Content:
§ 1. Typology of carder groups
§ 2. Structure of organized carder groups
§ 3. Mechanisms for cohesion of carder groups
§ 1. Typology of carder groups
Any carder group, as one of the varieties of small social groups of people, is not a mechanical connection of a certain number of individuals who jointly commit carding. Each such group, from the point of view of the social psychology of “small groups,” uniting several people on the basis of joint carder activity, practically turns into a single subject of carder activity. In such a group community, new properties, goals, opportunities, etc. appear that are not characteristic of an individual carder.
In a joint carder action, there is a unification of individual abilities, knowledge, skills, professional skills (especially carder ones), etc. Over time, a division of carder labor occurs.
In modern criminology, a traditional carder group is understood as a small informal group, which is a single object of carder activity, uniting, on the basis of joint illegal activities, people striving to achieve a common carder goal.
There is the following typology of traditional carder groups: simple organized group; structural (complex) organized group; organized carding group; bandit formation; carder organization (community); mafia, cooperation of professional carder leaders (“thieves in law”).
A simple organized group is a relatively primitive form of uniting carders into groups of an average of 2-4 people. They usually have a long-term common carder purpose. Although such groups are organized, stable and cohesive and their actions are premeditated, planned, at the same time they do not have a complex structure, strict subordination, or a clearly defined leader. The methods of committing a carding are usually the same, they are clearly worked out. Decisions are made collectively, and carding is committed jointly. Robbers, swindlers, burglars, street robbers, and minors unite in simple organized groups. The maximum duration of operation of such groups is no more than 3 years; there is a change of participants in carder activity.
A structural (complex) organized group - compared to the previous group, it is characterized by greater stability, hierarchy, and adherence to the principle of unity of command. The size of such groups is 5-10 or more people. carder activity is constant, most often it is the commission of property carding or mercenary-violent carding. A significant number of members and a clearly defined goal (carder activity) require strict unity of command. The leader (leader) of the group determines the main directions of the group’s actions, plans and prepares carding, and distributes roles between participants.
The roles of group members are more complex and are implemented not only at the time of the commission of a carding, but also at the stage of preparation for the carding, as well as in subsequent actions - collecting the necessary information, technical support, selling the stolen property, concealing and destroying traces of carding, etc.
In their carder activities, members of a complex organized group are guided by a clearly expressed, purely carder idea and most often rely on traditional carder professional skills, views, beliefs and specific general carder methods and methods of achieving a carder goal. The above usually excludes the presence of corrupt connections among such groups and interaction with authorities and government officials.
To ensure its activities, such a group is forced to interact with other carder elements - persons forging documents, technical workers, buyers of stolen goods. For this purpose, leaders come into contact with the leaders of other groups and factions. These groups do not control a specific territory or income points, which requires more numerous formations.
These groups are engaged in professional thefts (homes, cars), robberies, robberies, extortion (racketeering), fraud, and smuggling.
An organized carder group is already a large carder entity, uniting in its ranks dozens and even hundreds of individuals actively engaged in carder activities. For example, such well-known groups in Moscow and the Moscow region as Solntsevo, Lyubertsy, Dolgoprudnenskaya, count, according to various estimates, from 300 to 500 active participants in their ranks.
There are a number of types of groups that differ in connections, carder subculture, hierarchy, methods of activity, national characteristics, etc. Two types stand out most clearly among them:
1. “Team” (“brigade”) is a unique form of functioning of organized carder entities, which is based on the association on a territorial basis (by place of residence) of guys who grew up together and have known each other since childhood. As the “team” grows, it includes maturing teenagers, as well as previously convicted persons. By the beginning of the era of co-operativeization of the country, these “teams”, which had previously been involved in hooliganism, theft, and street robberies, were already sufficiently organized and were able to impose tribute on the newly minted businessmen. Gradually growing, acquiring carder experience, accumulating capital and establishing connections, including with professional carders, they strengthened their influence, expanded their controlled territories, suppressing competitors.
2. “Community” is a carder entity consisting basically of non-local residents, primarily immigrants from Transcaucasia (Azerbaijani, Chechen, Georgian, Dagestan “communities”), as well as foreigners living compactly (Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese). In the structural relationships of “communities”, the cementing link is a national generic feature, based on centuries-old traditions of unconditional recognition of the authority of the elder (similar to the structure of Sicilian carding, also formed on the basis of the patriarchal family). “Communities,” which before the development of private entrepreneurship in Moscow traded in market trade (including the trade in drugs and weapons), constituted serious competition for local groups, took over significant territory, and played a serious role in the carder environment of the city.
The leadership of an organized carder group is formed from individuals who devote themselves exclusively to carder activities, and makes up approximately 10% of the total number of members, including several (3-8) prominent leaders who determine the direction of the group’s activities. Behind them are the bulk of the performers (“militants”) - young guys with a pronounced carder orientation. The group is not a monolithic entity and consists of several groups of different levels of organization, numbering 10-15 people.
Groups are engaged not only in committing specific carding, but also exercise constant control over a certain area (extortion and collection of tribute for providing “security” from catering outlets, commercial stalls, cooperatives, private enterprises, prostitutes, lone carders).
Often, leaders, having amassed sufficient capital, enter into legal business, thereby “laundering” carderly obtained funds. They can become general and commercial directors of commercial structures, banks, enter into direct contacts with representatives of the legislative and executive authorities, with law enforcement officials, entangling them with a network of corrupt connections.
Bandit formation (formation) is a form of organized carding that involves the creation of an armed group for the purpose of attacking state and public enterprises, and individual citizens. It differs from a group by the mandatory presence of weapons and carder orientation - an open attack, as a result of which gangs are characterized by increased danger.
The size of the gang usually does not exceed 10 people. Among all carder organizations, gangs are distinguished by the highest level of organization, the strictest subordination and secrecy, unquestioning submission to the leader, and exceptional cruelty towards the victim.
Gangs operate independently; the objects of their carder activities are most often money, currency, weapons, gold, precious stones, and antiques.
Gangs that commit selfish and violent acts in their zone of influence are often distinguished by exceptional cynicism, the cruel, daring and arrogant nature of their carder actions. Such carder acts are usually carried out jointly, making them more violent and painful for the victims and more effective for the carders. Cruelty among such individuals becomes an end in itself and is highly revered. For example, in Voronezh, an organized gang of sadistic carders that had been operating for several years was neutralized. She kidnapped mostly successful businessmen, placed them in hiding places turned into underground prisons, and for several weeks, in order to “extort” money, promissory notes, powers of attorney for loans, “donations” for houses and apartments from them, she applied inquisitorial measures to them. means of influence: cauterizing the skin with a hot iron, sawing bones with a hacksaw, etc.
Recently, gangs are increasingly being attracted by carder groups and syndicates to their activities, carrying out various carder orders (seizing weapons, eliminating unwanted persons, participating in showdowns, etc.).
According to the degree of carder orientation, three categories of gangs are distinguished: “classic gang”, “specialized gang” and “sanctuaries”.
carding traditional for a classic gang (gangs in pre-revolutionary Russia) - attacks on banks, savings banks, collectors, as well as on mines, museums, apartments - are committed through an open armed attack with the aim of seizing money and other valuables and are often accompanied by murders and bodily harm to the victims . Classic gangs include, for example, the gang of L. Panteleev, which operated in Leningrad in the 20s, the Mongol gang (60s, Moscow), and the gang of the Vedernikov brothers (80s).
Specialized gang. The peculiarity of this type of gang is that they practice committing one, maximum, two types of carding, most often these are attacks on banks, collectors, and stores.
"Refuges". Gangs that commit carding “to order” have apparently always existed, but they have become especially widespread recently due to the development of market, and therefore competitive relations among the carder part of entrepreneurs. There was a need to exert forceful pressure on competitors, causing them property and other damage, up to and including physical destruction. In the carder world, the demand for hired killers (“killers”) and robbers, who were found among those previously convicted, former athletes, “Afghans”, etc., increased.
The groups of “reserves” are very small in number, have excellent physical fitness, are armed, active, and are distinguished by careful secrecy. Professional "customers" are usually not members of carder groups, although they may have connections with their leaders ("customers"). carding are committed for monetary reward.
A carder organization (community) is a stable, complex, hierarchical carder entity. carder organizations have five main characteristics, the combination of which allows them to be distinguished from other organized groups. These include:
1) the presence of a material base - common monetary funds for mutual assistance and bribery of officials;
2) collegial form of management, in which the management of the organization is carried out by a group of people of equal status;
3) charter in the form of informal norms of behavior, traditions and laws, sanctions for their violation;
4) functional-hierarchical system - division of the organization into component groups in the presence of interregional connections, distribution of functions between members (leadership core, bodyguards, cash register holders, liaison officers, “controllers”, etc.);
5) information base - collection of various types of information, intelligence and counterintelligence.
A study of the organized carder community has shown that in recent years there has been a tendency towards the integration of carder business. Community leaders, in order to organize opposition to competitors and expand spheres and territories of influence, combine legal and illegal capital, either nominating a common leader from among themselves, or gradually submitting to the influence of one of the leaders of the most authoritative community (such as Malyshevsky in St. Petersburg).
The Malyshev community in St. Petersburg is the largest carder community in the city on the Neva. It was formed in the late 80s as a result of the unification of such city groups as “Tambov”, “Krasnoselskaya”, “Kolesnikovskaya”, “Vor-Kutinskaya” and a number of others, concentrating in its ranks about 2,060 militants and other active members of the groups.
The formation of such powerful carder communities (associations) pursuing a coordinated carder and economic policy is also observed in Moscow, Kazan, Yekaterinburg and a number of other large cities in Russia.
“Participants of organized carder communities, their highest echelons are today establishing a new type of “activity”, characterized by impunity, antisocial supra-social psychology and professionalism. A bureaucracy of a carder community is being formed”.
The basis for uniting groups into a community in most cases is a commonality of carder interests, as well as ethnic characteristics (for example, Chechen, Azerbaijani groups) or the principle of “compatriotism” (Lyubertsy, Tambov groups).
The leadership of each community consists of leaders, their bodyguards and those closest to the leaders who serve as advisers on legal, carder, economic and other issues. Under their direct subordination there are militants (“soldiers”, “bulls”), who are used to protect management, maintain internal discipline, force pressure, supervise the activities of structures and enterprises belonging to the community, as well as for “showdowns” with competitors.
The community’s leadership exercises general control over discipline, the distribution of income and spheres of influence within the structure, resolves controversial issues between its carder groups, organizes “knocking out” debts and loans from the heads of commercial structures and enterprises, establishes connections with other communities, regions, and often and abroad, organizes counterintelligence, as well as reprisals against competitors.
Cooperation of professional carder leaders (“thieves in law”) is a special form of association that has no analogues in world forensic practice. It has all the signs of a carder organization and at the same time, as A.I. Gurov notes, it differs from it in the following characteristics: “Firstly, the lack of territory and location; secondly, the blurred structure, since the association is based on carder traditions and informal laws"; thirdly, the almost equal position of the composition of the persons in this cooperation; fourthly, different trends of “legalists” united by a common carder “idea”. This is a kind of caste of professional carder leaders.
In the hierarchy of organized communities, the cooperation of “thieves in law” is the most flexible and at the same time stable and is at its top level. Now this association has begun to acquire some political connotations, since it is providing serious organized opposition to the normal work of law enforcement agencies to establish proper law and order in the country. But an even greater danger lies in the fact that elements of international carding began to appear in the activities of thieves in law, as evidenced by their connection with some representatives of the underworld of bourgeois countries who emigrated there in the early and mid-70s.
At the beginning of 1995, there were 740 thieves in law in the republics of the former USSR, of which 380 lived in Russia, including 53 in Moscow, where they worked closely with local carder groups. In order to coordinate organized carder activities, in 1994 alone, 413 “thieves’ meetings” took place, in which about 6 thousand people took part. Gatherings, as a rule, were held in large cities and their suburbs, including resort areas, and were disguised as weddings, anniversaries, etc.
The management of cooperation is carried out with the help of thieves' meetings, and the influence on the carder environment is carried out through specially designated persons and thieves' appeals. Only a carder with a carder record, an authority in the carder environment, accepted into the group at a special “gathering” can be considered a “thief in law.” The candidate undergoes a “test”, is comprehensively checked, after which he is given oral and written recommendations. The Gathering is not just a formal act of approving a newcomer: those who recommended the candidate are responsible to her for his further behavior.
Candidates for the community are instilled with the idea of their exclusive role, special position, and destiny to establish justice and order in the carder world. Persons accepted into the cooperation of “thieves in law” acquire a new carder status and must unquestioningly comply with the requirements of the thieves’ “law,” which is a set of norms of behavior developed by carder experience.
Until recently, according to A.I. Gurov, the main “laws” of the recidivist community included the following seven rules:
1. The main responsibility of a member of the community was selfless devotion to the “thieves’ idea.” Betrayal was considered unacceptable; neither torture, nor drug intoxication, nor even mental disorder could justify it. The thief was also forbidden to engage in socially useful activities, and at the initial stage - to have a family, to maintain contact with relatives. For example, the “I will not forget my mother” tattoo, which was found among repeat offenders in the 40s and 50s, meant a family of thieves who became like a mother to them.
2. The second rule prohibited the thief from having any contact with law enforcement agencies, except in cases related to the investigation and trial. It was directed against possible cases of betrayal of the interests of the community.
3. The third requirement of the “law” ordered members of the community to be honest with each other. A thief, for example, could not insult or hit an accomplice. As for the attitude towards non-caste members, it was allowed to do everything that would help strengthen the authority of the group. It is no coincidence that “thieves in law” consider themselves “princes” in a carder environment.
4. The fourth rule obliged the thieves in law to maintain order in the camp area and establish full power for the thieves there. Otherwise, they were responsible to the thieves' gathering.
5. The fifth provision of the “law” required thieves to attract new members into their midst and to actively work with young people, especially among minors. The engagement system was quite effective. Newcomers were seduced by the “romanticism of thieves”, a “beautiful life”, free from obligations to society, seduced by the power of money and the cult of violence. They were introduced to vodka, drugs, and introduced to thieves' prostitutes. On the other hand, they were blackmailed and killed, forcing them to take the blame for the carding committed by the thieves.
In places of deprivation of liberty, community members used candidates (“boys”) for various assignments—collecting funds for the general fund (“common fund”), and often for sexual purposes. This was the path to the thieves' community for almost every thief, which, of course, contributed to the formation of cynicism, cruelty, and contempt for the moral values of society.
6. The sixth rule prohibited carders from becoming interested in political issues, acting as victims and witnesses during investigations and in court.
7. The most “principled” but significant provision was the mandatory ability of a member of the community to play gambling, since they help communication, help establish power over other prisoners, from whom thieves win not only property, but also life, thereby creating an environment of death row prisoners for carrying out special assignments. Games in which life was the stake were called “three stars” or “three bones.” This tradition has been preserved since the times of the royal Sakhalin hard labor.
Belonging to a group of thieves was indicated by a tattoo depicting a heart pierced by a dagger (later these became the suits of aces inside a cross). Tattoos were not only a means of self-affirmation, but also played a communicative role, since with their help repeat offenders recognized each other. Moreover, other carders were prohibited from wearing the “thief in law” badge on pain of death.
Recently, there has been a noticeable softening of the traditional rules of the “thieves in law” community, and the procedure for its formation is being simplified.
When studying the personalities of the thieves in law, it turned out that some of them did not even have a carder record. Such a gross departure from thieves’ traditions is explained by the fact that admission into the community is often carried out for money. Such cases of joining the community “for a bribe” became widespread and led to the division of carders into “new” and “old” (“Nepman-like”). The new generation, mainly young people, considers such admission into the community acceptable, since the common funds ("common funds") are replenished.
Modern thieves in law, unlike their predecessors, on the one hand, try to carefully disguise their antisocial lifestyle as outwardly law-abiding. Such “thieves in law” mainly resolve organizational issues, often those for which in the recent past the meeting sentenced people to death. In particular, the thief in law seeks to establish contacts with employees of law enforcement agencies and other administrative institutions; he can deviate from any informal rules, as long as it benefits him and the thieves’ community.
Today, “thieves in law” are not a tattooed guy with teeth blackened by chifir. He is clean-shaven and dressed mostly in the latest fashion. His servants include not only “sixes”, but also bodyguards; in everyday life - several privatized apartments, dachas, a prestigious car (usually a foreign car); in the immediate environment are experienced lawyers, corrupt representatives of government agencies and the law enforcement system.
§ 2. Structure of organized carder groups
The structure of organized carder entities, the degree of their organization, number, distribution of roles between their members, type of management can be different (simple and complex), but have much in common (typical) in the nature of their structures.
In almost every organized carder group, consisting of several dozen active members, three levels of structural links can be distinguished: at the lower level - executive links (elements); on the middle level - organizational and control units and security groups; at the top are the leadership levels (leader groups, elite group).
