Behavioural coherence in group robbery: a circumplex model of offender and victim interactions

Abstract

The behaviour of offenders and victims in 116 cases of group robbery (61 commercial, 55 personal) was examined. Four interpersonal themes were evident: dominance, submission, co-operation and hostility. These themes are governed by the principles of complementarity such that offender dominance elicits victim submission (reciprocity) and vice versa, while co-operative offenders tend to elicit victim co-operation (correspondence). Hostile offences were hypothesised as eliciting hostility in victims, but few victims in the sample demonstrated active resistance. The existence of behavioural themes suggests that offenders within the same group behave in a homogenous fashion, which is explained by reference to group norms and processes of modelling. Further, differences in interpersonal themes were evident between commercial and personal robberies. Commercial robberies tend to involve greater levels of co-operation than personal robberies, while personal robberies involve more hostility than commercial robberies. This is discussed in terms of situational and motivational elements of the robberies.