Human nature pushes the person who has been wronged to seek revenge against their aggressor. It is from this spontaneous revengeful reaction that criminal law is born. Though rudimentary and brutal, private revenge constituted a means of maintaining social order between clans. Fear of revenge acted as a deterrent against anti-social behaviour, such as murder. Thus the system of vendettas served to achieve respect for strangers and solidarity within each clan group, as the whole clan of the victim was ready to seek vengeance. Revenge would be sought not only against the individual aggressor but also against their family, their chief and the most important clan members. Thus, in its origins criminal liability was collective rather than individual. The focus was on the harm caused, and there was no interest in establishing the guilty mind of the aggressor. No distinction was drawn between voluntary and involuntary homicide and even a natural death could be attributed to an evil spell of a neighbouring clan.1 The vendetta had no ambition to prevent criminality.