How mafia first developed

The mafia first developed in Sicily. The word mafia first developed in Sicily. The word mafia came from the Sicilian word, Mafioso meaning family. Today, mafia stands for a loose association of a criminal group. These groups come together by blood, oath, or sworn secrecy. By the nineteenth century, the mafia had become known as a network of criminals and thugs dominated most of Sicily member. In the beginning the mafia had no centralized organization. They were just in small groups. Each group was considered a district. The mafia became powerful by using scare tactics to people who were weaker then them. With little power they had they started to scare people into voting the way they wanted. It wasn’t much longer until they started running their way around the police and owning weapons (guns)