This paper reviews honor cultures understood both as phenomena, as well as a more or less conceptualized idea in social sciences. It tracks down the first traces of honor cultures that emerged even before the change from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles of humans. Although honor cultures seem to have been functioning in different parts of the globe for ages, it was in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries when scientists started to conceptualize and research this idea more thoroughly. What makes it still relevant nowadays is its relation to crime, and the use of violence as a tool to preserve, protect, and survive. As long as such cultures still exist, it becomes more and more difficult to reconcile the right to preserve cultural identity with the very limited tolerance of violence and its ongoing criminalization in modern societies. The research was based on source-text analysis, as well as interviews held in detention centers of different types.

Received 13 December 2024. Revised 12 January 2025. Accepted 15 January 2025. Published online 30 January 2025

Honor, Honour, Honor culture, Honor sentiment, Violence, Delinquency, Crime, Honor killings,