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Organizing on two wheels: uncovering the organizational patterns of Hells Angels MC in Sweden
Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0973-3481
Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2685-9238
2019 (English)In: Trends in Organized Crime, ISSN 1084-4791, E-ISSN 1936-4830, Vol. 22, no 1, p. 34-50Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

During the last decades, Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs (OMCs) have become a concern for crime prevention and law enforcement agencies. The general perception of OMCs is ambiguous. They are seen either as highly structured criminal organizations whose members use their motorcycle clubs for conducting sophisticated criminal enterprises, or as clubs built around the camaraderie of freedom-seeking bikers. Using unique Swedish longitudinal data on gang membership and co-offending patterns, we study the organizational dynamics of Hells Angels MC Sweden and its sub-organizations Red & White Crew and Red Devils MC. Our results reveal a complex picture. Co-offending network patterns and offense type distributions vary for each sub-organization, indicating potential differences in organizational dynamics. Red & White Crew has features that are more similar to street gangs than OMCs, and Red Devils MC has a more decentralized and chapter-based pattern of criminal collaboration than Hells Angels MC. Besides increasing our understanding of OMC collaboration structure, our results have implications for crime prevention strategies. We suggest that social responses and law enforcement efforts should take into account the heterogeneity of OMCs in order to avoid counterproductive consequences in terms of increased group cohesiveness.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer , 2019. Vol. 22, no 1, p. 34-50
Keywords [en]
Outlaw motorcycle gangs, Organized crime, Hells angels, Red Devils, Red & white crew, Social network analysis, Criminal organizing, Outlaw bikers
National Category
Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-35569DOI: 10.1007/s12117-017-9310-yISI: 000460486400003OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-35569DiVA, id: diva2:1542888
Available from: 2021-04-09 Created: 2021-04-09 Last updated: 2021-04-09Bibliographically approved

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Rostami, Amir

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CiteExportLink to record
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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • sv-SE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • de-DE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf