Despite its significant implications in terms of technical skills, professions and education, research about mafias has never been a mainstream subject in Architecture and Engineering academic disciplines. Although the database does not accurately capture yet the entirety of the Italian scholars scientific production, it is evident that attention to mafias for disciplines related to Architecture has always been extremely marginal. And it happens despite the thematic proximity to relevant areas such as construction, or problems concerning the use and abuse of urban and territorial heritage. The Engineering scientific output captured in the registry is even more limited, and primarily focused on criminal network detection systems and video surveillance, even when considering only the computer engineering disciplines currently recognised in the database.