Violent Dynamics: Exploring Responsibility-Attribution for Harms Inflicted During Spontaneous Group Violence

Violent encounters between groups of individuals often leave one or more of the participants dead, and it may be clear from the evidence that the physical cause of death was set by the single, deliberate act of one of the participants only. When this happens, the question arises whether, and how, r...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Antje du Bois Pedain
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2016-02-01
Series:Oñati Socio-Legal Series
Subjects:
Online Access:https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/751
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850268124087058432
author Antje du Bois Pedain
author_facet Antje du Bois Pedain
author_sort Antje du Bois Pedain
collection DOAJ
description Violent encounters between groups of individuals often leave one or more of the participants dead, and it may be clear from the evidence that the physical cause of death was set by the single, deliberate act of one of the participants only. When this happens, the question arises whether, and how, responsibility for the fatal act and/or for its consequences can be attributed to other participants in the punch-up. Criminal law has long sought – and found – ways of holding others apart from the direct agent responsible for the harms caused in such encounters, although the legal constructions used differ between legal systems and often change significantly over time even within the same jurisdiction. This paper investigates the appropriateness of different criminal-law responses to these cases from two directions: first, by exploring the possible doctrinal grounds within the criminal law for attributing responsibility for the fatal act/outcome to all participants; and then by investigating the extent to which these responsibility-ascriptions are supported or challenged by insights from psychological studies of group action. Los encuentros violentos entre grupos de individuos a menudo acaban con la muerte de uno o más de los participantes, y las pruebas pueden demostrar que la causa física de la muerte fue el acto único deliberado de uno solo de los participantes. Cuando esto ocurre, se plantea la pregunta de si se puede atribuir a otros participantes en la pelea la responsabilidad por el acto fatal y/o sus consecuencias, y cómo hacerlo. Durante mucho tiempo, el derecho penal ha buscado, y encontrado, formas de retener a otros participantes, además del responsable directo de los daños causados, aunque las construcciones legales utilizadas difieren entre sistemas jurídicos y a menudo cambian significativamente a lo largo del tiempo, incluso dentro de la misma jurisdicción. Este artículo investiga la conveniencia de diferentes respuestas del derecho penal a estos casos, desde dos enfoques: primero, explorando los posibles fundamentos doctrinales dentro del derecho penal para atribuir la responsabilidad del acto / resultado fatal a todos los participantes; y a continuación, investigando hasta qué punto los estudios psicológicos sobre acciones grupales confirman o rechazan esta imputación de responsabilidad. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2875780
format Article
id doaj-art-df8a9ae2d23f4ece86cb418028c1c49d
institution OA Journals
issn 2079-5971
language English
publishDate 2016-02-01
publisher Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law
record_format Article
series Oñati Socio-Legal Series
spelling doaj-art-df8a9ae2d23f4ece86cb418028c1c49d2025-08-20T01:53:33ZengOñati International Institute for the Sociology of LawOñati Socio-Legal Series2079-59712016-02-0164639Violent Dynamics: Exploring Responsibility-Attribution for Harms Inflicted During Spontaneous Group ViolenceAntje du Bois Pedain0University of Cambridge Violent encounters between groups of individuals often leave one or more of the participants dead, and it may be clear from the evidence that the physical cause of death was set by the single, deliberate act of one of the participants only. When this happens, the question arises whether, and how, responsibility for the fatal act and/or for its consequences can be attributed to other participants in the punch-up. Criminal law has long sought – and found – ways of holding others apart from the direct agent responsible for the harms caused in such encounters, although the legal constructions used differ between legal systems and often change significantly over time even within the same jurisdiction. This paper investigates the appropriateness of different criminal-law responses to these cases from two directions: first, by exploring the possible doctrinal grounds within the criminal law for attributing responsibility for the fatal act/outcome to all participants; and then by investigating the extent to which these responsibility-ascriptions are supported or challenged by insights from psychological studies of group action. Los encuentros violentos entre grupos de individuos a menudo acaban con la muerte de uno o más de los participantes, y las pruebas pueden demostrar que la causa física de la muerte fue el acto único deliberado de uno solo de los participantes. Cuando esto ocurre, se plantea la pregunta de si se puede atribuir a otros participantes en la pelea la responsabilidad por el acto fatal y/o sus consecuencias, y cómo hacerlo. Durante mucho tiempo, el derecho penal ha buscado, y encontrado, formas de retener a otros participantes, además del responsable directo de los daños causados, aunque las construcciones legales utilizadas difieren entre sistemas jurídicos y a menudo cambian significativamente a lo largo del tiempo, incluso dentro de la misma jurisdicción. Este artículo investiga la conveniencia de diferentes respuestas del derecho penal a estos casos, desde dos enfoques: primero, explorando los posibles fundamentos doctrinales dentro del derecho penal para atribuir la responsabilidad del acto / resultado fatal a todos los participantes; y a continuación, investigando hasta qué punto los estudios psicológicos sobre acciones grupales confirman o rechazan esta imputación de responsabilidad. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2875780 https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/751Group violencecrowd psychologyparticipation in crimesecondary liabilityjoint enterpriseViolencia de grupo
spellingShingle Antje du Bois Pedain
Violent Dynamics: Exploring Responsibility-Attribution for Harms Inflicted During Spontaneous Group Violence
Oñati Socio-Legal Series
Group violence
crowd psychology
participation in crime
secondary liability
joint enterprise
Violencia de grupo
title Violent Dynamics: Exploring Responsibility-Attribution for Harms Inflicted During Spontaneous Group Violence
title_full Violent Dynamics: Exploring Responsibility-Attribution for Harms Inflicted During Spontaneous Group Violence
title_fullStr Violent Dynamics: Exploring Responsibility-Attribution for Harms Inflicted During Spontaneous Group Violence
title_full_unstemmed Violent Dynamics: Exploring Responsibility-Attribution for Harms Inflicted During Spontaneous Group Violence
title_short Violent Dynamics: Exploring Responsibility-Attribution for Harms Inflicted During Spontaneous Group Violence
title_sort violent dynamics exploring responsibility attribution for harms inflicted during spontaneous group violence
topic Group violence
crowd psychology
participation in crime
secondary liability
joint enterprise
Violencia de grupo
url https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/751
work_keys_str_mv AT antjeduboispedain violentdynamicsexploringresponsibilityattributionforharmsinflictedduringspontaneousgroupviolence