By Jillian J. Turanovic and Sonja E. Siennick

Although school violence is on the decline, it remains a significant concern for the general public, policymakers, and researchers. This report commissioned by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) takes a comprehensive look at the state of the research on school violence and includes additional discussions about research on serious violence and studies that were funded by NIJ’s Comprehensive School Safety Initiative. It is based on an empirical review of 55 meta-analyses and a supplemental review of the methods and findings of 362 recent research studies. The research found that the strongest predictor of school violence perpetration was delinquent/antisocial behavior. Other strong predictors were attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, child maltreatment, peer rejection, and moral disengagement. The reviews identified several other moderately strong predictors of school violence, including deviant peers, callous unemotional traits, narcissism, exposure to domestic violence, agreeableness (inverse association), prosocial behaviors (inverse association), positive school climate (inverse association), and victimization.

Washington, DC: U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2022. 86p.

By Hunter S. Thompson

California, Labor Day weekend… early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levi’s roll out from damp garages, allnight diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur… The Menace is loose again, the Hell’s Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on the early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and ninety miles an hour down the center stripe, missing by inches… like Genghis Khan on an iron horse, a monster steed with a fiery anus, flat out through the eye of a beer can and up your daughter’s leg with no quarter asked and none given; show the squares some class, give em a whiff of those kicks they’ll never know… Ah, these righteous dudes, they love to screw it on… Little Jesus, the Gimp, Chocolate George, Buzzard, Zorro, Hambone, Clean Cut, Tiny, Terry the Tramp, Frenchy, Mouldy Marvin, Mother Miles, Dirty Ed, Chuck the Duck, Fat Freddy, Filthy Phil, Charger Charley the Child Molester, Crazy Cross, Puff, Magoo, Animal and at least a hundred more… tense for the action, long hair in the wind, beards and bandanas flapping, earrings, armpits, chain whips, swastikas and stripped-down Harleys flashing chrome as traffic on 101 moves over, nervous, to let the formation pass like a burst of dirty thunder.

New York: Ballantine Books, 1966. 186p.

By Hunter S. Thompson

California, Labor Day weekend… early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levi’s roll out from damp garages, allnight diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur… The Menace is loose again, the Hell’s Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on the early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and ninety miles an hour down the center stripe, missing by inches… like Genghis Khan on an iron horse, a monster steed with a fiery anus, flat out through the eye of a beer can and up your daughter’s leg with no quarter asked and none given; show the squares some class, give em a whiff of those kicks they’ll never know… Ah, these righteous dudes, they love to screw it on… Little Jesus, the Gimp, Chocolate George, Buzzard, Zorro, Hambone, Clean Cut, Tiny, Terry the Tramp, Frenchy, Mouldy Marvin, Mother Miles, Dirty Ed, Chuck the Duck, Fat Freddy, Filthy Phil, Charger Charley the Child Molester, Crazy Cross, Puff, Magoo, Animal and at least a hundred more… tense for the action, long hair in the wind, beards and bandanas flapping, earrings, armpits, chain whips, swastikas and stripped-down Harleys flashing chrome as traffic on 101 moves over, nervous, to let the formation pass like a burst of dirty thunder.

New York: Ballantine Books, 1966. 186p.

By Edward Winterhalder and Wil De Clercq

From years of bloody conflict to probationary Bandidos membership, this memoir recalls the life and times of an outlaw biker from Oklahoma and his quest to add to the Bandidos Nation. The Rock Machine, founded by Salvatore Cazzetta, had every intention of standing up against the Hells Angels. Heavily outnumbered, the Rock Machine appealed to the worldwide Bandidos Motorcycle Club, who rivaled the Hells Angels in terms of membership and strength. In January 2000, the Rock Machine ceased to exist and became a probationary Bandidos chapter. Winterhalder was assigned this transition and, at 46 years of age, was considered an elder statesman in the outlaw biker world. He was the founder and former president of the Oklahoma Bandidos and a confirmed biker for 25 years. Furthermore, he possessed a keen knowledge of jurisprudence and was an astute businessman who owned and operated a multi-million dollar construction management company. Starting with the arrest and unsuccessful deportation proceedings, and leading to more intrigue, assassinations, and double-crosses, Winterhalder found his life spiraling further and further out of control.

Toronto: ECW Press, 2008.

