Leaders and Leadership in Criminal Activities: A Scoping Review

ABSTRACT

The objective of this article is to conduct a scoping review of existing literature on the subject of leadership within the criminal domain. Drawing from theoretical models used to explain leadership in social organizations, this study analyzed 71 articles presenting findings or reflections contributing to a better understanding of leaders and leadership within criminal organizations. The results yielded three overarching themes and eight sub-themes for analysis. The first theme focuses on individual factors associated with leaders and leadership in criminal contexts, and it has been subdivided into three sub-themes: Behavioral factors of criminal leadership, psychosocial factors of criminal leadership, and Gender and leadership in crime. The second theme concentrates on managerial approaches within criminal organizations and is further divided into four sub-themes: Hierarchy, Leadership and criminal organization, selection of leaders in criminal organizations, distribution of leadership in criminal organizations, and the role of leaders in criminal organizations. Finally, the last identified theme examines the phenomenon of leadership decapitation, which is elaborated upon in two sub-themes: the leadership decapitation effect and leader protection and prevention of the decapitation effect. The results are discussed in the context of existing general knowledge on leadership and serve to develop theoretical implications for future studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julien Chopin

Julien Chopin, Ph.D., is a senior researcher in criminology at the University of Lausanne. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Laval University and Simon Fraser University. His specialties lie in the application of statistical methods for understanding criminal phenomena and behaviors. Dr. Chopin has published extensively in the areas of sexual offending, homicide, victimology and theories.

Benoît Dupont

Benoît Dupont, PhD, is a Professor of Criminology at the Université de Montréal and the holder of the Canada Research Chair in Cyber-Resilience and the Research Chair for the Prevention of Cybercrime. He is also the Scientific Director of the Human-Centric Cybersecurity Partnership (HC2P), which he founded in 2021. He sits as an observer representing the research community on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX).