Forensic Psychology For Dummies (84 page)
Read Forensic Psychology For Dummies Online
Authors: David Canter
Complicating:
The negotiator introduces issues that the kidnappers may not have thought of that undermine their assumptions of what’s possible. This approach can loosen their belief in what they can achieve. For instance, the negotiator may point out that when outside with the victim they’re pray to snipers or may get snarled up in traffic.
The negotiator directly challenges the hostage-takers about what they’re threatening so that other ways of seeing themselves can surface. The most direct test of this would be to tell the kidnappers that they’re clearly not going to harm the hostage if a peaceful solution can be found.
Tackling criminal street gangs
Crime figures show that most members of delinquent street groups are likely to be involved in crime. These youngsters are more likely to have carried knives or even guns and have taken illegal drugs. Some calculations, particularly from the US, suggest that about 5 per cent of gang members account for 25 per cent of crimes committed by youngsters. All this adds to the need to combat illegal gangs and their activities as a direct form of crime prevention.
Gangs provide a clear social role for young people who feel alienated from their family and those around them. A gang is often said to be a substitute family. But gang membership can be more than that in an area in which territories are marked out by rival groups; it becomes a form of protection. Gangs also give status to individuals through direct membership and by the positions individuals can obtain or aspire to within the group.
Therefore, attempts to reduce the impact of gangs need to take into account the psychology involved, subvert these perceived benefits and provide attractive alternatives. Here are some such approaches:
Using psychology against criminal networks
Some criminals are part of networks of contacts. For example. to make illegal drugs available the drugs have to be obtained, smuggled across borders, sold on to middle men who then sell them to individuals who sell them on the street or in pubs. This network may involve dozens or even hundreds of people. Undermining this arrangement requires an understanding of how criminal networks operate, which I explore in this section.
Female gangs
As noted throughout this book, men commit the majority of crimes. But although most street gangs still consist of young men, female gang members also exist and carry out the full range of criminal activities. Make no mistake, female gang members aren’t just an adjunct to male gangs and some groups of young women have formed their own independent gangs.
When considering how authorities can combat the activities of illegal, criminal networks, I wondered whether they can perhaps subvert the principles of something called
organisational psychology
(a discipline developed to improve the effectiveness of organisations and the satisfaction of their workforce). Could 100 years of such research into
improving
how organisations productively work together be turned on its head to
undermine
organised criminal enterprises? In other words, surely crime prevention can develop a
destructive organisational psychology.
In this section, I suggest some ideas to base this approach on.
Appreciating the difficulties facing illegal networks
Although films and novels often depict criminal networks as being arranged like legitimate companies, such highly structured criminal groups are very unusual. Even the Mafia and the Triads operate very differently from Coca Cola or Microsoft. The reason is that maintaining and managing a criminal organisation is very difficult, something which destructive organisational psychology can take advantage of. Here are some of the problems of setting up an illegal venture: