (or omerta in southern Italy), buffers the Mafia from outdoors invasion and police activity.
The term was initially put on the Sicilian Mafia, however has since expanded to encompass other organizations of similar methods and objective, e.g. "the Russian Mafia", "the Japanese Mafia", or "the Albanian Mafia". The term is used informally by the press and public; the criminal organizations themselves have their own terms (e.g. the Sicilian and American Mafia call themselves "Cosa Nostra", the Mexican Mafia calls itself La Eme and the "Japanese Mafia" calls itself yakuza).
When used alone and without any qualifier, "Mafia" usually refers to either the Sicilian Mafia or the Italian-American Mafia.
The Italian term "Mafia" (in some cases spelled "Maffia" in early texts) was produced in Sicily, yet there are numerous concepts regarding its source. The Sicilian adjective mafiusu (in Italian: mafioso) could acquire from the slang Arabic term mahyas, meaning "threatening boasting, boasting", or marfud meaning "turned down".