How Social Movement Organization Explicitly and Implicitly Promote Deviant Behavior: The Case of the Militia Movement

• NCJ Number: 178779
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: September 1999 Pages: 655-683
• Author(s): Joshua D. Freilich; Nelson A. Pichardo Almanzar; Craig J. Rivera
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 29 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Focusing on the modern militia movement, this article discusses the explicit and implicit paths by which movements promote deviance and/or criminal behavior.

Abstract

The literature on social movements and deviance has failed to recognize that social movement organizations also promote deviance in society. This oversight stems from a tendency in the dominant paradigm of social movement theory to normalize the activities of these movements by equating their activities with political behavior. The modern militia movement has both a defensive and an offensive wing, and they promote deviance both through their ideology, which legitimizes deviance, and through their organizational structures, which are unable to control either the actions of those who are part of the movement or the flow of movement-generated information. The article focuses on the militia movement, but conclusions may apply to other social movements, both left- and right-wing. Notes, references