ABSTRACT
Offender Profiling research has until recently concentrated on offenders operating in isolation. However, many crimes are committed not by an offender acting alone, but by a group of offenders working together.
The purpose of this research was to examine the possibility of determining the characteristics of an armed robbery team from their actions at the scene of the crime. The first step in this research was to define whether the criminal team acted in ways similar to many other groups. The study examined the group make-up of seventeen armed robbery teams. All of the participants in this study were convicted armed robbers who were serving sentences in British Prisons.
Using the 5-WH interview technique (McGuire and Priestley, 1985) and sociograms, we examined the armed robbery team over a number of areas such as communication, roles, planning, conflict, trust, leadership, recruitment, goals and norms.
The overall finding of the research is that armed robbery teams are similar in many ways to many other legitimate’ groups. They are goal oriented, have a structure, have positions for their members, undertake planning and set rules for themselves in the commission of the offence. In addition, there is a symbiotic relationship between the team organisation and the groups’ cohesiveness.
Membership of an armed robbery team was found to influence the behaviour, beliefs, and attitudes of the team members. This research highlights the importance of examining group characteristics in order to fully understand the nature of this crime.
