Leadership and Hierarchies in Criminal Groups: Scaling Degrees of Leader Behaviour in Group Robbery

• NCJ Number: 215568
• Journal: Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Dated: September 2006 Pages: 245-265
• Author(s): Louise E. Porter; Laurence J. Alison
• Date Published: September 2006
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This paper replicates and extends a previous study identifying leaders as the group member most involved throughout the stages of the robbery offense, classifying leadership behavior as initiative, participation, and autocracy and explores a similar leadership behavior scale in cases of group robbery.

Abstract

A partially ordered scale of leadership behavior identified in a 2001 study of rape groups was replicated with a sample of robbery groups. The scale identified potential leaders in the majority of robbery groups; that is, one member of a group who exhibited more leadership behavior than his/her teammates. In an extension of the 2001 study, the utility of the scale in exploring the types of hierarchy evident in leadership behavior within these groups has been demonstrated. In the sample of robbery groups, offenders rarely gave orders to their teammates during the crime stages. These offenders acted in more subtle ways, providing influence over others through their actions rather than verbal commands. Potential leaders were identified as individuals who exhibited the most leader behavior in their group. This study extents the original work of Porter and Alison’s 2001 study using the tested scale of leadership behavior to identify leaders in group situations. The aim of this study was to offer a replication and extension of the original study, in order to explore further the utility of the scale for identifying leadership behavior in criminal groups beyond the crime of gang rape. It also sought to explore group robbery with respect to the existence of leadership strategies; whether and how they manifested themselves in the group and in individuals within the group. The study consisted of 105 group robbery cases collected from law reports on the basis that they involved at least 2 co-offenders engaging in theft or attempted theft from a person through use of force, threat, or violence. Tables, figures, and references