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Sovereign Citizens

A Psychological and Criminological Analysis

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Authors:
  1. Christine M. Sarteschi

    1. Chatham University, Pittsburgh, USA

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  • Describes the origins, development, ideology, and behaviors of the sovereign citizens movement
  • Explores the complex belief systems of adherents to the movement
  • One of the first scholarly works to focus exclusively on this under-recognized movement

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Psychology (BRIEFSPSYCHOL)

Part of the book sub series: SpringerBriefs in Behavioral Criminology (BRIEFSBC)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. The Origins of the Sovereign Citizen Movement

    • Christine M. Sarteschi
    Pages 1-8

  3. Behavior and Underlying Ideology

    • Christine M. Sarteschi
    Pages 9-29

  4. Violence and Sovereign Citizens

    • Christine M. Sarteschi
    Pages 31-45

  5. Paper Terrorism and Other Tactics

    • Christine M. Sarteschi
    Pages 47-57

  6. Moors

    • Christine M. Sarteschi
    Pages 59-70

  7. Sovereign Citizens in Court

    • Christine M. Sarteschi
    Pages 71-81

  8. Countering the Sovereign Citizen Movement

    • Christine M. Sarteschi
    Pages 83-90

  9. Correction to: Sovereign Citizens: A Psychological and Criminological Analysis

    • Christine M. Sarteschi
    Pages C1-C1
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Keywords

About this book

This brief serves to educate readers about the sovereign citizen movement, presenting relevant case studies and offering suggestions for measures to address problems caused by this movement. Sovereign citizens are considered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to be a prominent domestic terrorist threat in the United States, and are broadly defined as a loosely-afflicted anti-government group who believes that the United States government and its laws are invalid and fraudulent. Because they consider themselves to be immune to the consequences of American law, members identifying with this group often engage in criminal activities such as tax fraud, “paper terrorism”, and in more extreme cases, attempted murder or other acts of violence. Sovereign Citizens is one of the first scholarly works to explicitly focus on the sovereign citizen movement by explaining the movement’s origin, interactions with the criminal justice system, and ideology.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Chatham University, Pittsburgh, USA

    Christine M. Sarteschi

About the author

Dr. Christine M. Sarteschi, LCSW is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Criminology. She teaches courses in behavioral science that cover a wide range of topics including: human behavior, juvenile justice, mental illness and crime, cold case research, problem solving courts, mass murder, and extreme violent crime. Her research has appeared in The British Journal of Social Work, Aggression and Violent Behavior, The Journal of Criminal Justice, among others. She has served as a peer reviewer for the National Science Foundation as well as other scholarly journals. Dr. Sarteschi's most recent Springer brief includes “Mass and Serial Murder in America.”

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Sovereign Citizens

  • Book Subtitle: A Psychological and Criminological Analysis

  • Authors: Christine M. Sarteschi

  • Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Psychology

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45851-5

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and Psychology, Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-45850-8Published: 24 July 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-45851-5Published: 23 July 2020

  • Series ISSN: 2192-8363

  • Series E-ISSN: 2192-8371

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XV, 90

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Psychology Research

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