Violent Dynamics: Exploring Responsibility-Attribution for Harms Inflicted During Spontaneous Group Violence
Keywords:
Group violence, crowd psychology, participation in crime, secondary liability, joint enterprise, Violencia de grupo, psicología de masas, participación en delitos, responsabilidad secundaria, asociaciónAbstract
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.
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