Criminal organizations will always exist because criminal minded people will always exist. That will never change. But anyone who thinks the Italian American mob will hang around for centuries like it has in Italy isn't being very realistic.

Assimilation and attrition have already taken their toll, and the changes in the immigration laws guarantee that we'll never get the influx of Southern Italians and Sicilians that so many of the mob watchers are looking for to keep it going.

Italian Americans produce more college graduates in the United States today than any of the other European groups who came here between 1880 and 1920, save for the Jews. But don't forget, the Jews came from all over Europe, not just one country. So why turn to crime?

I'm no bleeding heart, but it's true that 90 percent of the time it's the circumstances that make a criminal, not their last name. And although there will always be an anomaly here and there, it's very difficult to develop a true gangster mentality when you grow up in the suburbs not wanting for anything.

All that said, I suspect that in New York the families will hang around for another couple of generations in their present form. Beyond that, it will evolve into something that's still a criminal organization. But it won't much resemble the mob made famous by Martin Scorsese and David Chase (which, by the way, were very accurate depictions for their time periods).