ABSTRACT
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.
