Researching the Mafia has become easier with the increasing number of memoirs published by ex-mobsters detailing their careers in organized crime. This body of literature helps explain 1) why people become mobsters, 2) how the Mafia is structured and 3) why so many maifiosi are breaking the mob's code of silence. Traditional criminological theories mirror and are supported by descriptions in the various memoirs of answers to these three questions. Based on this literature review, the paradox of the prisoner's dilemma, in which each conspirator manages to destroy the entire conspiracy to protect his own interests suggests that the erosion of trust and loyalty among maifiosi portends a similar fate for the organization to which they belong(ed).
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