By Paul Cherry

The Quebec-chartered “Nomad” chapter of the Hells Angels had two specific goals: to monopolize the Quebec drug trade; and to expand that trade across other parts of Canada. Their war against rival dealer gangs escalated to a boiling point, taking the lives of dozens of gangsters and innocent people as it played itself out openly on Montreal’s streets. Little did the Nomads know that at the height of achieving their goals, they would also be months away from a lengthy police investigation to shut them down. The trials that followed revealed seven years of conflict and murder initiated by Maurice “Mom” Boucher, the man who was at the epicentre of this war. One criminal trial in particular turned out to be one of the longest in Canadian history. It meant convincing a jury to accept the notion that a biker gang works on the same principle as a pirate ship — even the cook knows what their common goal is. The “biker trials” brought out informants on both sides of the conflict, who, for a variety of reasons had turned on the gangs they had previously sworn loyalty to. Their testimonies revealed the arrogance of the Nomads in their pursuit of a monopoly over Quebec’s illegal drug trade. Now, Cherry reveals the inside story of the biker culture and the biker trials.

Toronto: ECW Press, 2005.

By Thomas Barker

Biker Gangs and Organized Crime examines the reported criminal behavior of the entire spectrum of 1% biker clubs and members. It identifies the clubs whose members have been involved in criminal behavior and classifies their behaviors as individual, group, or club- sponsored/condoned behavior. While other books examine the criminal exploits of one or more of what are called the ''Big Five'' biker clubs because of their size and sophistication, or the sensational crimes of lesser known 1% biker clubs or club members, this book pays attention to the criminal activities of individuals, groups and chapters of other clubs as well. The book is based on journalistic accounts and autobiographies of former and present members of biker clubs, academic/scholarly works, law enforcement/government reports, articles from newspapers and biker websites, and a content analysis of federal and state court cases regarding bikers and motorcycle clubs.

Newark, NJ: Matthew Bender & Company, Inc., 2007. 198p.

By Klaus von Lampe and Arjan Blokland

Outlaw motorcycle clubs have spread across the globe. Their members have been associated with serious crime, and law enforcement often perceives them to be a form of organized crime. Outlaw bikers are disproportionately engaged in crime, but the role of the club itself in these crimes remains unclear. Three scenarios describe possible relations between clubs and the crimes of their members. In the “bad apple” scenario, members individually engage in crime; club membership may offer advantages in enabling and facilitating offending. In the “club within a club” scenario, members engage in crimes separate from the club, but because of the number of members involved, including high-ranking members, the club itself appears to be taking part. The club can be said to function as a criminal organization only when the formal organizational chain of command takes part in organization of the crime, lower level members regard senior members’ leadership in the crime as legitimate, and the crime is generally understood as “club business.” All three scenarios may play out simultaneously within one club with regard to different crimes.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020. 58p.

By Ross Coulthart and Duncan McNab

Telling the bloody, insider’s story of the international drug and weapons smuggling operations of the feared Bandidos gang, this chilling tale is the first time that an insider has told the true story of the bike gangs that dominate the drug and illegal weapons trade across the globe. For 10 years, Steve Utah was a Bandidos insider, a trusted confidante of senior bike gang members along the east coast of Australia. He arranged their security, cooked their drugs, and witnessed meetings in which overseas weapons smuggling was planned. Utah loved the wildness of the Bandido life and their contempt for the law, but as he plummeted deeper into the heart of the group, his life started to spiral out of control. He witnessed vicious beatings, helped dump corpses, and saw men executed in front of his eyes. In a desperate attempt to regain control of his life, he resorted to the unthinkable—he rolled over to the federal police and told them all he knew about the Bandidos. This shocking, unflinching, tragic story is his confession, and possibly his dying gasp, for he knows that inevitably the Bandido code will be honored and he will be silenced.

Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2008. 316p.

By Jerry Langton

You'll never meet the bikers in this book or visit the mythical rust belt city of Springfield. But through the eyes of Ned "Crash" Aiken, you will experience the real world of the outlaw biker gang-a world shaped by desperation, casual brutality and fascinating rites of passage. Biker follows the career trajectory of "Crash" from his days as a small-time high school drug dealer to his rapid rise through the ranks of a biker gang that is rapidly and brutally expanding its territory and criminal connections. Aiken's story relates how an outlaw biker sees his gang from the inside. It is an experience shaped by seamy and ruthless characters waging a never ending battle to establish their supremacy. From drug running and gun sales, to prostitution and allegiances forged by violence, this is a struggle played out within biker gangs the world over. And as the reader discovers in this intense docudrama, this is not the romantic freewheeling beer-fest version of the Hells Angels, but a sleazy existence that draws social outcasts like moths to a flame.