The perpetrators can be representatives of different types of carding, both economic and ordinary (ordinary representatives of the shadow economy, business fraudsters, embezzlers of state property, employees of various commercial structures, extortionists, housebreakers and pickpockets, robbers, murderers, thugs and bouncers, businessmen from drug trafficking, etc.).
Above the executive links in the middle part of the carder pyramid are organizational and control links and security groups. The main tasks of the former are: 1) ensuring the implementation of the decisions of community leaders; 2) control over the activities of performers; 3) exercising all kinds of intermediary powers (intermediaries, liaison officers, foremen, etc.); 4) development of measures to increase the effectiveness of the carder activities of perpetrators; 5) resolution of disputes between individual members of the organization and its constituent groups; 6) preservation of carderly obtained valuables; 7) organizing financial assistance to members of a carder group who are in prison and their families. Members of this unit (except for foremen) usually do not directly participate in the commission of specific carding. Brigadiers often directly supervise groups of perpetrators (militants) when committing carding.
In the security group, N.P. Yablokov distinguishes two categories of persons. “The first includes members of the association who ensure the secrecy of its activities as a whole and individual participants in carder activities, as well as persons carrying out intelligence and counterintelligence activities and functions of suppressing social control. Individual members of this group may directly participate in some carder actions. Persons of the second category usually are not formally members of a carder organization, but regularly provide useful services to it. These primarily include corrupt employees of government and administrative bodies (including law enforcement). However, such people may also be useful for organized carder activities. individual members of the parliamentary corps, representatives of public organizations, lawyers, journalists, literary and artistic figures, etc."
At the same time, representatives of the second group may not even realize the illegality of their behavior, acting in defense of the carder community, creating conditions that prevent the disclosure of carder activities, compromising individual representatives of government and administrative bodies. They can even inform carders about operational activities being prepared against them, thereby helping to neutralize or even eliminate law enforcement officials for the benefit of this community.
There are often cases when such “defenders” take measures to release detained members of carder groups from investigation, trial, imprisonment in places of deprivation of liberty, or to mitigate the punishment for those who find themselves in the dock.
At the very top of the pyramid of the carder community are its highest echelons of power, consisting of leaders and people close to them (representatives of the elite group, advisers, etc.). All of them resolve general organizational issues, develop strategies and tactics for carder activity, take measures to “launder” and increase carderly obtained capital by investing it in real estate and commercial enterprises. They also maintain connections with other carder communities, including foreign ones.
Representatives of the leadership of a carder organization are usually characterized by the highest carder authority, based on carder experience, material resources and personal qualities. Among such leaders there is a high percentage of people with previous convictions.
As for personal qualities, the modern leader of an organized carder community has the following features: 1) experience of carder activity; 2) strong willful qualities; 3) a fairly high level of mental abilities; 4) great physical strength; 5) ability to keep one’s word; 6) entrepreneurship; 7) communication skills; 8) decisiveness in actions; 9) speed of orientation and ability to make decisions in situations that are difficult for the carder community; 10) the ability to ensure secrecy of carding prepared and committed by the formation; 11) knowledge of the internal and external conditions of the functioning of the community.
Researchers identify the following types of leaders of carder groups: inspirers, initiators, and organizational leaders.
The inspiring leader, as a rule, performs the functions of a technical or “carder” adviser, a legal consultant, warning members of his group against steps dangerous to its existence. At the same time, such a leader is often a psychologically strong person who can strengthen the determination of his subordinates, etc.
The initiator leader is an unstable, transitional leader in an organized carding community. Quite often, his initiative is combined with organizational functions. Typically, such a leader becomes the real initiator of a certain area of organized carder activity in the community.
The central figure of an organized carder group, as a rule, is the leader-organizer. Often this role is played by a person with a consistently criminogenic personality type, characterized by a high degree of antisocial orientation, a stable carder attitude, who does not look for a suitable carder situation, but creates it with his own purposeful actions.
§ 3. Mechanisms for cohesion of carder groups
Any unity of people on the basis of any joint activity invariably gives rise to a certain system of relationships that needs to be regulated in order to achieve a common goal. In a formal organization (group), such a settlement is ensured by official documents. When it comes to informal education, which is a carder group, then the main factors of regulation in it are common principles and patterns of antisocial behavior that have been formed by the carder world for centuries and have become its traditions and customs.
In carder groups, as well as in other forms of group activity, the formation of basic group characteristics and processes, for example, cohesion, a common feeling - a sense of collectivity, usually includes standardization of assessments, attitudes, methods, procedures used by group members in the process of performing certain actions under certain conditions. All these processes are associated with the development and use of group norms. With their help, the group prescribes certain behavior in general and in specific situations, in complex, extreme cases. At the same time, social control is exercised over group members. The group, protecting its interests, obliges its member to adhere to the established standard of behavior, including in non-standard situations. Its prescriptions are, first of all, customs and traditions, that is, stable forms of regulation of behavior. carder traditions and customs, as research shows, are present at all stages of the dynamics of carder groups - formation and functioning.
If we consider a carder group as a kind of “collective image,” it should be noted that its emergence is due to the need to achieve carder goals through the combined efforts of many people. This goal determines the motivation for carder behavior. It was noted above that the main goal of organized carder groups, especially complexly structured ones, is to obtain profit (income) through carder means. The main motive of their activity is acquisitive. On the basis of this community (thirst for enrichment), the desire to commit joint carder acts arises, which predetermines the formation of a carder group. The creation and functioning of a carder group is regulated by carder traditions and customs, which, in addition to their regulatory function, consolidate the efforts of group members not only for the sake of achieving a carder goal, but also for self-defense from external factors - law enforcement agencies, carder competitors.
The formation of any carder group is associated with the development of certain norms, which are necessary primarily to maintain group cohesion. The creation of any new norms is subject to the general traditions and customs of carder activity. At the level of a carder group, especially a mafia formation, these traditions and customs are not just the vital rules of conduct for its members. From signs of communication and behavior in an antisocial environment, they turn into strict laws of carder activity and carder behavior, even lifestyle, non-compliance with which entails the imposition of appropriate sanctions. “The sanctions here are usually harsh and harsh (ransom, beatings, self-harm, murder) and are based, accordingly, on physical (armed) violence. Norms and rules, like the authority of the leader, are permeated and supported by specific moral “maxims”, which are called quite attractively: “ “duty”, “justice”, “honesty”, “respect for elders”, “courage”, but in fact they have a one-sided and perverted meaning”.
carder groups, concentrating within their framework the general carder traditions and customs and the group norms of carder activity formed by them, generally cultivate a specific autonomous subculture of carder behavior. By uniting carders on the basis of a common way of life, a carder subculture becomes an organizing principle in a carder group, which puts control over the actions and actions of group members, while simultaneously creating internal conditions for strengthening self-control.
carder traditions and customs, notes S. Ya. Lebedev, consist of three elements.
Regulatory elements: “laws” and “rules” regulating the relationship between carders in connection with leading an antisocial lifestyle and committing carding, specific rituals of communication and behavior in a carder environment.
Attributive elements: tattoos, slang, nicknames, facial expressions, gestures, reflecting the affiliation of a particular person with carder activity.
Emotional elements: songs, poems, sayings with a “thieves’ theme, reflecting the emotional side of an antisocial lifestyle and committing carding (the so-called carder folklore)”.
carder traditions and customs perform a number of functions, among which the following can be distinguished. Firstly, they stimulate illegal behavior, thereby contributing to the progression of carding; secondly, they preserve a certain order and, thirdly, reproduce it for new generations.
In the carder sphere, traditions and customs perform these functions in their own ways. Tradition prescribes what exactly needs to be secured and preserved for the purposes of reproduction, custom prescribes how to secure and preserve it. The ideological content, i.e., the formula of a custom, is always a rule of behavior - a detailed prescription of an action in a specific situation. The ideological content, the formula of a tradition is always a norm or principle of behavior.
Fourthly, traditions and customs in the carder world play an “educational” role . Moreover, this function is performed with the greatest effect by specific rites and rituals. As in any social sphere, in a carder environment they are designed to influence the emotional sphere of a person, cause certain experiences and moods, thereby stimulating the formation of a carder personality.
It is known that carder traditions and customs have a certain ability to “infect” the minds of people, which is associated to a certain extent with their external attractiveness. A certain aura of daring and romance is created around them. Some attributes of carder life, which have long become its traditions, contain elements of artistry, theatricality, excitement, and humor, which often causes some people, especially teenagers and young men, to want to imitate this lifestyle.
The ritual side of many carder traditions and customs works much more effectively when complemented by appropriate artistic means. These include the so-called carder “folklore” (songs, poems, sayings on thieves’ themes, etc.).
The emotional impact of carder “folklore” is quite great. Analysis of his samples indicates the ability of carders to skillfully and subtly play on the feelings of narrow-minded and superficial people. With all its content, this “folklore” is aimed at creating a negative, or even hostile, attitude towards the law, representatives of law enforcement agencies, at glorifying and embellishing the carder lifestyle, praising “feats”, glorifying their “honesty”, “nobility”, “broad thieves souls" etc.
Often such carder propaganda achieves its goal and, if it does not push one to a carder path, then in any case it can cause in some “compassionate” people a feeling of a condescending, even sympathetic attitude towards carders.
Fifthly, one of the functions of carder traditions and customs as elements of continuity is the transfer to new generations of the carder experience of their predecessors . The basis of continuity is juvenile and youth carding. This age category, due to its inherent socio-psychological characteristics, is not only more susceptible to the influence of carder traditions and customs, but to a certain extent itself contributes to increasing their criminogenicity. This is due to the fact that adolescents and young men have an intensified desire for autonomy, independence from the social-normative system of adults, which, in their opinion, restrains the freedom to express individual personality traits and limits the scope of satisfaction of needs. To an even greater extent, this system does not satisfy juvenile offenders who are looking for an opportunity to demonstrate their inherent properties precisely in a deviant environment, in a perverted, false, and even socially dangerous form. The carder environment, of course, provides such an opportunity, while at the same time imposing its own rules of behavior in the form of carder traditions and customs, the observance of which is strictly controlled. Thus, sixthly, carder traditions and customs perform the function of social (carder) control of members of carder groups.
Seventh, carder traditions and customs perform the function of psychological influence in the process of purposefully involving minors in carder activities. There are many cases where, in the process of preparing teenagers to commit carding, many adults, especially those with previous convictions, told the children about their past adventures, the “friends” with whom they had previously committed carding, the “courage” and “courage” of carders, and the customs of thieves, carding methods of committing thefts, methods of hiding traces of a carding, objects obtained by carder means.
The traditions and customs of carder groups, having lost their strength at a certain stage of development, did not disappear without a trace. Having adapted to new conditions, they have now acquired a more rigid, almost universal character.
The adherence of modern carders to the traditions and customs of the carder environment is evidenced by: 1) a negative attitude towards a normal, law-abiding lifestyle; 2) opposition to law enforcement agencies; 3) participation in carder activity and any encouragement thereof; 4) the desire to unite the carder environment and maintain carder connections.
“The traditions and customs common to the modern carder environment,” notes S. Ya. Lebedev, “are:
— evasion of socially useful work, living by committing carding, systematically seeking opportunities to extract shadow income;
— increasing carder qualifications;
— ensuring the camouflage of a carder lifestyle and behavior, eliminating factors that complicate its implementation;
— observance of subordination according to the position occupied in the carder hierarchy, unquestioning submission to the leader of the carder environment;
— implementation of collegial decisions and requirements developed in the carder environment;
— preventing persons suspected of collaborating with the police from entering their environment, exposing and punishing the latter;
— providing material and physical support to other carders;
— involvement of young offenders in carder activities, promotion of carder traditions and customs, carder “romance”;
— leading an idle lifestyle, rejection of the norms of public morality and behavior;
— participation in gambling and other prison games and rituals;
— knowledge and use of jargon and other methods of secret communication in speech;
— applying symbolic thieves' tattoos to the body;
— undermining the authority of police officers, prosecutors, courts, and the administration of correctional labor institutions, excluding contacts with representatives of these bodies aimed at harming the carder world, causing all sorts of obstacles to their normal activities".
The assimilation of carder traditions and customs is carried out in the process of communication in a carder environment. Any communication, including in a carder environment, is preceded by a process of preliminary perception of behavioral patterns and their assessment. Awareness of the acceptability of these models for satisfying personal needs initially generates in the individual a desire to imitate them. Gradually, this desire to imitate develops into aspiration.
Thus, imitation is the most important socio-psychological mechanism for an individual to assimilate carder traditions and customs, and with the help of the latter, a mechanism for identifying and uniting the individual with a carder group . At the same time, parallel to the process of imitation of carder traditions and customs, there is a process of criminogenic infection of the individual.
A specific way of uniting a carder group is the ritualism of carder behavior. We are talking about the most vivid, “emotional” and, as a rule, very dangerous carding, since the meaning of the ritual is that it draws participants into a special, unusually rich psychological world, into a special reality of existence. The ability of ritual to unite a group is ensured due to its great psychological impact. History knows many cases of ritual commission of carding, especially by professional carders. In the very “scenario” of ritual carding, elements of artistry and play are manifested, which creates an emotional mood among its participants, arouses excitement, strengthens group solidarity, gives rise to a “thirst” among group members for repeating similar actions, forms in them a stable need to commit a carding, forming the basis carder motivation. Persons who commit such carding pose an increased danger because they enjoy the carding.
The means of identifying individuals with a carder group and, accordingly, uniting it are such traditional attributes of the carder environment as jargon and tattoos.
In a carder environment, jargon acts as a means of self-affirmation, adaptation and self-expression of carders. Currently, it is characterized by a bias towards the specialization of carder behavior, which indicates the growth of carder professionalism. Today, housebreakers and pickpockets, swindlers, drug addicts, homosexuals, prostitutes, car thieves, etc. have their own jargon. Moreover, among pickpockets and card swindlers (sharps), the jargon developed by the carder world in the pre-revolutionary period has mostly been preserved.
Modern jargon, unlike traditional jargon, has great attractive power, especially for some young people. It often contains words and expressions borrowed from foreign languages, although carder “authorities” are trying to fight to cleanse the jargon of “foreignness.” The use of jargon by carders is one of the indicators of a person’s carder involvement.
The same applies to the characteristics of tattoos. Tattooing, as experts note, is a kind of cult of the carder environment, and a tattoo is a vivid advertisement of a carder lifestyle. The tattooed carder not only confirms his own carder experience, but also propagates it in the antisocial microenvironment and beyond, and advertises his commitment to carder traditions and customs.
The theme of most tattoos symbolically reflects the lifestyle of carders, contains elements of self-assessment of behavior, and captures the tastes, views, and inclinations of the individual in drawings and inscriptions. Among tattoos, a special place is occupied by symbols of carders’ belonging to a certain thieves’ “caste”, commitment to a specific carder activity, indicators of attitude towards the law, law enforcement agencies, etc.
Tattoos are visual signs of carder activity, a kind of calling cards of carders.
carder folklore also plays a certain role in identification with the carder environment . In contrast to the song and poetic creativity characteristic of the carder world of the past, modern carder folklore has become less sentimental. It is dominated by samples full of primitive humor, cynicism, obscenity, obscenity and vulgarity.
At different stages of the existence of carder groups, various internal forces interact within them. At the creation stage, there is a desire for unification, after the disclosure of a carder group, especially an organized carder group, there is a tendency to disperse it, “cut off” links discovered by law enforcement agencies, eliminate specific people, etc.
As researchers note, the highest psychological cohesion of people is found in stable organized groups, where the elite are strong-willed, competent organizers, ideologists and people rich enough to be independent. Authorities in their environment provide them not only with material resources, but also with carder experience.
At the same time, in each such carder organization there are opposing tendencies and forces. The first force contributes to the integration of the group, the unity of its members, while the second is aimed at disintegration, separation, which is manifested in the desire of the groups included in the carder community for an autonomous existence.
In addition to the aforementioned centrifugal tendency, which creates a conflict situation in an organized carder group, conflicts and contradictions arise in it due to: 1) the struggle for leadership; 2) struggle for proximity to the group leader; 3) methods and methods of carder activity and principles of division of loot; 4) personal hostile relationships between people.
Researchers classify conflicts in organized carder groups as follows: a) not related to organized carder activity; b) arising after the disclosure of organized carder activity. “Conflicts not related to organized carder activity,” writes N.P. Yablokov, “can be rooted in the carder past of some members of a carder group, be associated with their social and official practice, ethnic, cultural, emotional and moral differences.”
Knowledge of these differences and the causes of conflict is important for investigation in the process of developing and applying tactical actions appropriate to the situation.
