Heading a Criminal Gang and Aggravation of Punishment

Leading a criminal gang is one of the personalized factors of aggravation of the punishment. It means that the legislator aggravates the punishment of the some perpetrators which have such a personalized factor. Note 2 of the article 130 of the Iranian Islamic Penal Code refers to the examples of leading a gang, without defining leading a gang. According to it Leadership is defined as forming, or planning, or organizing or directing a criminal gang. So it seems that a criminal gang could have more than one leader. For example, one of them forms, the other one plans, and the third one organizes and the fourth one directs the criminal gang. Typically, planning is prior to other forms of leadership. It seems that a leader orders others and they obey his orders. It is noteworthy that the committed crime by the members of the gang should be in line to the gang aims, otherwise it could not be regarded as a crime committed by the gang. The current paper is going to answer the following questions: what is the substance of leading a gang? Aiding and abetting or accomplishment? Is it necessary for the leader to participate in material element (actus reus) of the crime? How the punishment determined for members influences the punishment of the leader? What does an organized criminal gang mean? The method of research is an analytical one.