banditry

Banditry is the life and practice of bandits. The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (NED) defined "bandit" in 1885 as "one who is proscribed or outlawed; hence, a lawless desperate marauder, a brigand: usually applied to members of the organized gangs which infest the mountainous districts of Italy, Sicily, Spain, Greece, Iran, and Turkey". In modern usage the word may become a synonym for "theif", hence the term "one-armed bandit" for gambling machines that can leave the gambler with no money.