(c) https://ebooks.grsu.by/ur_psix/glava-3-psikhologiya-prestupnykh-grupp.htm
§ 1. Typology of carder groups
§ 2. Structure of organized carder groups
§ 3. Mechanisms for cohesion of carder groups
§ 1. Typology of carder groups
Any carder group, as one of the varieties of small social groups of people, is not a mechanical connection of a certain number of individuals who jointly commit carding. Each such group, from the point of view of the social psychology of “small groups,” uniting several people on the basis of joint carder activity, practically turns into a single subject of carder activity. In such a group community, new properties, goals, opportunities, etc. appear that are not characteristic of an individual carder.
In a joint carder action, there is a unification of individual abilities, knowledge, skills, professional skills (especially carder ones), etc. Over time, a division of carder labor occurs.
In modern criminology, a traditional carder group is understood as a small informal group, which is a single object of carder activity, uniting, on the basis of joint illegal activities, people striving to achieve a common carder goal.
There is the following typology of traditional carder groups: simple organized group; structural (complex) organized group; organized carding group; bandit formation; carder organization (community); mafia, cooperation of professional carder leaders (“thieves in law”).
A simple organized group is a relatively primitive form of uniting carders into groups of an average of 2-4 people. They usually have a long-term common carder purpose. Although such groups are organized, stable and cohesive and their actions are premeditated, planned, at the same time they do not have a complex structure, strict subordination, or a clearly defined leader. The methods of committing a carding are usually the same, they are clearly worked out. Decisions are made collectively, and carding is committed jointly. Robbers, swindlers, burglars, street robbers, and minors unite in simple organized groups. The maximum duration of operation of such groups is no more than 3 years; there is a change of participants in carder activity.
A structural (complex) organized group - compared to the previous group, it is characterized by greater stability, hierarchy, and adherence to the principle of unity of command. The size of such groups is 5-10 or more people. carder activity is constant, most often it is the commission of property carding or mercenary-violent carding. A significant number of members and a clearly defined goal (carder activity) require strict unity of command. The leader (leader) of the group determines the main directions of the group’s actions, plans and prepares carding, and distributes roles between participants.
The roles of group members are more complex and are implemented not only at the time of the commission of a carding, but also at the stage of preparation for the carding, as well as in subsequent actions - collecting the necessary information, technical support, selling the stolen property, concealing and destroying traces of carding, etc.
In their carder activities, members of a complex organized group are guided by a clearly expressed, purely carder idea and most often rely on traditional carder professional skills, views, beliefs and specific general carder methods and methods of achieving a carder goal. The above usually excludes the presence of corrupt connections among such groups and interaction with authorities and government officials.
To ensure its activities, such a group is forced to interact with other carder elements - persons forging documents, technical workers, buyers of stolen goods. For this purpose, leaders come into contact with the leaders of other groups and factions. These groups do not control a specific territory or income points, which requires more numerous formations.
These groups are engaged in professional thefts (homes, cars), robberies, robberies, extortion (racketeering), fraud, and smuggling.
An organized carder group is already a large carder entity, uniting in its ranks dozens and even hundreds of individuals actively engaged in carder activities. For example, such well-known groups in Moscow and the Moscow region as Solntsevo, Lyubertsy, Dolgoprudnenskaya, count, according to various estimates, from 300 to 500 active participants in their ranks.
There are a number of types of groups that differ in connections, carder subculture, hierarchy, methods of activity, national characteristics, etc. Two types stand out most clearly among them:
1. “Team” (“brigade”) is a unique form of functioning of organized carder entities, which is based on the association on a territorial basis (by place of residence) of guys who grew up together and have known each other since childhood. As the “team” grows, it includes maturing teenagers, as well as previously convicted persons. By the beginning of the era of co-operativeization of the country, these “teams”, which had previously been involved in hooliganism, theft, and street robberies, were already sufficiently organized and were able to impose tribute on the newly minted businessmen. Gradually growing, acquiring carder experience, accumulating capital and establishing connections, including with professional carders, they strengthened their influence, expanded their controlled territories, suppressing competitors.
2. “Community” is a carder entity consisting basically of non-local residents, primarily immigrants from Transcaucasia (Azerbaijani, Chechen, Georgian, Dagestan “communities”), as well as foreigners living compactly (Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese). In the structural relationships of “communities”, the cementing link is a national generic feature, based on centuries-old traditions of unconditional recognition of the authority of the elder (similar to the structure of Sicilian carding, also formed on the basis of the patriarchal family). “Communities,” which before the development of private entrepreneurship in Moscow traded in market trade (including the trade in drugs and weapons), constituted serious competition for local groups, took over significant territory, and played a serious role in the carder environment of the city.
The leadership of an organized carder group is formed from individuals who devote themselves exclusively to carder activities, and makes up approximately 10% of the total number of members, including several (3-8) prominent leaders who determine the direction of the group’s activities. Behind them are the bulk of the performers (“militants”) - young guys with a pronounced carder orientation. The group is not a monolithic entity and consists of several groups of different levels of organization, numbering 10-15 people.
Groups are engaged not only in committing specific carding, but also exercise constant control over a certain area (extortion and collection of tribute for providing “security” from catering outlets, commercial stalls, cooperatives, private enterprises, prostitutes, lone carders).
Often, leaders, having amassed sufficient capital, enter into legal business, thereby “laundering” carderly obtained funds. They can become general and commercial directors of commercial structures, banks, enter into direct contacts with representatives of the legislative and executive authorities, with law enforcement officials, entangling them with a network of corrupt connections.
Bandit formation (formation) is a form of organized carding that involves the creation of an armed group for the purpose of attacking state and public enterprises, and individual citizens. It differs from a group by the mandatory presence of weapons and carder orientation - an open attack, as a result of which gangs are characterized by increased danger.
The size of the gang usually does not exceed 10 people. Among all carder organizations, gangs are distinguished by the highest level of organization, the strictest subordination and secrecy, unquestioning submission to the leader, and exceptional cruelty towards the victim.
Gangs operate independently; the objects of their carder activities are most often money, currency, weapons, gold, precious stones, and antiques.
Gangs that commit selfish and violent acts in their zone of influence are often distinguished by exceptional cynicism, the cruel, daring and arrogant nature of their carder actions. Such carder acts are usually carried out jointly, making them more violent and painful for the victims and more effective for the carders. Cruelty among such individuals becomes an end in itself and is highly revered. For example, in Voronezh, an organized gang of sadistic carders that had been operating for several years was neutralized. She kidnapped mostly successful businessmen, placed them in hiding places turned into underground prisons, and for several weeks, in order to “extort” money, promissory notes, powers of attorney for loans, “donations” for houses and apartments from them, she applied inquisitorial measures to them. means of influence: cauterizing the skin with a hot iron, sawing bones with a hacksaw, etc.
Recently, gangs are increasingly being attracted by carder groups and syndicates to their activities, carrying out various carder orders (seizing weapons, eliminating unwanted persons, participating in showdowns, etc.).
According to the degree of carder orientation, three categories of gangs are distinguished: “classic gang”, “specialized gang” and “sanctuaries”.
carding traditional for a classic gang (gangs in pre-revolutionary Russia) - attacks on banks, savings banks, collectors, as well as on mines, museums, apartments - are committed through an open armed attack with the aim of seizing money and other valuables and are often accompanied by murders and bodily harm to the victims . Classic gangs include, for example, the gang of L. Panteleev, which operated in Leningrad in the 20s, the Mongol gang (60s, Moscow), and the gang of the Vedernikov brothers (80s).
Specialized gang. The peculiarity of this type of gang is that they practice committing one, maximum, two types of carding, most often these are attacks on banks, collectors, and stores.
"Refuges". Gangs that commit carding “to order” have apparently always existed, but they have become especially widespread recently due to the development of market, and therefore competitive relations among the carder part of entrepreneurs. There was a need to exert forceful pressure on competitors, causing them property and other damage, up to and including physical destruction. In the carder world, the demand for hired killers (“killers”) and robbers, who were found among those previously convicted, former athletes, “Afghans”, etc., increased.
The groups of “reserves” are very small in number, have excellent physical fitness, are armed, active, and are distinguished by careful secrecy. Professional "customers" are usually not members of carder groups, although they may have connections with their leaders ("customers"). carding are committed for monetary reward.
A carder organization (community) is a stable, complex, hierarchical carder entity. carder organizations have five main characteristics, the combination of which allows them to be distinguished from other organized groups. These include:
1) the presence of a material base - common monetary funds for mutual assistance and bribery of officials;
2) collegial form of management, in which the management of the organization is carried out by a group of people of equal status;
3) charter in the form of informal norms of behavior, traditions and laws, sanctions for their violation;
4) functional-hierarchical system - division of the organization into component groups in the presence of interregional connections, distribution of functions between members (leadership core, bodyguards, cash register holders, liaison officers, “controllers”, etc.);
5) information base - collection of various types of information, intelligence and counterintelligence.
