This research examines how individuals’ beliefs that criminal groups such as the Mafia act as community avengers are associated with the legitimization of criminal systems. Results from our study (N = 414) demonstrated that perceiving the Mafia as an efficient protector was linked with a tendency to romanticize this criminal organization and justify its connivance practices, which facilitates its activities. Furthermore, this belief was associated with individuals’ endorsement of masculine honor, while individuals’ appraisals of state justice were unrelated to their views of the Mafia. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the Mafia’s ability to establish alternative systems of governance, challenging the state’s monopoly on force, and underline the importance of understanding these dynamics in the global context.
Borinca et al. (2025) studied this question.