Editing Organized crime (section)

===Pre-nineteenth century===
Today, crime is sometimes thought of as an urban phenomenon, but for most of human history it was the rural interfaces that encountered the majority of crimes (bearing in mind the fact that for most of human history, rural areas were the vast majority of inhabited places). For the most part, within a village, members kept crime at very low rates; however, outsiders such as [[piracy|pirates]], [[Highwayman|highwaymen]] and [[banditry|bandits]] attacked trade routes and roads, at times severely disrupting commerce, raising costs, insurance rates and prices to the consumer. According to criminologist Paul Lunde, "[[Piracy]] and [[banditry]] were to the pre-industrial world what organized crime is to modern society."<ref name="ReferenceA">Paul Lunde, ''Organized Crime'', 2004.</ref>
{{blockquote|If we take a global rather than a strictly domestic view, it becomes evident that even crime of the organized kind has a long if not a necessarily noble heritage. The word 'thug' dates back to early 13th-century [[Indian subcontinent|India]], when [[Thuggee|Thugs]], or gangs of criminals, roamed from town to town, looting and [[pillaging]]. Smuggling and drug-trafficking rings are as old as the hills in Asia and Africa, and extant criminal organizations in Italy and Japan trace their histories back several centuries...<ref>Sullivan, Robert, ed. ''Mobsters and Gangsters: Organized Crime in America, from [[Al Capone]] to [[Tony Soprano]].'' New York: Life Books, 2002.</ref>}}

As Lunde states, "[[Barbarian]] conquerors, whether [[Vandals]], [[Goths]], the [[Norsemen|Norse]], [[Turkic peoples|Turks]] or [[Mongols]] are not normally thought of as organized crime groups, yet they share many features associated with thriving criminal organizations. They were for the most part non-ideological, predominantly ethnically based, used violence and intimidation, and adhered to their own codes of law."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> In [[Ancient Rome]], there was an infamous outlaw called [[Bulla Felix]] who organized and led a gang of up to six hundred bandits. Terrorism is linked to organized crime, but has political aims rather than solely financial ones, so there is overlap but separation between terrorism and organized crime.

==== Fencing in Ming and Qing China ====
A fence or receiver (銷贓者), was a [[merchant]] who bought and sold [[Possession of stolen goods|stolen goods]]. Fences were part of the extensive network of accomplices in the criminal underground of [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] China. Their occupation entailed criminal activity, but as fences often acted as liaisons between the more respectable community to the underground criminals, they were seen as living a "precarious existence on the fringes of respectable society".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|isbn=978-988-8390-05-2|location=Hong Kong|page=174}}</ref>

A fence worked alongside [[banditry|bandits]], but in a different line of work. The network of criminal accomplices that was often acquired was essential to ensuring both the safety and the success of fences.

The path into the occupation of a fence stemmed, in a large degree, from necessity. As most fences came from the ranks of poorer people, they often took whatever work they could – both legal and illegal.<ref name=":1" />

Like most bandits operated within their own community, fences also worked within their own town or village. For example, in some satellite areas of the capital, military troops lived within or close to the commoner population and they had the opportunity to hold illegal trades with commoners.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bandits, Eunuchs and the Son of Heaven: Rebellion and the Economy of Violence in Mid-Ming China|last=Robinson|first=David|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|date=2001|isbn=978-0-8248-6154-4|location=Honolulu|page=58}}</ref>

In areas like [[Baoding]] and [[Hejian]], local peasants and community members not only purchased military livestock such as horses and cattle, but also helped to hide the "stolen livestock from military allured by the profits". Local peasants and community members became fences and they hid [[Crime|criminal activities]] from officials in return for products or money from these soldiers.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bandits, Eunuchs and the Son of Heaven: Rebellion and the Economy of Violence in Mid-Ming China.|last=Robinson|first=David|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|date=2001|isbn=978-0-8248-6154-4|location=Honolulu|page=58}}</ref>

===== Types of fences =====
Most fences were not individuals who only bought and sold stolen goods to make a living. The majority of fences had other occupations within the "polite" society and held a variety of official occupations. These occupations included laborers, coolies, and peddlers.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China.|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=175}}</ref> Such individuals often encountered criminals in markets in their line of work, and, recognizing a potential avenue for an extra source of income, formed acquaintances and temporary associations for mutual aid and protection with criminals.<ref name=":2" /> In one example, an owner of a tea house overheard the conversation between Deng Yawen, a criminal and others planning a robbery and he offered to help to sell the loot for an exchange of spoils.

At times, the robbers themselves filled the role of fences, selling to people they met on the road. This may actually have been preferable for robbers in certain circumstances, because they would not have to pay the fence a portion of the spoils.

Butchers were also prime receivers for stolen animals because of the simple fact that owners could no longer recognize their livestock once butchers slaughtered them.<ref name=":2" /> Animals were very valuable commodities within Ming China and a robber could potentially sustain a living from stealing livestock and selling them to butcher-fences.

Although the vast majority of the time, fences worked with physical stolen property, fences who also worked as itinerant barbers also sold information as a good. Itinerant barbers often amassed important sources of information and news as they traveled, and sold significant pieces of information, often to criminals in search of places to hide or individuals to rob.<ref name=":2" /> In this way, itinerant barbers also served the role as a keeper of information that could be sold to both members of the criminal underground, as well as powerful clients in performing the function of a spy.

Fences not only sold items such as jewelry and clothing but was also involved in [[human trafficking|trafficking]] hostages that bandits had kidnapped. Women and children were the easiest and among the most common "objects" the fences sold. Most of the female hostages were sold to fences and then sold as [[Prostitution|prostitutes]], wives or [[concubinage|concubines]]. One example of human trafficking can be seen from Chen Akuei's gang who abducted a servant girl and sold her to Lin Baimao, who in turn sold her for thirty parts of silver as wives.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=156}}</ref> In contrast to women, who required beauty to sell for a high price, children were sold regardless of their physical appearance or family background. Children were often sold as servants or entertainers, while young girls were often sold as prostitutes.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China.|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=160}}</ref>

===== Network of connections =====
Like merchants of honest goods, one of the most significant tools of a fence was their network of connections. As they were the middlemen between robbers and clients, fences needed to form and maintain connections in both the "polite" society, as well as among criminals. However, there were a few exceptions in which members of the so-called "well-respected" society became receivers and harborers. They not only help bandits to sell the stolen goods but also acted as agents of bandits to collect protection money from local merchants and residents. These "part-time" fences with high social status used their connection with bandits to help themselves gain social capital as well as wealth.

It was extremely important to their occupation that fences maintained a positive relationship with their customers, especially their richer gentry clients. When some members of the local elites joined the ranks of fences, they not only protected bandits to protect their business interests, they actively took down any potential threats to their illegal profiting, even [[government officials]]. In the [[Zhejiang|Zhejiang Province]], the local elites not only got the provincial commissioner, Zhu Wan, dismissed from his office but also eventually "[drove] him to suicide".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Murakami, Ei. "The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Pirates: from Initiators to Obstructors of Maritime Trade." The Sea in History - The Early Modern World, edited by Christian Buchet and Gérard Le Bouëdec|last=Murakami|first=Ei|publisher=The Boydell Press|date=2017|isbn=978-1-78327-158-0|location=Woodbridge, UK|page=814}}</ref> This was possible because fences often had legal means of making a living, as well as illegal activities and could threaten to turn in bandits to the authorities.<ref name=":1" />

It was also essential for them to maintain a relationship with bandits. However, it was just as true that bandits needed fences to make a living. As a result, fences often held dominance in their relationship with bandits and fences could exploit their position, cheating the bandits by manipulating the prices they paid bandits for the stolen property.<ref name=":1" />

===== Safe houses =====
Aside from simply buying and selling stolen goods, fences often played additional roles in the criminal underground of early China. Because of the high floating population in public places such as inns and tea houses, they often became ideal places for bandits and gangs to gather to exchange information and plan for their next crime. Harborers, people who provided safe houses for criminals, often played the role of receiving stolen goods from their harbored criminals to sell to other customers.<ref name=":1" /> Safe houses included inns, tea houses, brothels, opium dens, as well as gambling parlors and employees or owners of such institutions often functioned as harborers, as well as fences.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China.|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=171}}</ref> These safe houses were located in places with high floating populations and people from all kinds of social backgrounds.