A study of the organized carder community has shown that in recent years there has been a tendency towards the integration of carder business. Community leaders, in order to organize opposition to competitors and expand spheres and territories of influence, combine legal and illegal capital, either nominating a common leader from among themselves, or gradually submitting to the influence of one of the leaders of the most authoritative community (such as Malyshevsky in St. Petersburg).
The Malyshev community in St. Petersburg is the largest carder community in the city on the Neva. It was formed in the late 80s as a result of the unification of such city groups as “Tambov”, “Krasnoselskaya”, “Kolesnikovskaya”, “Vor-Kutinskaya” and a number of others, concentrating in its ranks about 2,060 militants and other active members of the groups.
The formation of such powerful carder communities (associations) pursuing a coordinated carder and economic policy is also observed in Moscow, Kazan, Yekaterinburg and a number of other large cities in Russia.
“Participants of organized carder communities, their highest echelons are today establishing a new type of “activity”, characterized by impunity, antisocial supra-social psychology and professionalism. A bureaucracy of a carder community is being formed”.
The basis for uniting groups into a community in most cases is a commonality of carder interests, as well as ethnic characteristics (for example, Chechen, Azerbaijani groups) or the principle of “compatriotism” (Lyubertsy, Tambov groups).
The leadership of each community consists of leaders, their bodyguards and those closest to the leaders who serve as advisers on legal, carder, economic and other issues. Under their direct subordination there are militants (“soldiers”, “bulls”), who are used to protect management, maintain internal discipline, force pressure, supervise the activities of structures and enterprises belonging to the community, as well as for “showdowns” with competitors.
The community’s leadership exercises general control over discipline, the distribution of income and spheres of influence within the structure, resolves controversial issues between its carder groups, organizes “knocking out” debts and loans from the heads of commercial structures and enterprises, establishes connections with other communities, regions, and often and abroad, organizes counterintelligence, as well as reprisals against competitors.
Cooperation of professional carder leaders (“thieves in law”) is a special form of association that has no analogues in world forensic practice. It has all the signs of a carder organization and at the same time, as A.I. Gurov notes, it differs from it in the following characteristics: “Firstly, the lack of territory and location; secondly, the blurred structure, since the association is based on carder traditions and informal laws"; thirdly, the almost equal position of the composition of the persons in this cooperation; fourthly, different trends of “legalists” united by a common carder “idea”. This is a kind of caste of professional carder leaders.
In the hierarchy of organized communities, the cooperation of “thieves in law” is the most flexible and at the same time stable and is at its top level. Now this association has begun to acquire some political connotations, since it is providing serious organized opposition to the normal work of law enforcement agencies to establish proper law and order in the country. But an even greater danger lies in the fact that elements of international carding began to appear in the activities of thieves in law, as evidenced by their connection with some representatives of the underworld of bourgeois countries who emigrated there in the early and mid-70s.
At the beginning of 1995, there were 740 thieves in law in the republics of the former USSR, of which 380 lived in Russia, including 53 in Moscow, where they worked closely with local carder groups. In order to coordinate organized carder activities, in 1994 alone, 413 “thieves’ meetings” took place, in which about 6 thousand people took part. Gatherings, as a rule, were held in large cities and their suburbs, including resort areas, and were disguised as weddings, anniversaries, etc.
The management of cooperation is carried out with the help of thieves' meetings, and the influence on the carder environment is carried out through specially designated persons and thieves' appeals. Only a carder with a carder record, an authority in the carder environment, accepted into the group at a special “gathering” can be considered a “thief in law.” The candidate undergoes a “test”, is comprehensively checked, after which he is given oral and written recommendations. The Gathering is not just a formal act of approving a newcomer: those who recommended the candidate are responsible to her for his further behavior.
Candidates for the community are instilled with the idea of their exclusive role, special position, and destiny to establish justice and order in the carder world. Persons accepted into the cooperation of “thieves in law” acquire a new carder status and must unquestioningly comply with the requirements of the thieves’ “law,” which is a set of norms of behavior developed by carder experience.
Until recently, according to A.I. Gurov, the main “laws” of the recidivist community included the following seven rules:
1. The main responsibility of a member of the community was selfless devotion to the “thieves’ idea.” Betrayal was considered unacceptable; neither torture, nor drug intoxication, nor even mental disorder could justify it. The thief was also forbidden to engage in socially useful activities, and at the initial stage - to have a family, to maintain contact with relatives. For example, the “I will not forget my mother” tattoo, which was found among repeat offenders in the 40s and 50s, meant a family of thieves who became like a mother to them.
2. The second rule prohibited the thief from having any contact with law enforcement agencies, except in cases related to the investigation and trial. It was directed against possible cases of betrayal of the interests of the community.
3. The third requirement of the “law” ordered members of the community to be honest with each other. A thief, for example, could not insult or hit an accomplice. As for the attitude towards non-caste members, it was allowed to do everything that would help strengthen the authority of the group. It is no coincidence that “thieves in law” consider themselves “princes” in a carder environment.
4. The fourth rule obliged the thieves in law to maintain order in the camp area and establish full power for the thieves there. Otherwise, they were responsible to the thieves' gathering.
5. The fifth provision of the “law” required thieves to attract new members into their midst and to actively work with young people, especially among minors. The engagement system was quite effective. Newcomers were seduced by the “romanticism of thieves”, a “beautiful life”, free from obligations to society, seduced by the power of money and the cult of violence. They were introduced to vodka, drugs, and introduced to thieves' prostitutes. On the other hand, they were blackmailed and killed, forcing them to take the blame for the carding committed by the thieves.
In places of deprivation of liberty, community members used candidates (“boys”) for various assignments—collecting funds for the general fund (“common fund”), and often for sexual purposes. This was the path to the thieves' community for almost every thief, which, of course, contributed to the formation of cynicism, cruelty, and contempt for the moral values of society.
6. The sixth rule prohibited carders from becoming interested in political issues, acting as victims and witnesses during investigations and in court.
7. The most “principled” but significant provision was the mandatory ability of a member of the community to play gambling, since they help communication, help establish power over other prisoners, from whom thieves win not only property, but also life, thereby creating an environment of death row prisoners for carrying out special assignments. Games in which life was the stake were called “three stars” or “three bones.” This tradition has been preserved since the times of the royal Sakhalin hard labor.
Belonging to a group of thieves was indicated by a tattoo depicting a heart pierced by a dagger (later these became the suits of aces inside a cross). Tattoos were not only a means of self-affirmation, but also played a communicative role, since with their help repeat offenders recognized each other. Moreover, other carders were prohibited from wearing the “thief in law” badge on pain of death.
Recently, there has been a noticeable softening of the traditional rules of the “thieves in law” community, and the procedure for its formation is being simplified.
When studying the personalities of the thieves in law, it turned out that some of them did not even have a carder record. Such a gross departure from thieves’ traditions is explained by the fact that admission into the community is often carried out for money. Such cases of joining the community “for a bribe” became widespread and led to the division of carders into “new” and “old” (“Nepman-like”). The new generation, mainly young people, considers such admission into the community acceptable, since the common funds ("common funds") are replenished.
Modern thieves in law, unlike their predecessors, on the one hand, try to carefully disguise their antisocial lifestyle as outwardly law-abiding. Such “thieves in law” mainly resolve organizational issues, often those for which in the recent past the meeting sentenced people to death. In particular, the thief in law seeks to establish contacts with employees of law enforcement agencies and other administrative institutions; he can deviate from any informal rules, as long as it benefits him and the thieves’ community.
Today, “thieves in law” are not a tattooed guy with teeth blackened by chifir. He is clean-shaven and dressed mostly in the latest fashion. His servants include not only “sixes”, but also bodyguards; in everyday life - several privatized apartments, dachas, a prestigious car (usually a foreign car); in the immediate environment are experienced lawyers, corrupt representatives of government agencies and the law enforcement system.
§ 2. Structure of organized carder groups
The structure of organized carder entities, the degree of their organization, number, distribution of roles between their members, type of management can be different (simple and complex), but have much in common (typical) in the nature of their structures.
In almost every organized carder group, consisting of several dozen active members, three levels of structural links can be distinguished: at the lower level - executive links (elements); on the middle level - organizational and control units and security groups; at the top are the leadership levels (leader groups, elite group).
