Typically, the status of an initiated member carries the possibility not just of consuming protection but of supplying it as well. It amounts to a special trading license. It is also true, however, that when customers are either especially important or difficult to keep under control, their bond with the family can be sanctioned by ritual membership.

DEFINE: Explains how mafia 'made men' status works as a reciprocal protection agreement, like a license for economic exchange.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 655