1st Edition

Outlaw Bikers as Organized Crime

    296 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The title of this volume Outlaw Bikers as Organized Crime reluctantly combines two highly contested concepts into a statement that is perhaps disputed even more. Who and what do we refer to when we talk about ‘outlaw bikers’ and ‘outlaw biker clubs’? What is meant by ‘organized crime’? And, how – if at all - are these two concepts related? All chapters in this volume deal with these questions some way or another, either explicitly or implicitly, each providing its own answers based on the data and methods at hand.

    This volume presents cutting edge research on outlaw bikers and outlaw biker clubs from countries all over the globe and reflects the different ways that academic researchers have approached the outlaw biker phenomenon from the theoretical and methodological vantage point of organized crime research.

    Chapter 1. Introduction: Outlaw Bikers as Organized Crime?

    Arjan Blokland, Klaus von Lampe and Sjoukje van Deuren

     

    Chapter 2. Outlaw Bikers in the Swedish Parliament: How Motorcycle Clubs Became Organized Crime

    Janne Flyghed

     

    Chapter 3. Surveying the Landscape: Assessing Public Perception of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in British Columbia, Canada

    Karine Descormiers, Eva Thomas, Amanda Stewart, Jenny Tsang and Peter Vatic

     

    Chapter 4. Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in Australia: Exploring Variability in Gang Member Involvement in Organised Crime

     Anthony Morgan, Christopher Dowling and Isabella Voce

     

    Chapter 5. Typifying Dutch Outlaw Bikers: A Latent Class Analysis

    Arjan Blokland, Wouter van der Leest, Melvin Soudijn

     

    Chapter 6. Riding the Digital Highway With the Mongols and the Vagos: Applying OSINT Techniques to Assess Member Criminality and Connectivity

    Scott Duncan and Scott Inch

     

    Chapter 7. A Conceptual Framework of (Illegal) Governance Behavior: A Case Study of Dutch Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs

    Sjoukje van Deuren, Edward Kleemans and Arjan Blokland

     

    Chapter 8. Questions About the Relationship Between Domestic Violence and Membership of a 1%- Motorcycle Club

    Janine Janssen and Nanne Vosters

     

    Chapter 9. Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs As a Source of Revenue

    Melvin Soudijn

     

    Chapter 10. Secrecy, Control and Organised Crime: State Responses to ‘Bikies’ in Australia

    Greg Martin

     

    Chapter 11. Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in the Netherlands: Developments and Responses

    Teun van Ruitenburg, Stephan van Nimwegen, Rik Ceulen, Toine Spapens

    Biography

    Arjan Blokland is senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, and professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, Leiden Law School, Leiden University, The Netherlands. At the time of editing this volume he was Obel visiting professor at Aalborg University, Denmark. His research interests include criminal careers and life-course criminology, criminal networks and organized crime.

    Klaus von Lampe is a professor of criminology at the Berlin School of Economics and Law in Berlin, Germany. He has previously been a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. His research interests include the conceptual history, theory and empirical manifestations of organized crime as well as crime prevention and international law enforcement cooperation. For his book 'Organized Crime: Analyzing illegal activities, criminal structures, and extra-legal governance' he received the Outstanding Publication Award from the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime.

    Sjoukje van Deuren is assistant professor at the VU School of Criminology, Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands and postdoctoral researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR). Her research interests include organized crime, criminal networks, and outlaw motorcycle gangs.