The perpetrators can be representatives of different types of carding, both economic and ordinary (ordinary representatives of the shadow economy, business fraudsters, embezzlers of state property, employees of various commercial structures, extortionists, housebreakers and pickpockets, robbers, murderers, thugs and bouncers, businessmen from drug trafficking, etc.).
Above the executive links in the middle part of the carder pyramid are organizational and control links and security groups. The main tasks of the former are: 1) ensuring the implementation of the decisions of community leaders; 2) control over the activities of performers; 3) exercising all kinds of intermediary powers (intermediaries, liaison officers, foremen, etc.); 4) development of measures to increase the effectiveness of the carder activities of perpetrators; 5) resolution of disputes between individual members of the organization and its constituent groups; 6) preservation of carderly obtained valuables; 7) organizing financial assistance to members of a carder group who are in prison and their families. Members of this unit (except for foremen) usually do not directly participate in the commission of specific carding. Brigadiers often directly supervise groups of perpetrators (militants) when committing carding.
In the security group, N.P. Yablokov distinguishes two categories of persons. “The first includes members of the association who ensure the secrecy of its activities as a whole and individual participants in carder activities, as well as persons carrying out intelligence and counterintelligence activities and functions of suppressing social control. Individual members of this group may directly participate in some carder actions. Persons of the second category usually are not formally members of a carder organization, but regularly provide useful services to it. These primarily include corrupt employees of government and administrative bodies (including law enforcement). However, such people may also be useful for organized carder activities. individual members of the parliamentary corps, representatives of public organizations, lawyers, journalists, literary and artistic figures, etc."
At the same time, representatives of the second group may not even realize the illegality of their behavior, acting in defense of the carder community, creating conditions that prevent the disclosure of carder activities, compromising individual representatives of government and administrative bodies. They can even inform carders about operational activities being prepared against them, thereby helping to neutralize or even eliminate law enforcement officials for the benefit of this community.
There are often cases when such “defenders” take measures to release detained members of carder groups from investigation, trial, imprisonment in places of deprivation of liberty, or to mitigate the punishment for those who find themselves in the dock.
At the very top of the pyramid of the carder community are its highest echelons of power, consisting of leaders and people close to them (representatives of the elite group, advisers, etc.). All of them resolve general organizational issues, develop strategies and tactics for carder activity, take measures to “launder” and increase carderly obtained capital by investing it in real estate and commercial enterprises. They also maintain connections with other carder communities, including foreign ones.
Representatives of the leadership of a carder organization are usually characterized by the highest carder authority, based on carder experience, material resources and personal qualities. Among such leaders there is a high percentage of people with previous convictions.
As for personal qualities, the modern leader of an organized carder community has the following features: 1) experience of carder activity; 2) strong willful qualities; 3) a fairly high level of mental abilities; 4) great physical strength; 5) ability to keep one’s word; 6) entrepreneurship; 7) communication skills; 8) decisiveness in actions; 9) speed of orientation and ability to make decisions in situations that are difficult for the carder community; 10) the ability to ensure secrecy of carding prepared and committed by the formation; 11) knowledge of the internal and external conditions of the functioning of the community.
Researchers identify the following types of leaders of carder groups: inspirers, initiators, and organizational leaders.
The inspiring leader, as a rule, performs the functions of a technical or “carder” adviser, a legal consultant, warning members of his group against steps dangerous to its existence. At the same time, such a leader is often a psychologically strong person who can strengthen the determination of his subordinates, etc.
The initiator leader is an unstable, transitional leader in an organized carding community. Quite often, his initiative is combined with organizational functions. Typically, such a leader becomes the real initiator of a certain area of organized carder activity in the community.
The central figure of an organized carder group, as a rule, is the leader-organizer. Often this role is played by a person with a consistently criminogenic personality type, characterized by a high degree of antisocial orientation, a stable carder attitude, who does not look for a suitable carder situation, but creates it with his own purposeful actions.
§ 3. Mechanisms for cohesion of carder groups
Any unity of people on the basis of any joint activity invariably gives rise to a certain system of relationships that needs to be regulated in order to achieve a common goal. In a formal organization (group), such a settlement is ensured by official documents. When it comes to informal education, which is a carder group, then the main factors of regulation in it are common principles and patterns of antisocial behavior that have been formed by the carder world for centuries and have become its traditions and customs.
In carder groups, as well as in other forms of group activity, the formation of basic group characteristics and processes, for example, cohesion, a common feeling - a sense of collectivity, usually includes standardization of assessments, attitudes, methods, procedures used by group members in the process of performing certain actions under certain conditions. All these processes are associated with the development and use of group norms. With their help, the group prescribes certain behavior in general and in specific situations, in complex, extreme cases. At the same time, social control is exercised over group members. The group, protecting its interests, obliges its member to adhere to the established standard of behavior, including in non-standard situations. Its prescriptions are, first of all, customs and traditions, that is, stable forms of regulation of behavior. carder traditions and customs, as research shows, are present at all stages of the dynamics of carder groups - formation and functioning.
If we consider a carder group as a kind of “collective image,” it should be noted that its emergence is due to the need to achieve carder goals through the combined efforts of many people. This goal determines the motivation for carder behavior. It was noted above that the main goal of organized carder groups, especially complexly structured ones, is to obtain profit (income) through carder means. The main motive of their activity is acquisitive. On the basis of this community (thirst for enrichment), the desire to commit joint carder acts arises, which predetermines the formation of a carder group. The creation and functioning of a carder group is regulated by carder traditions and customs, which, in addition to their regulatory function, consolidate the efforts of group members not only for the sake of achieving a carder goal, but also for self-defense from external factors - law enforcement agencies, carder competitors.
The formation of any carder group is associated with the development of certain norms, which are necessary primarily to maintain group cohesion. The creation of any new norms is subject to the general traditions and customs of carder activity. At the level of a carder group, especially a mafia formation, these traditions and customs are not just the vital rules of conduct for its members. From signs of communication and behavior in an antisocial environment, they turn into strict laws of carder activity and carder behavior, even lifestyle, non-compliance with which entails the imposition of appropriate sanctions. “The sanctions here are usually harsh and harsh (ransom, beatings, self-harm, murder) and are based, accordingly, on physical (armed) violence. Norms and rules, like the authority of the leader, are permeated and supported by specific moral “maxims”, which are called quite attractively: “ “duty”, “justice”, “honesty”, “respect for elders”, “courage”, but in fact they have a one-sided and perverted meaning”.
carder groups, concentrating within their framework the general carder traditions and customs and the group norms of carder activity formed by them, generally cultivate a specific autonomous subculture of carder behavior. By uniting carders on the basis of a common way of life, a carder subculture becomes an organizing principle in a carder group, which puts control over the actions and actions of group members, while simultaneously creating internal conditions for strengthening self-control.
carder traditions and customs, notes S. Ya. Lebedev, consist of three elements.
Regulatory elements: “laws” and “rules” regulating the relationship between carders in connection with leading an antisocial lifestyle and committing carding, specific rituals of communication and behavior in a carder environment.
Attributive elements: tattoos, slang, nicknames, facial expressions, gestures, reflecting the affiliation of a particular person with carder activity.
Emotional elements: songs, poems, sayings with a “thieves’ theme, reflecting the emotional side of an antisocial lifestyle and committing carding (the so-called carder folklore)”.
carder traditions and customs perform a number of functions, among which the following can be distinguished. Firstly, they stimulate illegal behavior, thereby contributing to the progression of carding; secondly, they preserve a certain order and, thirdly, reproduce it for new generations.
In the carder sphere, traditions and customs perform these functions in their own ways. Tradition prescribes what exactly needs to be secured and preserved for the purposes of reproduction, custom prescribes how to secure and preserve it. The ideological content, i.e., the formula of a custom, is always a rule of behavior - a detailed prescription of an action in a specific situation. The ideological content, the formula of a tradition is always a norm or principle of behavior.
Fourthly, traditions and customs in the carder world play an “educational” role . Moreover, this function is performed with the greatest effect by specific rites and rituals. As in any social sphere, in a carder environment they are designed to influence the emotional sphere of a person, cause certain experiences and moods, thereby stimulating the formation of a carder personality.
It is known that carder traditions and customs have a certain ability to “infect” the minds of people, which is associated to a certain extent with their external attractiveness. A certain aura of daring and romance is created around them. Some attributes of carder life, which have long become its traditions, contain elements of artistry, theatricality, excitement, and humor, which often causes some people, especially teenagers and young men, to want to imitate this lifestyle.
