The criminal world is not homogeneous in nature and sufficiently organized. It has its own rules and regulations, its division into categories, castes and groups. One of the criminal statuses, which can often be heard from television programs or from police reports, is the so-called thieves in law.
Criminal authority
In the thirties of the last century, a new and informal criminal association specific only to this country appeared in the Soviet Union, which ordinary people have long been accustomed to calling thieves in law. Persons assigned to this category had an internal code of conduct, characterized by strict adherence to criminal traditions. The criminal world in which these authoritative thieves acted was distinguished by a high level of closeness.
Interestingly, in the criminal environment, the concept of "thief in law" is practically not used. This combination is typical for those who are far from the criminal world and know about it only in adventure films and books, where “thieves romance” is often covered and cultivated recently. Authoritative persons in the criminal environment who have this status are simply called thieves in criminal jargon or say “I am in law” about themselves.
Thieves in law call those who keep criminal traditions and represent the elite of the criminal world.
