NCJ Number
216755
Journal
Global Crime Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2006 Pages: 214-246
Date Published
May 2006
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This paper attempts to explain a relationship between two ancient instruments associated with excessive violence and directly link it to the violent behavior of the contemporary Albanian and Chinese organized crime groups.
Abstract
The Kanun sets up the rules upon which the Albanian culture is based, focusing on honor and hospitality. The Kanun has been described as an expression of the independence and the facto autonomy in Albania. It is often associated with the primitive and archaic rules of the blood feuds. This is one of the reasons why ethnic Albanians have often been depicted as bloodthirsty tribesman. The Kanun specifies how offenses to honor should be avenged. Today, the problem is the actual wording of the Kanun and its explicit and implicit use. The Albanian people modified and exaggerated the Kanun laws and created their own self-interpretations that were even more violent than the original laws. In China, the term Triad was a rubric that covered three similar but separate societies, also known as the Hung Mun (Hung League). In China, in the face of popular accounts of the Hung Mun as a noble and patriotic society, historical evidence suggests that they were actually a mutual aid society directly linked to the chaotic socio-economic circumstances in China’s lower classes. In the early 19th century, the Hung Mun had organized the marginal elements of the foreign trade field into the criminal underworld. They controlled prostitution, gambling, and protection. By the 20th century, the underworld had gained formal recognition. This paper demonstrates the importance of cultural codes and traditions in understanding certain violent and criminal behavior. This paper analyzed the Albanian Kanun of Lek Dukagjini and the code of the Chinese Hung Mun (Triad Society) that have survived throughout the centuries and their relation to excessive violence.