ABSTRACT
Organized crime groups across the world share common characteristics, from organizational structure to codes of conduct and rules for ensuring secrecy. This chapter will look at four of these groups – the Yakuza in Japan; the Triads in China; the Vory v Zakone; and outlaw biker gangs, such as the Hells Angels. These exemplify the same kinds of patterns and structures of the Italian Mafias (Chapter 2), constituting self-contained criminal enclaves that have the ability, means, and resources to spread throughout society and now cyberspace, constituting threats to the stability of global economies. Understanding the lure of organized crime to young recruits is to unravel the underlying reasons for the emotional power of gangsterism, which derives from bonding behaviors such as the taking of oaths of allegiance that are designed to keep the members feeling united to each other. This perpetuates the existence of the gangs beyond one generation of members.
