Is there any difference between street gangs and the mafia?

Source: Amber_Avalona
When sociologists first began studying street gangs, they were not usually criminal enterprises, or at least, they were not significant criminal enterprises. Typically individuals got married and “aged out” of hanging out with the gang. See for example Street Corner Society
On similarity is that both seem to create a local order in the absence of other orders. This is what Thrasher emphasized in his first study on gangs (they form in marginal neighborhoods, neighborhoods in transition, and “interstitial” spaces), and this is what Diego Gambetta emphasizes in his The Sicilian Mafia
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As Albanese explains for organized crime and the Eurogang Network for Street and Youth Gangs, there is an issue of definition. There is a vague understanding of what is organized crime, what is a mafia, and what is a street gang. Citing Albanese:
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said he did not know precisely what it is, but “I know it when I see it.” He was talking about obscenity, but he may as well have been speaking of organized crime.
Citing Medina et al.:
[The Eurogang Network’s] survey measure departs from the traditional approach to measuring gang membership employed in most North American research, which relies on what is often referred to as the ‘self-definition’ approach. Survey respondents are simply asked whether they are members of a gang (e.g. ‘Are you now in a gang?’; ‘Do you belong to a gang?’), although sometimes additional qualifiers (e.g. involvement in illegal activity, initiation rites, colours, established leaders) are added. North American criminologists consider this a valid approach that identifies a distinctive set of individuals.
The Eurogang Network “defines street gangs as ‘any durable, street-oriented youth group whose identity includes involvement in illegal activity’ (Weerman et al., 2009: 20)”.
According to Albanese, most researchers agree on the following definition of OC:
Organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that rationally works to profit from illicit activities that are often in great public demand. Its continuing existence is maintained through the use of force, threats, monopoly control, and/or the corruption of public officials.
Street and youth gangs can be considered a type of organized crime which, for example, is “street-oriented” and composed of young members.
The thing is that there are many types of organizations called mafia and of organizations called gangs. Citing Agnew:
Gangs in one city, for example, may be large, highly organized, and heavily involved in drug sales. Gangs in another city may be small, loosely organized, and have little or no involvement in drug sales.
Compare motorcycle gangs and a gang like the Crips, anyone could differentiate the two “intuitively”.
One might then suggest gangs are more “local”, however, Crips are arguably a national gang.
One might also suggest that the mafia is involved in both legal and illegal businesses. Yet, as Albanese points out: “In Sweden, for instance, organized crime groups, including motorcycle gangs, have been found to supply legal businesses with undocumented workers and obtain fraudulent unemployment subsidies from the government.”
My point is that to broadly compare the differences between “the mafia” and “gangs” ultimately depends on the definition. Differences between organizations called “mafia” and organizations called “gangs” can be as large or small as differences between “mafia” and “gangs”. In the end, they are all types of organized crime.
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