I must say this comes as a surprise to me , since I was under the impression that the vors are/were a ( mostly extinct ) subculture as opposed to a proper organized crime group .
Of course I imagine the usual American ignorance is to blame for this among other things .
They are not extinct and not even near to be extinct. However numbers of crowned Thieves in Law have decreased since the creation and also a rising number of Thieves in Law from Caucasus have became bigger. But the people who are connected with this society is still big in numbers.
Thieves in Law by simple definition would be called a loose prison gang or more can be explained to be a Criminal Society that has went outside of the prison developing to the present day standards. In the very start Russian prison system had several different gangs emerging also, but Thieves in Law were the ones who overpowered the other gangs. There are clans of Thieves - simply Vory who work together and there can be gangs and groups ran by a Thief or many Thieves in Law.
The sub-culture which you are speaking about is currently popularized AUE(Arestantskoe Urkaganskoe Edinstvo - Arrested peoples Banditry Unity). The whole Thieves in Law live by the Ponyatiya(right ideas). This is a set of code and rules that each person must follow who enter prison or are associated with people who have been in prison and/or engaging into criminal activities. Usually people associated with the ponyatiya will judge others by their ideology even if those others are not connected with Vorovskoi Mir.
Any more explinations or questions about Thieves in Law are welcome. However, I am not informed about all the personas who are there in this society, but I can find the information in Russian if requested.
