Centralized authority increases as the secret society’s purposes become more criminal.

Evidence

Corresponding to the outstanding degree of cohesion within the secret society is the thoroughness of its centralization. The secret society offers examples of unconditional and blind obedience to leaders who although, naturally, they may also be found elsewhere are yet particularly remarkable in view of the frequent anarchic character of the secret society that negates ail other law. The more criminal its purposes, the more un- limited, usually, is the power of the leaders and the cruelty of its exercise. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 8936