Capodecina

{{Short description|Branch head within a Sicilian Mafia family}}

A {{lang|it|capodecina}} (literally 'head of ten',Schneider, Reversible Destiny, p. 83 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.Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods, p. 41

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.Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia, p. 111 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.Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia, p. 294

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.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