It originated and remains common in Southern Italy, where banditry or brigandage and Mafia-type criminal organizations (like the Camorra, Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita and Società foggiana) have long been strong.
[2] The first Antimafia Commission of the Italian parliament in the 1970s accepted the origin based on omu on the authority of Antonio Cutrera, with no reference to Spanish.
Observers of the Mafia debate whether omertà should best be understood as an expression of social consensus for the Mafia or whether it is instead a pragmatic response based primarily on fear, as implied by a popular Sicilian proverb: "Cu è surdu, orbu e taci, campa cent'anni 'mpaci" ("He who is deaf, blind and silent will live a hundred years in peace").
It is dastardly and contemptible in a wounded man to betray the name of his assailant, because if he recovers, he must naturally expect to take vengeance himself.
"[4] Sicilians adopted the code long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra, and it may have been heavily influenced by centuries of state oppression and foreign domination.
[7] The Italian-American mafioso Joseph Valachi famously broke the omertà code in 1963, when he publicly spoke out about the existence of the Mafia and testified before a United States Senate committee.
Swedish metal band Katatonia released a song titled "Omerta" on their 2003 album Viva Emptiness, detailing the fictional killing of a mafia informant who had broken omertà.
American heavy metal band Lamb of God also released a song titled "Omerta" from their third studio album Ashes of the Wake (2004), which begins with lead singer Randy Blythe performing a spoken word description of omertà.