Le strategie comunicative di Cosa nostra: una ricerca empirica

Abstract

The following article proposes an empirical study to explore communication strategies in Cosa Nostra. Psychological studies on the characteristics of the language used within the criminal organization are undoubtedly recent, but crucial to thoroughly understand the characteristics of the implicit and explicit communication it adopts in the various contexts it works, as well as the power and value they assume. The data we have obtained from some videos concerning interviews and police interrogations to men of honor have been analyzed through a method which refers to the grounds of qualitative research in clinical psychology, the Grounded Theory (Glaser, Strauss; 1967). The analysis we have carried out and its relevant data show us a world of Mafia where the care for linguistic choices, for both form and contents, is characterized as a crucial activity, even when words are replaced by silence or gestures.