barons, was starting to produce cases, as in Maida, of "a small bunch of young, freeloaded young men who commit violence with the use of firearms. Justice is idle because without force and without a system malicious people become policemen (a sort of urban guard)." In the District of Gerace, "the raids of the criminals in the countryside are general. Almost all the militiamen are the most troublemakers in the province because the criminals and the debtors adopt this profession and are guaranteed by commanders in contempt of the laws. With this, the crimes, which grow every day". In 1861, the prefect of Reggio Calabria already noticed the presence of so-called camorristi, a term used at the time since there was no formal name for the phenomenon in Calabria (the Camorra was the older and better known criminal organization in Naples).Behan, The Camorra, pp. 9–10 Since the 1880s, there is ample evidence of 'Ndrangheta-type groups in police reports and sentences by local courts. At the time they were often being referred to as the picciotteria, onorata società (honoured society) or camorra and mafia. These secret societies in the areas of Calabria rich in olives and vines were distinct from the often anarchic forms of banditry and were organized hierarchically with a code of conduct that included omertà – the code of silence – according to a sentence from the court in Reggio Calabria in 1890. An 1897 sentence from the court in Palmi mentioned a written code of rules found in the village of Seminara based on honour, secrecy, violence, solidarity (often based on blood relationships) and mutual assistance. In the folk culture surrounding 'Ndrangheta in Calabria, references to the Spanish Garduña often appear. Aside from these references, however, there is nothing to substantiate a link between the two organizations. The Calabrian word 'Ndrangheta derives from Greek ἀνδραγαθία andragathía for "heroism" and manly "virtue" or ἀνδράγαθος andrágathos, compound words of ἀνήρ, anḗr (gen. ἀνδρóς, andrós), i.e. man, and ἀγαθός, agathós, i.e. good, brave, meaning a courageous man. In many areas of Calabria the verb '''ndranghitiari, from the Greek verb andragathízesthai, means "to engage in a defiant and valiant attitude". The word 'Ndrangheta was brought to a wider audience by the Calabrian writer Corrado Alvaro in the Corriere della Sera in September 1955.Fabio Truzzolillo, "The 'Ndrangheta: the current state of historical research," Modern Italy (August 2011) 16#3, pp. 363–383. Modern history