ABSTRACT
If we are to study the roles of women in the criminal universe of the Mafia in any detail, we must first begin by deconstructing the prejudices that have sprung up over time on the subject. The first of these is the marginalization of women, both inside and outside the Mafia. A cursory reading of the literature devoted to the phenomenon shows that it has served the purposes of the Mafia organization it describes, in that the narrative that has developed on the exclusion of women from criminal environments, has always been intended as a safety valve, creating an area of impregnable security, entirely safe from prying eyes (Principato and Dino 1997; Dino 2007).
