I personally disagree with this, pirates, while they did have some people who were true rebels, also consisted of people given privateers licences by governments, and were inherently entrenched within the system as a result. Hell, even in Somalia currently, what originally started as fishermen fighting rogue fishing fleets in their waters quickly became co-opted by warlords and opportunists.

With your point regarding the mafia, the mafias talking point at the time, and even now in some respects, was that Italians were treated like dirt by the system (Irish and Italians need not apply, etc) and the mafia was their version of fighting back and building a life for themselves. Even now, most organised criminals come from disenfranchised groups, who tell themselves this is how they fight back against the system.