Comments on: "face-tattooed, duel-scarred, razor-brandishing inmates"

"face-tattooed, duel-scarred, razor-brandishing inmates"

andoatnp — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:56:45 -0800

Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate
Reason.com review focusing on "Tattoos, dueling scars, and other rational acquisitions"
Insider Higher Ed on "Criminal Incompetence"
Marginal Revolution on rates of violence between men and women in prison
Interviews with the author: Written ... Audio

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:29:51 -0800

Seems like I should be buying Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate by Diego Gambetta. A bit Pepsi blue no?

By: tad

tad — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:12:35 -0800

I was kinda disappointed to suss that the German dueling scars weren't the accidental by-product of actual fencing duels per se but were the intentional result of dudes whacking at each other's faces with sabres.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:23:59 -0800

That was interesting, thanks andoatnp.

By: artof.mulata

artof.mulata — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:24:43 -0800

it might be blue as pepsi, but it's damn interesting. thanks andoatnp...

By: artof.mulata

artof.mulata — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:25:54 -0800

stickycarpet, how did you do that???

By: TheophileEscargot

TheophileEscargot — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:34:28 -0800

The German Mensur duelling cars weren't totally deliberate or totally accidental. There's an interesting account in Jerome K. Jerome's comic travelogue Three Men on the Bummel:

In the centre, facing one another, stand the combatants, resembling Japanese warriors, as made familiar to us by the Japanese tea-tray. Quaint and rigid, with their goggle-covered eyes, their necks tied up in comforters, their bodies smothered in what looks like dirty bed quilts, their padded arms stretched straight above their heads, they might be a pair of ungainly clockwork figures. The seconds, also more or less padded--their heads and faces protected by huge leather-peaked caps,--drag them out into their proper position. One almost listens to hear the sound of the castors. The umpire takes his place, the word is given, and immediately there follow five rapid clashes of the long straight swords. There is no interest in watching the fight: there is no movement, no skill, no grace (I am speaking of my own impressions.) The strongest man wins; the man who, with his heavily-padded arm, always in an unnatural position, can hold his huge clumsy sword longest without growing too weak to be able either to guard or to strike. The whole interest is centred in watching the wounds. They come always in one of two places--on the top of the head or the left side of the face. Sometimes a portion of hairy scalp or section of cheek flies up into the air, to be carefully preserved in an envelope by its proud possessor, or, strictly speaking, its proud former possessor, and shown round on convivial evenings; and from every wound, of course, flows a plentiful stream of blood. It splashes doctors, seconds, and spectators; it sprinkles ceiling and walls; it saturates the fighters, and makes pools for itself in the sawdust. At the end of each round the doctors rush up, and with hands already dripping with blood press together the gaping wounds, dabbing them with little balls of wet cotton wool, which an attendant carries ready on a plate. Naturally, the moment the men stand up again and commence work, the blood gushes out again, half blinding them, and rendering the ground beneath them slippery. Now and then you see a man's teeth laid bare almost to the ear, so that for the rest of the duel he appears to be grinning at one half of the spectators, his other side, remaining serious; and sometimes a man's nose gets slit, which gives to him as he fights a singularly supercilious air. As the object of each student is to go away from the University bearing as many scars as possible, I doubt if any particular pains are taken to guard, even to the small extent such method of fighting can allow. The real victor is he who comes out with the greatest number of wounds; he who then, stitched and patched almost to unrecognition as a human being, can promenade for the next month, the envy of the German youth, the admiration of the German maiden. He who obtains only a few unimportant wounds retires sulky and disappointed.

By: dansdata

dansdata — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:51:38 -0800

The Inside Higher Ed piece mentions how clear it is that you don't have to pass an intelligence test to be a criminal, even a high-level organised criminal. Just the other day I discovered that as far as a significant portion of the upper levels of the Sicilan Mafia were concerned, a code that was good enough for Julius Caesar was good enough for them.

By: dragonsi55

dragonsi55 — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:34:14 -0800

Royal Flash has a memorable (though fictional) account of a schlager duel, from Flashy's unique perspective as a participant.

By: Postroad

Postroad — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:01:53 -0800

Don't they use Twitter and Facebook?

By: Gungho

Gungho — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:00:58 -0800

Never write when you can nod. Never nod when you can wink.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:16:30 -0800

By: Bron

Bron — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:18:34 -0800

Interesting, thanks for posting. Reminds me of the great short story by Samuel R. Delaney, "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones", in which part of the signaling between criminals is the use of a single word, the name of a semi-precious stone, which changes every month.

By: localroger

localroger — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:18:43 -0800

Gungho: Never write when you can nod. Never nod when you can wink. Finally, someone has explained Sarah Palin to me.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:27:38 -0800

"[T]he best applied book on signaling theory to date."--Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution Yep. Totally misread that as "Tyler Durden" which would have been a really bad-ass recommendation.

