Mafia in the context of "Camorra"

Organized crime refers to transnational, national, or local groups of centralized enterprises that engage in illegal activities, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally considered a form of illegal business, some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, rebel groups, and separatists, are politically motivated. Many criminal organizations rely on fear or terror to achieve their goals and maintain control within their ranks. These groups may adopt tactics similar to those used by authoritarian regimes to maintain power. Some forms of organized crime exist simply to meet demand for illegal goods or to facilitate trade in products and services banned by the state, such as illegal drugs or firearms. In other cases, criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as when gangs extort protection money from shopkeepers. Street gangs may be classified as organized crime groups under broader definitions, or may develop sufficient discipline to be considered organized crime under stricter definitions.

A criminal organization can also be referred to as an outfit, a gangster/gang, thug, crime family, mafia, mobster/mob, (crime) ring, or syndicate; the network, subculture, and community of criminals involved in organized crime may be referred to as the underworld or gangland. Sociologists sometimes specifically distinguish a "mafia" as a type of organized crime group that specializes in the supply of extra-legal protection and quasi-law enforcement. Academic studies of the original "Mafia", the Sicilian Mafia, as well as its American counterpart, generated an economic study of organized crime groups and exerted great influence on studies of the Russian mafia, the Indonesian preman, the Chinese triads, the Hong Kong triads, the Indian thuggee, and the Japanese yakuza.

Yakuza (Japanese: ヤクザ; IPA: [jaꜜkɯ(d)za]; English: /jəˈkuːzə, ˈjækuːzə/), also known as gokudō (極道; "the extreme path", IPA: [gokɯꜜdoː]), are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them bōryokudan (暴力団; "violent groups", IPA: [boːɾʲokɯꜜdaɴ]), while the yakuza call themselves ninkyō dantai (任侠団体; "chivalrous organizations", IPA: [ɲiŋʲkʲoː dantai]). The English equivalent for the term yakuza is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization.

The yakuza are known for their strict codes of conduct, their organized fiefdom nature, and several unconventional ritual practices such as yubitsume, or amputation of the left little finger. Members are often portrayed as males with heavily tattooed bodies and wearing a fundoshi, sometimes with a kimono or, in more recent years, a Western-style "sharp" suit covering them.

A social club or social organization may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation or activity with in an organizational association known as a club. Examples include book discussion clubs, chess clubs, country clubs, final clubs, strip clubs, fishing clubs, gaming clubs, women's clubs, gentlemen's clubs (known as private member’s clubs in the U.S.), hunting clubs, military officers' clubs, political clubs, religious clubs (such as Christian fellowships), traditional fraternal organizations, service clubs, fraternities and sororities (Greek-letter organizations), business networking clubs, science clubs, hobbyist clubs, informal professional associations, and university clubs. The term can also refer to a criminal headquarters, such as the Ravenite Social Club or the Cage.

This article covers only three distinct types of social clubs – the historic gentlemen's clubs, the modern activities clubs and an introduction to fraternities and sororities. This article does not cover a variety of other types of clubs having some social characteristics. Social clubs have commonly been used by the Mafia as meeting places, many mob crews even being named after the club that they are based out of (The Palma Boys Crew, The Gemini Crew, The Veterans & Friends Crew).

Any Which Way You Can is a 1980 American action comedy film directed by Buddy Van Horn and starring Clint Eastwood, with Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William Smith, and Ruth Gordon in supporting roles. The film is the sequel to the 1978 hit comedy Every Which Way but Loose. The cast of the previous film return as Philo Beddoe (Eastwood) reluctantly comes out of retirement from underground bare-knuckle boxing to take on a champion hired by the mafia, who will stop at nothing to ensure the fight takes place, while the neo-Nazi biker gang Philo humiliated in the previous film also comes back for revenge.

Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds into a seemingly legitimate source, usually through a front organization. Money laundering is ipso facto illegal; the acts generating the money almost always are themselves criminal in some way (for if not, the money would not need to be laundered). As financial crime has become more complex and financial intelligence is more important in combating international crime and terrorism, money laundering has become a prominent political, economic, and legal debate. Most countries implement some anti-money-laundering measures.

In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government and international regulators such as the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to mean "any financial transaction which generates an asset or a value as the result of an illegal act," which may involve actions such as tax evasion or false accounting. In the UK, it does not need to involve money, but any economic good. Courts involve money laundering committed by private individuals, drug dealers, businesses, corrupt officials, members of criminal organizations such as the Mafia, and even states.