New York: Wiley, 2009. 256p.

By Thomas Barker

This brief covers the unique crime group of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs are adult criminal associations composed of “bikers” living a deviant lifestyle that includes individual, group, and club criminal behavior. These groups are sometimes called one percenters, due to the American Motorcycle Association statement that ninety-nine percent of motorcyclists are law abiding citizens. While many may be familiar with the reputation of the Hells' Angels, many may not realize the wide network of other Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs or the extent of their involvement in criminal activities. The brief includes a breakdown of the criminal networks and activities of these groups, which operate similarly to an organized crime group. It also covers the evolution of motorcycle clubs to motorcycle gangs. It examines the recent trend of American-based motorcycle gangs into international organized crime activities. This book will be of interest to researcher studying criminology, particularly organized crime and criminal networks, as well as international and comparative law and public policy.

Cham: Springer Nature, 2014. 58p.

By Mark Lauchs, Andy Bain, Peter Bell

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs are increasingly seen as a threat to communities around the world. They are a visible threat as a recognizable symbol of deviance and violence. This book discusses the social context within which Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and groups have emerged and the implication of labelling these groups as deviant and outlaw. There is no doubt that members of these clubs have been involved in serious criminal activity and this book explores whether gang and organised crime theory can effectively explain their criminal activities. Importantly, the book also assesses policing and political responses to the clubs' activities. It argues that there is an increasing need for national and international cooperation on the part of law enforcement agencies with various levels of government as well as the private sector. Importantly, the book offers suggestions for the best responses to the crimes committed by members of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs.

Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 113p.

Edited by Tereza Kuldova , Martín Sánchez-Jankowski

This edited collection offers in-depth essays on outlaw motorcycle clubs and street gangs. Written by sociologists, anthropologists and criminologists, it asks the question of how the self-proclaimed ‘outlaws’ integrate into society. While these groups may cultivate a deviant image, these original studies show that we should not let ourselves be deceived by appearances. These ‘outlaws’ are, paradoxically, well integrated into mainstream society. The essays read the relationship of these groups to the media, law enforcement and society through the lens of their strategies of ‘scheming legality’ and ‘resisting criminalization’. These reveal most strikingly how the knowledge of social codes, norms and mechanisms is put to use by these groups. This groundbreaking volume provides answers to previously understudied questions through well-researched case studies drawn from across Europe and the United States.

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. 234p.

By Dennis Rodgers, Robert Muggah, and Chris Stevenson

Violence is on the upswing in Central America, with the region currently exhibiting some of the highest rates of reported criminal violence in Latin America and indeed the world (Moser and McIlwaine, 2004). The recent Global Burden of Armed Violence report estimates the annual global homicide rate to be around 7.6 per 100,000, yet in the Americas the figure exceeds 20 per 100,000, and in Central America it is almost 30 per 100,000 (Geneva Declaration Secretariat, 2008). Not surprisingly, perhaps, homicide is described as one of the primary regional public health issues (WHO, 2008a; Briceño-León, 2005, p. 1629). Many factors have shaped this particular panorama of violence, which is both heterogeneous and dynamic. The World Bank, for example, attributes the rise in Central American violence to ‘a complex set of factors, including rapid urbanization, persistent poverty and inequality, social exclusion, political violence, organized crime, post-conflict cultures, the emergence of illegal drug use and trafficking and authoritarian family structures’ (World Bank, 2008a, p. 3).S

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  The UN Office on Drugs and Crime, for its part, emphasizes the role of geography and weak institutions as aggravating rates of violence; with almost 90 per cent of the United States’ cocaine supply inevitably passing through weak Central American states from Andean production centres, it is little wonder that organized crime violence is deeply entrenched (UNODC, 2008, p. 38). Most of this regional violence tends to be perpetrated and experienced among young men between 15 and 34 years of age.1 These statistics are not necessarily surprising considering that the most prominent aspect of the new landscape of Central American violence is the gang phenomenon. Although gangs have long been a feature of Central American societies, they have come to the fore in the region in an unprecedented manner since the early 1990s.2 Estimates of the total proportion of contemporary regional violence attributable to gangs vary widely—from 10 to 60 per cent3 —as they have been accused of a whole slew of crimes and delinquency, ranging from mugging, theft, and intimidation to rape, assault, and drug dealing. There have even been attempts to link them to revolution and global terrorism. A 2005 US Army War College publication, for example, contends that Central American gangs constitute a ‘new urban insurgency’ that has as ultimate objective ‘to depose or control the governments of targeted countries’ through ‘coups d’street’ (Manwaring, 2005; 2006).4 Along similar lines, Anne Aguilera, head of the Central America office of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs branch of the US State Department, asserted in an interview published in the Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Gráfica on 8 April 2005 that gangs were ‘the greatest problem for national security at this time in Central America’ (Bruneau, 2005). Although gangs are unquestionably a significant contemporary concern in the region, such sensationalist pronouncements suggest that they remain profoundly misunderstood.5 The purpose of this Occasional Paper is to debunk some of these myths and present a balanced assessment of the causes, costs, and interventions relating to Central American gang violence.

