Biker Gangs and Organized Crime

• NCJ Number: 226140
• Author(s): Thomas Barker
• Date Published: 2007
• Length: 198 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Overview Text
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This book presents a comprehensive overview of biker gangs through out the world and their involvement in organized criminal activities.

Abstract

Motorcycle clubs came into being soon after the first motorcycles were manufactured (late 1800s). The American Motorcycle Association (AMA) labeled all nonmembers as outlaw clubs with the media exaggerating the behavior of these outlaws. It is argued that deviant motorcycle clubs can be placed on a continuum from gangs on one end to clubs on the other, with social criminal organizations in the middle. Many of these clubs have evolved into social criminal organizations, that is, organizations that support the criminal activity of its members indirectly. In addition, some of these clubs or chapters of these clubs are involved in organized criminal activities on a national and international scale. On occasion, some 1-percent biker clubs (such as the Hells Angels) act as economic criminal organizations directly supporting the criminal activities of its members. The nature, structure, and culture of deviant motorcycle clubs, especially the 1-percent bikers, attract individuals with criminal or potential criminal dispositions and facilitates and supports the criminal networks that arise in these clubs. The criminal networks that result from members linked together by criminal exploitable ties evolve into criminal organizations. Many outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) are criminal organizations that can, and have, expanded into national and international networks sharing a common affiliation. The 1-percent biker subculture was transported outside the United States by the media and the entertainment industry. The OMGs, both indigenous and American-based, in Canada are the most criminal and violent motorcycle gangs in the world. The nature of the membership and criminal activities attributed to 1-percent clubs, chapters of 1-percent biker clubs, and members of 1-percent biker clubs continues today and shows no signs of changing in the future. Tables, figures, references, appendix, and index