Brothels themselves helped these bandits to hide and sell stolen goods because of the special Ming Law that exempted brothels from being held responsible "for the criminal actions of their clients." Even though the government required owners of these places to report any suspicious activities, lack of enforcement from the government itself and some of the owners being fences for the bandits made an ideal safe house for bandits and gangs.

Pawnshops were also often affiliated with fencing stolen goods. The owners or employees of such shops often paid cash for stolen goods at a price a great deal below market value to bandits, who were often desperate for money, and resold the goods to earn a profit.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unruly People: Crime, Community, and State in Late Imperial South China.|last=Antony|first=Robert|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|date=2016|location=Hong Kong|page=177}}</ref>

===== Punishments for fences =====
Two different Ming Laws, the ''Da Ming Lü'' 大明律 and the ''Da Gao'' 大诰, drafted by the [[Hongwu Emperor]] Zhu Yuanzhang, sentenced fences with different penalties based on the categories and prices of the products that were stolen.

In coastal regions, illegal trading with foreigners, as well as smuggling, became a huge concern for the government during the middle to late Ming era. In order to prohibit this crime, the government passed a law in which illegal smugglers who traded with foreigners without the consent of the government would be punished with exile to the border for military service.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://roger.ucsd.edu/search~S9?/Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ/Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&extended=1&SUBKEY=ming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+/1,70,70,E/frameset&FF=Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&1,1,|title=Ming dai li fa yan jiu|last=Yang|first=Yifan|date=2013|publisher=Zhongguo she hui ke xue chu ban she|isbn=9787516127179|edition=Di 1 ban|series=Zhongguo she hui ke xue yuan xue bu wei yuan zhuan ti wen ji = Zhongguoshehuikexueyuan xuebuweiyuan zhuanti wenji|location=Beijing|page=42|oclc=898751378|access-date=2021-12-31|archive-date=2021-03-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306025533/http://roger.ucsd.edu/search~S9?%2FXming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ%2FXming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&extended=1&SUBKEY=ming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+%2F1%2C70%2C70%2CE%2Fframeset&FF=Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&1%2C1%2C|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In areas where military troops were stationed, stealing and selling military property would result in a more severe punishment. In the Jiaqing time, a case was recorded of stealing and selling military horses. The emperor himself gave direction that the thieves who stole the horses and the people who helped to sell the horses would be put on [[cangue]] and sent to labor in a border military camp.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://roger.ucsd.edu/search~S9?/Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ/Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&extended=1&SUBKEY=ming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+/1,70,70,E/frameset&FF=Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&1,1,|title=Ming dai li fa yan jiu|last=Yang|first=Yifan|date=2013|publisher=Zhongguo she hui ke xue chu ban she|isbn=9787516127179|edition=Di 1 ban|series=Zhongguo she hui ke xue yuan xue bu wei yuan zhuan ti wen ji = Zhongguoshehuikexueyuan xuebuweiyuan zhuanti wenji|location=Beijing|page=326|oclc=898751378|access-date=2021-12-31|archive-date=2021-03-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306025533/http://roger.ucsd.edu/search~S9?%2FXming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ%2FXming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&extended=1&SUBKEY=ming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+%2F1%2C70%2C70%2CE%2Fframeset&FF=Xming+dai+li+fa+yan+jiu+&searchscope=9&SORT=DZ&1%2C1%2C|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the [[Salt in Chinese history|salt]] mines, the penalty for workers who stole salt and people who sold the stolen salt was the most severe. Anyone who was arrested and found guilty of stealing and selling government salt was put to death.