NCJ Number
141192
Date Published
1992
Length
261 pages
Annotation
Based on recent research publications as well as interviews with Neo-Nazi skinheads who have committed violent acts against persons because of their race, religion, or sexual preference, this volume presents and tests a modern theory of hate crime.
Abstract
The discussion focuses on the social and psychological dynamics that have led to the development of the skinheads in particular and of social movements based on hatred in general. It uses diverse sociological theories of crime and deviance and findings of recent empirical research to explain how a modern form of Nazism has flourished in markedly different cultures in Western Europe and the United States and how it has appealed as much to intellectual youth as it has to functionally illiterate factory workers and prison inmates. Characterizing skinheads as a terrorist youth subculture rather than a form of street gangs, the analysis covers the origins and history of American Neo-Nazi skinheads, the internal structure of this subculture, the roles of music and media images, and the attitudes and perceptions of skinheads. Noting the success of litigation against the White Aryan Resistance in Portland (Oregon) and the United Klans of America in Alabama, the author concludes that this strategy controls domestic terrorism after it has occurred, but does not address several important cultural forces that may promote neo-Nazism and terrorism in the United States in the future. It analyzes these forces and presents five specific proposals for preventing the expansion of this phenomenon. Figures, tables, index, and 332 references