The ritual side of many carder traditions and customs works much more effectively when complemented by appropriate artistic means. These include the so-called carder “folklore” (songs, poems, sayings on thieves’ themes, etc.).
The emotional impact of carder “folklore” is quite great. Analysis of his samples indicates the ability of carders to skillfully and subtly play on the feelings of narrow-minded and superficial people. With all its content, this “folklore” is aimed at creating a negative, or even hostile, attitude towards the law, representatives of law enforcement agencies, at glorifying and embellishing the carder lifestyle, praising “feats”, glorifying their “honesty”, “nobility”, “broad thieves souls" etc.
Often such carder propaganda achieves its goal and, if it does not push one to a carder path, then in any case it can cause in some “compassionate” people a feeling of a condescending, even sympathetic attitude towards carders.
Fifthly, one of the functions of carder traditions and customs as elements of continuity is the transfer to new generations of the carder experience of their predecessors . The basis of continuity is juvenile and youth carding. This age category, due to its inherent socio-psychological characteristics, is not only more susceptible to the influence of carder traditions and customs, but to a certain extent itself contributes to increasing their criminogenicity. This is due to the fact that adolescents and young men have an intensified desire for autonomy, independence from the social-normative system of adults, which, in their opinion, restrains the freedom to express individual personality traits and limits the scope of satisfaction of needs. To an even greater extent, this system does not satisfy juvenile offenders who are looking for an opportunity to demonstrate their inherent properties precisely in a deviant environment, in a perverted, false, and even socially dangerous form. The carder environment, of course, provides such an opportunity, while at the same time imposing its own rules of behavior in the form of carder traditions and customs, the observance of which is strictly controlled. Thus, sixthly, carder traditions and customs perform the function of social (carder) control of members of carder groups.
Seventh, carder traditions and customs perform the function of psychological influence in the process of purposefully involving minors in carder activities. There are many cases where, in the process of preparing teenagers to commit carding, many adults, especially those with previous convictions, told the children about their past adventures, the “friends” with whom they had previously committed carding, the “courage” and “courage” of carders, and the customs of thieves, carding methods of committing thefts, methods of hiding traces of a carding, objects obtained by carder means.
The traditions and customs of carder groups, having lost their strength at a certain stage of development, did not disappear without a trace. Having adapted to new conditions, they have now acquired a more rigid, almost universal character.
The adherence of modern carders to the traditions and customs of the carder environment is evidenced by: 1) a negative attitude towards a normal, law-abiding lifestyle; 2) opposition to law enforcement agencies; 3) participation in carder activity and any encouragement thereof; 4) the desire to unite the carder environment and maintain carder connections.
“The traditions and customs common to the modern carder environment,” notes S. Ya. Lebedev, “are:
— evasion of socially useful work, living by committing carding, systematically seeking opportunities to extract shadow income;
— increasing carder qualifications;
— ensuring the camouflage of a carder lifestyle and behavior, eliminating factors that complicate its implementation;
— observance of subordination according to the position occupied in the carder hierarchy, unquestioning submission to the leader of the carder environment;
— implementation of collegial decisions and requirements developed in the carder environment;
— preventing persons suspected of collaborating with the police from entering their environment, exposing and punishing the latter;
— providing material and physical support to other carders;
— involvement of young offenders in carder activities, promotion of carder traditions and customs, carder “romance”;
— leading an idle lifestyle, rejection of the norms of public morality and behavior;
— participation in gambling and other prison games and rituals;
— knowledge and use of jargon and other methods of secret communication in speech;
— applying symbolic thieves' tattoos to the body;
— undermining the authority of police officers, prosecutors, courts, and the administration of correctional labor institutions, excluding contacts with representatives of these bodies aimed at harming the carder world, causing all sorts of obstacles to their normal activities".
The assimilation of carder traditions and customs is carried out in the process of communication in a carder environment. Any communication, including in a carder environment, is preceded by a process of preliminary perception of behavioral patterns and their assessment. Awareness of the acceptability of these models for satisfying personal needs initially generates in the individual a desire to imitate them. Gradually, this desire to imitate develops into aspiration.
Thus, imitation is the most important socio-psychological mechanism for an individual to assimilate carder traditions and customs, and with the help of the latter, a mechanism for identifying and uniting the individual with a carder group . At the same time, parallel to the process of imitation of carder traditions and customs, there is a process of criminogenic infection of the individual.
A specific way of uniting a carder group is the ritualism of carder behavior. We are talking about the most vivid, “emotional” and, as a rule, very dangerous carding, since the meaning of the ritual is that it draws participants into a special, unusually rich psychological world, into a special reality of existence. The ability of ritual to unite a group is ensured due to its great psychological impact. History knows many cases of ritual commission of carding, especially by professional carders. In the very “scenario” of ritual carding, elements of artistry and play are manifested, which creates an emotional mood among its participants, arouses excitement, strengthens group solidarity, gives rise to a “thirst” among group members for repeating similar actions, forms in them a stable need to commit a carding, forming the basis carder motivation. Persons who commit such carding pose an increased danger because they enjoy the carding.
The means of identifying individuals with a carder group and, accordingly, uniting it are such traditional attributes of the carder environment as jargon and tattoos.
In a carder environment, jargon acts as a means of self-affirmation, adaptation and self-expression of carders. Currently, it is characterized by a bias towards the specialization of carder behavior, which indicates the growth of carder professionalism. Today, housebreakers and pickpockets, swindlers, drug addicts, homosexuals, prostitutes, car thieves, etc. have their own jargon. Moreover, among pickpockets and card swindlers (sharps), the jargon developed by the carder world in the pre-revolutionary period has mostly been preserved.
Modern jargon, unlike traditional jargon, has great attractive power, especially for some young people. It often contains words and expressions borrowed from foreign languages, although carder “authorities” are trying to fight to cleanse the jargon of “foreignness.” The use of jargon by carders is one of the indicators of a person’s carder involvement.
The same applies to the characteristics of tattoos. Tattooing, as experts note, is a kind of cult of the carder environment, and a tattoo is a vivid advertisement of a carder lifestyle. The tattooed carder not only confirms his own carder experience, but also propagates it in the antisocial microenvironment and beyond, and advertises his commitment to carder traditions and customs.
The theme of most tattoos symbolically reflects the lifestyle of carders, contains elements of self-assessment of behavior, and captures the tastes, views, and inclinations of the individual in drawings and inscriptions. Among tattoos, a special place is occupied by symbols of carders’ belonging to a certain thieves’ “caste”, commitment to a specific carder activity, indicators of attitude towards the law, law enforcement agencies, etc.
Tattoos are visual signs of carder activity, a kind of calling cards of carders.
carder folklore also plays a certain role in identification with the carder environment . In contrast to the song and poetic creativity characteristic of the carder world of the past, modern carder folklore has become less sentimental. It is dominated by samples full of primitive humor, cynicism, obscenity, obscenity and vulgarity.
At different stages of the existence of carder groups, various internal forces interact within them. At the creation stage, there is a desire for unification, after the disclosure of a carder group, especially an organized carder group, there is a tendency to disperse it, “cut off” links discovered by law enforcement agencies, eliminate specific people, etc.
As researchers note, the highest psychological cohesion of people is found in stable organized groups, where the elite are strong-willed, competent organizers, ideologists and people rich enough to be independent. Authorities in their environment provide them not only with material resources, but also with carder experience.
At the same time, in each such carder organization there are opposing tendencies and forces. The first force contributes to the integration of the group, the unity of its members, while the second is aimed at disintegration, separation, which is manifested in the desire of the groups included in the carder community for an autonomous existence.
In addition to the aforementioned centrifugal tendency, which creates a conflict situation in an organized carder group, conflicts and contradictions arise in it due to: 1) the struggle for leadership; 2) struggle for proximity to the group leader; 3) methods and methods of carder activity and principles of division of loot; 4) personal hostile relationships between people.
Researchers classify conflicts in organized carder groups as follows: a) not related to organized carder activity; b) arising after the disclosure of organized carder activity. “Conflicts not related to organized carder activity,” writes N.P. Yablokov, “can be rooted in the carder past of some members of a carder group, be associated with their social and official practice, ethnic, cultural, emotional and moral differences.”
Knowledge of these differences and the causes of conflict is important for investigation in the process of developing and applying tactical actions appropriate to the situation.
(c) https://ebooks.grsu.by/ur_psix/glava-3-psikhologiya-prestupnykh-grupp.htm
