Soldato

A soldato is the first level of both the American Mafia and the Sicilian Mafia in the formal Mafia hierarchy or cadre. The promotion to the rank of soldier is an elevation in the chain of command from the associate level. The associate must prove himself to the family and take the oath of Omertà. Picciotto (plural: picciotti) is often used to refer to a lower-level mafioso, but it usually indicates a younger, inexperienced soldato—one who is not necessarily a made man. "Picciotti" usually perform simple tasks such as beatings and robbery.

An associate can only be promoted to soldier after a period of being "on record" with an incumbent member of a family. He must be sponsored by the incumbent soldier's caporegime (capo or captain), and personally cleared by the family's boss. Once inducted into the Mafia, a soldier is now part of a crew, a collection of soldiers and associates working under a capo. A soldier's main responsibility is to earn money and kick a portion of his profits up to his capo. Under most circumstances, a soldier never receives orders directly from the boss. Rather, the boss passes orders down the chain of command to the soldiers.

They also serve as muscle of their crime family. Like an associate, he can also be relied on to commit acts of intimidation, threats, violence and murder. The soldier is obliged to obey orders from his capo to commit murder for his crime family. As a made man, he is bound by the Mafia code of omertà and must serve loyally for life. Although a soldier ranks at the lowest level of the family, he has several advantages over an associate. Most notably, he is considered untouchable in the criminal underworld. If another mobster wants to kill a soldier, it is compulsory that he gets permission from the soldier's boss, and only then for an egregious violation of Mafia rules. In contrast, an associate can be killed solely on a soldier's whim. For example, when Philadelphia crime family associate Nicodemo Scarfo, Jr. was almost killed by a warring faction of the family, his father, Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, Sr., pulled some strings to get him inducted into the Lucchese crime family, protecting him from any possible attacks in the future. Killing a soldier without getting the boss's permission is considered taboo in mob circles and can lead to the perpetrator of the murder getting killed himself. The lone exception to this rule is when the boss himself calls a soldier in; this may be because the soldier's capo has fallen into disfavor and the boss wants him killed.

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