FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

VICE INTL

Blood Debt

VICE Serbia meets families across the Balkans who have taken justice for their children's deaths into their own hands.

In some parts of the Balkans, families still live by a centuries-old law called "the Canon". According to this law, if a man from one family kills another, the family of the victim must respond in the same way. This "debt" is usually executed by the oldest male member of the family. It is his duty to avenge his loved one, and in case he refuses, he is rejected, declared a coward and his family will renounce him.

VICE Serbia follows the trail of Blood Feuds from East Montenegro – where some families have experienced up to four cycles of this customary law – to the North of Albania, in search of the children who never leave their homes in fear of being killed.

In these parts of the Balkan, the inefficient and corrupted system of justice gives many criminals the chance to bribe their way to freedom and go unpunished for their crimes. VICE talks to the families of the victims, disappointed from the institutions of the law, who have taken justice into their own hands.