Geneva: Small Arms Survey, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, 2009. 44p.

By Michael Lohmuller

This paper examines the relevance of prevailing gang paradigms as it relates to the case of El Salvador. It is particularly concerned with the concept of ‘Third Generation Gangs,’ which holds that Salvadoran street gangs are becoming sophisticated political actors seeking to maintain an international reach, and are increasingly capable of confronting the state. El Salvador is in the midst of a violent upheaval. In 2012, El Salvador’s two main street gangs signed a truce, which was tacitly endorsed and facilitated by the government. However, following the breakdown of the truce, violence in El Salvador has rapidly escalated, with the gangs increasingly targeting security forces. This paper discusses whether this rising violence is indicative of the gangs’ collective maturation process into a ‘Third Generation Gang,’ or, alternatively, if autonomous spasms of violence by individual gang factions as a means of self-preservation are being misinterpreted as a collective maturation process.

Washington, DC: Insight Crime, 2015. 31p;.

By Douglas Farah and kathryn Babineau

The Mara Salvatrucha (MS 13) gang is now a tier one criminal, political, military and economic threat in the Northern Triangle.1 While it employs differing strategies from country to country, the organization nonetheless competes with – and often defeats – the state in important theaters of operation. The evolution was described by one gang expert in El Salvador as moving from “gangsters to political conspirators,” visible in the spikes in gang-driven homicide rates (up to 40 a day when necessary) when the gangs are seeking to pressure the government for concessions on key issues. This study focuses on the MS 13 in Honduras and El Salvador, where it represents an existential threat to the viability of the state. In both countries, the gang has achieved new levels of power and sophistication, via increased revenues from its control of multiple steps in the cocaine supply chain. Now, the MS 13 is not solely involved in transporting cocaine; it also unloads shipments arriving by air from Venezuela and in Honduras runs laboratories that transform coca paste – mostly from Colombia - to hydrochloric acid (HCl).2

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  While Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia absorb the vast majority of the U.S. attention and resources paid to the Western Hemisphere, the evolution of the MS 13 poses a challenge that could greatly weaken the security of the U.S. southern border. The threat is at least as complex and real as those posed by structures in Mexico and the United States, and far harder to overcome due to the lack of political will and functioning institutions in the Northern Triangle. In order to successfully meet this challenge from the next generation MS 13, the United States and its limited number of reliable allies in the region must adopt a new and different strategy that treats the organization as a fully functional transnational organized crime (TOC) group with increasingly strong political components.

Washington, DC: William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, 2018. 32p.

By Luciana Vosnick

This research examines and compares how humanitarian and peacebuilding organizations approach engagement with street gangs in North and Latin America for risk management purposes. Drawing from multiple semi-structured interviews with humanitarian and peacebuilding organizations, the study demonstrates that humanitarians and peacebuilders adopt either a risk mitigation or risk prevention approach when engaging with street gangs. Such risk management strategies are informed both by the organizations’ mission and by the normative lenses they adopt when looking at gangs. The research shows that the prevention and mitigation dichotomy responds to a perception of gangs being either a static source of violence to be contained or a social entity capable of change and transformation. Such lenses contribute to creating the framework through which organizations work because they influence how these organizations perceive risk and, as a result, affect how they manage risk on the tactical level.

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  The research results demonstrate that these distinct strategies produce very different outcomes. For instance, a risk mitigation approach produces an apolitical, neutral relationship with gangs that might benefit organizations with a strategic objective centered on delivering immediate, short-term emergency aid. In comparison, a risk prevention approach embodies a more robust engagement with gangs, leading to a higher level of interpersonal trust that might be beneficial for organizations aiming to implement long-term development or violence reduction programs. The research shows that each risk management strategy carries consequences because it affects an organization’s ability to implement programs successfully. The study concludes by offering practical suggestions to charitable organizations seeking to engage with street gangs in violent urban contexts.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Division of Continuing Education, 2022. 71p.

