Criminal Actions and Social Situations

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Technical and Analytical Considerations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. The Central Problem of Collective Action

      • Anthony Amatrudo

      Pages 3-32

   3. Collective Actions and Goals

      • Anthony Amatrudo

      Pages 33-60

3. Legal Considerations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61

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   2. Mobs, Masses and Treating People as Groups

      • Anthony Amatrudo

      Pages 63-87

   3. Organisations and Their Enterprise in UK Criminal Law and in International Law

      • Anthony Amatrudo

      Pages 89-115

4. Reality and Sociology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 117-117

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   2. Real-Life Cases: War Criminal Prosecutions and the Treatment of Membership of Illegal Organisations

      • Anthony Amatrudo

      Pages 119-143

   3. The Gang in Criminological Literature

      • Anthony Amatrudo

      Pages 145-169

   4. Drawing the Strands Together

      • Anthony Amatrudo

      Pages 171-179

5. Back Matter

   Pages 181-196

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This book develops a more nuanced, and technically rigorous, account of persons and groups in the context of intentional action and responsibility. Until now criminologists have taken groups as fairly straightforward associations and neglected the technical – and problematic – issues of how intention and action both structure membership and action. Amatrudo also assesses the often-overlooked fleeting nature of many groups and the overstated continuity of group membership, and this book has radical implications for the way we describe criminal groupings e.g. “criminal” groups with their loose bonds but tight sense of intentionality from criminogenic groups with their tight bonds and loose sense of intentionality. A key issue investigated here is the implications involved for people incarcerated on joint criminal enterprise charges and gang membership-related charges; and this timely topic will be of great interest to academics and students of Criminology, Law, Sociology and a variety of other Social Sciences. The volume will also be useful for lawyers, social workers, community workers and others involved in the criminal justice system.

• Collective Action
• Collective Goals
• Mobs
• Gangs
• Criminal Groups
• UK Criminal Law
• International Law
• War Criminal Prosecutions
• Membership of Illegal Organisations
• criminal responsibility
• Culpability
• robbers
• war criminals
• drug dealers
• criminal justice

“This book makes a vital contribution to criminologists’ understanding of the limits of shared criminal responsibility. Drawing on philosophy, law and sociology – and through exploration of real world examples – Amatrudo argues for a more technical and restricted concept of collective responsibility that would place more emphasis on intention and limit recourse to racialised stereotypes of ‘the gang’ in cases of joint enterprise.” (Lizzie Seal, Reader in Criminology, University of Sussex, UK)

“Criminal Actions and Social Situations provides a powerfully insightful exploration of individual responsibility and the situational context from which these behaviors are performed. However, rather than view the individual and the social as discrete philosophical categories, Amatrudo explores the ways in which individual responsibility is reflected in group behavior and how group behavior implicates the individual in its actions. This is a must read.” (David Polizzi, Associate Professor, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Indiana State University, USA)

“In this book Amatrudo takes the analytical scalpel to the criminological discourse on collective action, intentionality and culpability. This is no mean feat and the book therefore deserves to be read widely.” (Ronnie Lippens, Keele University, UK)

• Law School, Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom

  Anthony Amatrudo

Dr Anthony Amatrudo is Associate Professor of Criminology at Middlesex University School of Law, UK.

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