By: clavdivs

clavdivs — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:40:53 -0800

a code that was good enough for Julius Caesar was good enough for them. Heh "hey julius, baby, DON"T go to the theater today..." (yes he was killed at a theater not the offical senate house) How real criminals communicate: give me the tie or your dead hey Dewey, do it or your dead hey, gimme the box or I'll break your families face apart. as a side-note. In cartoons, the criminal always talk without moving the mouth much, thus creating the "itz like did scheee" any one care to venture why?

By: toodleydoodley

toodleydoodley — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:43:45 -0800

How real criminals communicate: "This yellow tie means that I am powerful." "See this picture of me hugging An Important Politician? Tremble at my might." "I own a luxury box at the sports arena. Am I not influential?" 'Now that I has all the money, I will use a little of it to establish a foundation, with my name on it, and assist those whom I deem deserving. I will spend more money on marketing than on actual charitable giving."

By: ph00dz

ph00dz — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:16:24 -0800

Sounds like an interesting read...

By: Snyder

Snyder — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:18:17 -0800

real criminals

By: ooga_booga

ooga_booga — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:27:26 -0800

A man's gotta have a code.

By: braax

braax — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:44:04 -0800

I am a member of a German fraternity and I have played both the part of the "fighter" as well as the part of "support staff" in several bouts. I think it's worth pointing out how both the attitudes and the practices have (or have not) changed with regards to a "Mensur", in particular given the blood thirsty barbaric picture painted by the quote in TheophileEscargot's post. The topic is extremely complex, so I can't hope to provide more than an overview, but if you have specific questions, ask away. I'm also simplifying in some regards for brevity; feel free to nit-pick. In Germany, a Mensur is no longer "fought" with a sabre. Instead something called a "Schläger" is used, something which resembles an epee from sport fencing (except that the blade is razor sharp). There's a plethora of different styles allowing for a great variety of attacks, defences, hand guard and protective gear. The descriptions given so far read a bit like a Fox News report of a Daily Mail article, however. I implicitly trust what older members of the fraternity tell me (this goes back to roughly 1940 for first-hand experience, 1900- for second hand experience), and the accounts are universally less exciting than what cultural representations make them out to be. The traditions are quite different in Austria, I'm afraid, so much of what I'm telling you here does not apply universally. I'll start by pointing out that the vast majority of bouts are carried out as "Bestimmungsmensuren", i.e. bouts where one's opponent is decided by matching up skill and height. There is a great deal of skill and grace involved here, though admittedly it requires knowledge of what's going on to recognize it. Compare it to a Perl-wizard weaving what other people would consider line noise in front of their eyes: it's an extremely abstract form of fencing. These are further divided into "Fuxenpartien", which are highly restricted bouts where injuries are extremely rare, and "Burschenpartien", where injuries happen on a 10:1 to 3:1 basis roughly, depending on the particular style used. A lot of those injuries are within an area covered by hair (for all but the prematurely bald); as you might have guessed, the "Renomierschmiß" has gone a bit out of fashion. There is a rough North-South divide in terms of what protective gear is used (the north tends to have more than the south). The emphasis in these bouts is very much on proper technique first. Injuring the other participant is secondary, and he main emphasis is on getting through the bout without flinching. There's no scoring, no winner or loser. Wounds are stitched up by people who know what they are doing and no one (except for an odd fringe group) do anything to make their scars bigger than they are. There is another kind of bout, though, which is a bit more "interesting", called the "Persönliche Contrahage". It's as close to a duel as you can get in Germany: one student (capable of participating in a bout) and another (also capable) have come to a point where one deeply insulted the other. This is technically illegal since a Mensur for dissolving "Ehrenhändel" (honour disputes) are just that, but they happen none the less; such bouts are usually declared as being "zur Wahrung des Konservativen Prinzips" ("for preserving our conservative principles") to circumvent the law. Additionally there's the "Pro Patria", which is like the above except it involves all capable mebers of one fraternity challenging all members of another to a bout.

By: blue shadows

blue shadows — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:06:37 -0800

Brilliant, toodleydoodley!

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:04:39 -0800

Yep. Totally misread that as "Tyler Durden" which would have been a really bad-ass recommendation. Signalling theory by Alexyss K. Tylor would be even better again. "And when he winks at you like this, that means he's going to bend you over like a pretzel and start hitting the back and working the sides..."

By: fantabulous timewaster

fantabulous timewaster — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:36:17 -0800

The third link describes the mafia as a "kakistocracy", a government by the worst, which is a neologism I intend to use liberally from here on.