ABSTRACT
Crime was a central component in their belief that Africa starts just south of Rome, and the camorra is what Neapolitan crime is all about. Two hundred years later, the same practices were still in use: in 1983, a thousand Neapolitans were arrested on charges of involvement with organized crime. In the last five years, several camorra leaders have been prosecuted for environmental crimes, and this has given prosecutors a new weapon against the clans. More than any other factor, organized crime stands in the way of productive investment in Naples, as it is the greatest single obstacle to the creation of legitimate new wealth in the city and the surrounding area. In the nineteenth century, despite the effective crackdown in the early 1860s, organized crime returned a generation later, when the politicians and prosecutors had found other things to occupy their attention.
