i understand why murders are a rare thing these days. What i dont understand however, is how it is possible to run a big criminal organization without the use of violence. What happens if someone refuses to kick up? if someone refuses to pay back a debt, if someone refuses to take orders... the only recourse i can see is violence, and up until the 90's it was prettty clear - you get out of line, you get killed. So my question is how do you keep several hundred greedy criminals in line, when everybody knows the risk of being killed is very small? And how do you even run an extortion scheme, without a credible threat of violence to intimidate people?

I seriously dont get how that works, so i would love for someone with more insight to explain.