View source for Capodecina

{{Short description|Branch head within a Sicilian Mafia family}}
A '''{{lang|it|capodecina}}''' (literally 'head of ten',<ref name=schneider83>Schneider, ''Reversible Destiny'', p. 83</ref> also called [[caporegime]] in the [[American Mafia]]) is the head of a {{lang|it|decina}}, a branch within a [[Sicilian Mafia]] family. In the larger families, a {{lang|it|capodecina}} is selected by the head of the family and coordinates units of about ten people.<ref name=paoli41>Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 41</ref>
Mafia members are organized under the supervision of a {{lang|it|capodecina}} who reports to the {{lang|it|[[capomandamento]]}}, the head of the Mafia family or [[cosca]]. The term derives from {{lang|it|dieci}} ('ten'), suggesting that each would be in charge of ten men.<ref name=gambetta111>Gambetta, ''The Sicilian Mafia'', p. 111</ref> The term was mentioned as early as the 1880s in Sicily to describe the organisation of the Fratellanza, a Mafia-type organisation in [[Agrigento]], in the south of [[Sicily]].<ref name=gambetta294>Gambetta, ''The Sicilian Mafia'', p. 294</ref>
The Mafioso Melchiorre Allegra spoke of a {{lang|it|capo della decina}} in his 1937 testimony. He said a family split into groups of ten men each when it became unmanageably large.<ref name=gambetta294/><ref>Twentyfive pages of Allegra’s testimony were published in 1962 in the newspaper ''[[L'Ora]]'' by [[Mauro De Mauro]]. See: [http://www.exlegi.ox.ac.uk/resources/allegra.asp Testimony of Melchiorre Allegra] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320184154/http://www.exlegi.ox.ac.uk/resources/allegra.asp |date=2012-03-20 }}, ExLEGI website</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
*Gambetta, Diego (1993).''[https://books.google.com/books?id=y3bv3tqWftYC&pg=PA294 The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection]'', London: Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|0-674-80742-1}}
*Paoli, Letizia (2003). ''Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style'', New York: Oxford University Press {{ISBN|0-19-515724-9}} ([http://www.organized-crime.de/revpao01mafiandrangheta.htm Review])
*Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=hOLSyi8vxUoC Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo]'', Berkeley: University of California Press {{ISBN|0-520-23609-2}}
{{Mafia}}
[[Category:Organized crime members by role]]
[[Category:Organized crime terminology]]