Violent lawless behavior

Usage examples of ruffianism.

It is an excellent thing for ruffianism and an admirable thing for the police to be on such intimate juggling terms with the night.

This was a special body raised by the railways and colliery owners to supplement the efforts of the ordinary civil police, who were perfectly helpless in the face of the organized ruffianism which terrorized the district.

He sets every man as a spy upon his neighbour, awes the more daring into obedience by the display of a ruffianism more outrageous than their own, and, raising the worst scoundrels in the place to office, compels them to find "cases" for punishment.