The aim of the present work is to investigate the relationships established within Cosa Nostra, by making use of networks and complex-systems methods. The analysis is performed at three different levels, that is, individuals, groups within mafia syndicates, and relationships amongst mafia syndicates.

The reported empirical analysis is based on the criminal records of 632 affiliates to Cosa Nostra selected from a set of 125 judgements emitted by the Palermo courts from 2000 to 2014. According to the criminal records of the Palermo Prosecutor Office, such a dataset includes approximately 10% of the whole population of Cosa Nostra affiliates in western Sicily. Furthermore, the vital statistics of 235 subjects sentenced for mafia crimes and the one of their relatives complemented the database that, overall, includes about 4000 subjects.

Our results show that mafia syndicates are not specialized in terms of criminal activity, rather they show a strong territorial attachment and are involved in heterogeneous criminal activities.

Since syndicates insist on a delimited territory, young affiliates are selected on a territorial basis according to the significance and variety of their past criminal activity. Once inside a syndicate, affiliates tend to specialize in a few criminal activities, depending on their attitudes and the needs of the organization. Finally, despite the fact that the vast majority of mafia affiliates are males, our results highlight that female subjects are crucial to form and consolidate alliances between mafia syndicates through suitable marriages.

本工作的目的是通过利用网络和复杂系统的方法来调查Cosa Nostra内部建立的关系。该分析是在三个不同级别上进行的，即个人，黑手党辛迪加内部的群体以及黑手党辛迪加之间的关系。

报告的实证分析是基于从2000年至2014年巴勒莫法院作出的125项判决中选择的632名Cosa Nostra会员的犯罪记录。根据巴勒莫检察官办公室的犯罪记录，该数据集包括大约10条西西里西部Cosa Nostra分支机构总人口的百分比。此外，对因黑手党罪行被判刑的235名受试者及其亲戚之一的生命统计数据对数据库进行了补充，该数据库总共包括约4000名受试者。

我们的结果表明，黑手党集团并没有专门从事犯罪活动，而是表现出强大的领土依附性，并参与了各种犯罪活动。

由于集团坚持划定界线，因此根据其过去犯罪活动的重要性和种类，在地区基础上选择年轻的分支机构。进入集团后，关联公司往往会根据其态度和组织的需要专门从事一些犯罪活动。最后，尽管事实上绝大多数黑手党成员都是男性，但我们的研究结果表明，女性对象对于通过合适的婚姻在黑手党集团之间建立和巩固联盟至关重要。