In the (not infrequent) case of insolvency, the debtor rarely has to fear for his life. The small amounts involved simply do not justify violence. The deadbeat, however, is ostracized: in a matter of days every scarista knows about the debt, and the culprit is required to pay in cash. When larger amounts are owed, the view is not so lenient. One source reports: "In the Piazza Scaffa case the debt was several million lire. A debt of this size blows such a hole in your budget that it is understandable that they got shot. Nobody likes not to be held in due respect." The incident he refers to occurred on the night of October 18, 1984, in the courtyard of the slaughterhouse in Piazza Scaffa in Palermo. Eight men involved in the horse trade were massacred, possibly because of an unpaid debt.

XREF: Connects to informal enforcement and honor-economy dynamics common in other organized-crime contexts.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 551