The Outlaw Biker Legacy of Violence

Outlaw bikers represent a very small percentage of motorcycle riders who join motorcycle clubs, but they receive disproportionate attention due to their mystique, unconventional behavior, and violence. Although the outlaw biker phenomenon started in the United States, it has since spread throughout the world. The involvement of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs) in organized crime at the local, regional, national, and transnational levels fosters violence that puts innocent persons at risk for death or injury and leads to the demonization of "bikers" and the overcriminalization of motorcycle enthusiasts and club members. The Outlaw Biker Legacy of Violence, written by internationally known expert Thomas Barker, addresses the legacy of violence in the outlaw biker culture and tackles the implications of the violence that progressed as outlaw biker clubs evolved into adult criminal gangs engaged in crimes for profit over long periods of time and across borders.

Beginning with a history of outlaw bikers and the construction of the "folk devil" of the biker, the book outlines the distinctions between conventional motorcycle clubs, Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, and then traces the expansion of outlaw clubs and gangs across the globe. The work goes on to detail well publicized displays of biker violence around the world, ranging from the filmed murder at the Altamont, California, Speedway Free Festival in 1969; through notorious murders in Australia and Canada in the mid-1980s and the Great Nordic and Montreal, Quebec, Biker Wars of the 1990s—up to more recent events such as the biker gang shootout in Waco, Texas, in 2015, which left nine people dead, 20 others hurt, and more than 150 bikers charged. While historically biker violence was largely tolerated because violent acts were kept within the gangs and outside of public spaces, these tragedies shocked the nations in which they occurred and have had a significant impact on views on biker violence and preventive and retributive actions taken by authorities.

This book will be of interest to those interested in the examination or investigation of biker gangs in particular or organized criminal groups in general. It is essential reading for criminal justice students and others studying social groups, gangs, and organizations, or the sociology of deviance, and is also relevant for law enforcement professionals dealing with these organizations.

Thomas Barker, Ph.D., an international expert on Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, is Emeritus Professor of Criminal Justice of Eastern Kentucky University. A former police officer, police academy instructor, professor at four universities, and Dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Jacksonville State University, Barker has been conducting research and writing on biker gangs for more than 15 years. He is past president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences as well as of the Southern Criminal Justice Association, which annually issues the Tom Barker Award for Undergraduate Student Service in his name. He is the author or co-author of 17 books and numerous articles, and frequently speaks to groups and in documentaries on organized crime. The Mob Museum, a popular attraction located in Las Vegas, Nevada, presents an Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs exhibit that features an original video including interviews with Barker.