Banditry

thumb|250px|Carmine Crocco's lieutenant Agostino Sacchitiello and members of his band from [[Bisaccia, Campania photographed in 1862]] Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and murder, either as an individual or in groups. Banditry is a vague concept of criminality and in modern usage can be synonymous with gangsterism, brigandage, marauding, terrorism, piracy, and thievery.

thumb|Italian Brigands Surprised by Papal Troops ([[Horace Vernet, 1831)]]

thumbnail|A family of dacoits

Shifta is a term mostly used in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania, and Somalia that can be translated as "bandit" or "outlaw", but can include anyone who rebels against an authority or an institution that is seen as illegitimate, like the Arbegnoch guerillas during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. The Swahili word was loaned from the Somali shufta during the Shifta War, and is in turn derived from Amharic ሽፍታ (šəfta).

thumb|The Moss-trooper, by Thomas Jones Barker Moss-troopers were brigands of the mid-17th century, who operated across the border country between Scotland and the northern English counties of Northumberland and Cumberland during the period of the English Commonwealth, until after the Restoration.