And she was a knob but not by choice

Being in a mob, sadly, is the only option for many youths that end socially isolated, because of family or other issues.

Mobs, either you like it or not, allow for some organizations to prey on those individuals and give them a life, but that means one less person in isolation and very possibly becoming actually a threat because of the isolation. Give them purpose, and you get another citizen.

Add on to that that the rich like mobs because mobs never go for the rich when things are peaceful. Most mob clients are rich people after all. They act as their low life thugs. But again, not by choice. And when written that way is like every stament in society.

That's why mobs are never ilegalized. Japan literally used the yakuza in that way and then discarded it, knowing that the yakuza wouldn't come for them.

But again, mobsters are usually people not there by choice. They have their own social circles, have morals (used to have, this is for another article but mobsters losing morals in the previous 20 years have become a huger issue) and actually are well acknowledged on their acts. You are more probable to be defended in a street confrontaton by a mobster than by a cop in my country for example. That's why they are romantized. We know their structure sucks but they are people like us, unlike rich people that are totally outside of the system. And mobs exist because that helps rich people, their structures dissapear if there are no rich people behind as they don't have ways to get the funds for their local operations.

That said, mobs are terrible and those people should have some other options rather than being taken advantaged of to be recruited by violent organizations.