By Mark Freeman and Vanda Felbab-Brown

Negotiations with violent criminal groups – such as mafias, cartels, gangs and pirates – occur more often than imagined. This publication, grounded in more than three years of in-depth IFIT research and dozens of first-person interviews conducted with actual negotiators, offers key lessons drawn from the most diverse set of negotiations with violent criminal groups ever examined in one place. One of the prominent discoveries of this study – which centres on negotiations intended to reduce or end violence – is how the best of theory and practice regarding peace talks with militant groups (and associated areas such as transitional justice) appears largely absent from consideration or application in talks with violent criminal groups. The gap is striking and counterproductive, but also heralds an opportunity to achieve greater results in future. Another key discovery relates to the endgame of the negotiation. With militant groups, the point of negotiations is typically to end the use of organised political violence, by exchanging disarmament (and/or incorporation into the army) for some form of political empowerment and rehabilitation. With violent criminal groups, the endgame is harder to pin down, because their motivations are understood to be mainly pecuniary, leaving it unclear what they could transform into. However, the examined cases suggest that the challenge is surmountable – and under a surprising variety of conditions.

Barcelona: Institute for Integrated Transitions, 2021.

By Teun van Ruitenburg and Arjan Blokland

The Netherlands is known as one of the pioneering countries adopting a whole-of-government approach to fighting organised crime. In 2012, the Dutch government launched a similar multi-agency approach to tackle outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs). This paper provides a brief overview of the problem of OMCGs in the Netherlands and describes the different aspects of the Dutch whole-of-government approach. After reflecting on these efforts, we conclude that little is yet known about the effectiveness of this whole-of government approach to OMCG crime.

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2022. 15p.

By Anna Applebaum and Briana Mawby

Gang violence is most often considered a criminal rather than a conflict issue, which limits the international community’s willingness to mitigate the conflict or provide humanitarian aid. However, the disruption of daily life caused by widespread gang violence is increasingly similar to experiences of war, including limited freedom of movement and high numbers of civilian casualties. High levels of violence lead to significant migration flows and displacement, as has been seen in individuals fleeing from Syria to Europe and from Central America’s Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) to the United States. This note, which focuses on El Salvador, highlights the scale and nature of gang violence and points to the ways in which the Women, Peace, and Security agenda can help to strengthen prevention and responses.

Washington, DC: Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security,2018. 8p.

By Pamela Ruiz

Government officials in northern Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras) claim the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 are primarily responsible for violence in their countries. These gangs have been identified to exert violence, extortion rackets, and confront security forces that enter gang-controlled communities (Seelke, 2014; Natarajan et al, 2015; International Crisis Group, 2017; Servicio Social Pasionista (SSPAS), 2017; Insight Crime and Asociación para una Sociedad mas Justa (ASJ) [Association for a more Just Society] 2016, Arce, 2015). But exactly how do gangs contribute to violence and extortion rackets in these countries? What are the differences, if any, on how the gangs commit these crimes in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador? This working paper discusses the complex violence dynamics in northern Central America and argues that a chronic deficiency in data, weak rule of law, and impunity exacerbate insecurity in these countries. The Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 originated in Los Angeles, California and are now present throughout the United States, northern Central America, Spain, and Italy (Franco, 2008; Valdez, 2009; Seelke, 2016; Valencia, 2016; Finklea, 2018; Dudley & Avalos, 2018). Barrio 18 was formed in the 1960s by mixed-race Mexican, and MS-13 was formed in latter 1980s by Salvadorans who fled the civil war (Franco, 2008; Valdez, 2009; Seelke, 2016; Wolf, 2012). Some scholars argue gang culture was exported when individuals with criminal records were deported to their country of origin, while other scholars argue voluntary migration contributed to gangs’ presence in northern Central America (Arana, 2005; Franco, 2008; Seelke, 2016; Cruz, 2010). It is imperative to clarify that a criminal removal from the United States is not synonymous, nor does it imply a perfect correlation with a gang member being removed .

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  Nonetheless, these gangs have become major security concerns in northern Central America. This study examined the concentration of crimes often attributed exclusively to gangs (homicides, extortion, and confrontations) using administrative data from the Salvadoran National Civilian Police, Honduran Prosecutor’s Office, and Guatemalan National Civilian Police. Interviews with subject matter experts supplemented the quantitative analysis to gain further understanding of violence dynamics per country. This paper follows with a literature review on homicides, extortion, and confrontations trends in northern Central America, a methodology section, results, and a discussion.

Miami: Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University, 2022. 31p.