Offender Profiling Series: Vol 3
The Social Psychology of Crime










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The Social Psychology of Crime: Groups, Teams and Networks

Ian Donald and Angela Wilson
Ram Raiding: Criminals Working in Groups


Enschewing the traditional social psychological approach to understanding group crime, the chapter examines the actions of commercial burglars - ram raiders - from the perspective of organisational psychology. One of the central questions asked is whether such offenders can be thought of as work groups in the same sense as more legitimate groups? Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis of the behaviours and previous criminal records of ram raiders shows that group members develop a career that results in a degree of specialisation. Ram raid group structure resembles that of legitimate work groups, with members occupying and performing specific interdependent roles and tasks during the execution of the crime. The groups contain a clear leader as well as apprentices, who tend to go on to become leaders, and others who specialise in violence, driving and so on. These roles and tasks reflect the members' previous specialisation. The ram raiders fulfil most of the criteria necessary to define them as work groups. It is concluded that an organisational perspective is useful in developing an understanding of criminal activity, but also that organisational psychology can benefit theoretically and conceptually from considering non-legitimate work groups.

Ian Donald is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. He teaches Applied Psychology and has responsibility research methods on the MSc course in Investigative Psychology. Since obtaining his PhD from Aston University Business School his main areas of research interest are within work and organisational psychology. He has advised major companies, the HSE, and the European Union on various industrial issues. Currently Dr. Donald has a number of research projects with international Blue-chip companies looking at such factors as organisational climate and culture, organisational change, teamwork, and psychological aspects of industrial safety. He also has a long-standing interest in human behaviour in disasters, facet theory and psychological and emotional aspects of office design. Dr. Donald has published widely on social, environmental and organisational psychology as well as research methods. He has also presented his work at conferences and is invited to lectures around the world. In all he has presented and published over 100 papers. Dr. Donald is a chartered psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health.

Angela Wilson is a Detective Chief Inspector with Thames Valley Police. She was awarded a BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology from St. Andrews University in 1984. She joined Thames Valley later that year. She studied with Professor Canter at Liverpool University in 1994/95 and was awarded the MSc in Investigative Psychology with distinction in 1995. Her Dissertation entitled "Do Birds of a Feather Flock Together" was a study of the criminal profiles of groups of offenders committing ram-raid offences. In 1996 she was awarded a Home Office, Police Research Group grant to study the geographic patterns and profile of domestic burglary offenders. She is currently reading for an MBA degree at Reading University.

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