The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering. Each group, known as a "family", "clan", or "cosca", claims sovereignty over a territory in which it operates
its rackets – usually a town or village or a neighbourhood (borgata) of a larger city. Its members call themselves "men of honor", although the public often refers to them as "mafiosi". According to the classic definition, the Mafia is a criminality originating in Sicily - ie Cosa Nostra. However, the term "mafia" has become a generic term for any organized criminal network with similar structure, methods, and interests. The Mafia proper frequently parallels, collaborates with or clashes with, networks originating in other parts of southern Italy, such as the Camorra (from Campania), the 'Ndrangheta (from Calabria), the Stidda (southern Sicily) and the Sacra Corona Unita (from Apulia). However, Giovanni Falcone, the anti-Mafia judge murdered by the Mafia in 1992, objected to the inflation of the use of "Mafia" to organized crime in general:
