Alt-right Gangs: Are White Power Prison Groups Cut from the Same Cloth as Conventional Prison Gangs?

• In Event: Pulling Back the Curtain on Gangs in American and Canadian Prisons

Abstract

Despite decades of research examining gangs and gang members, individuals who affiliate with white power/Alt-Right groups remains grossly understudied, leaving policymakers and practitioners with no firm knowledge base from which to build a response. While the traditional criminological literature places groups with white power leanings outside the realm of gang research, more recent work has criticized such ad hoc distinctions as being unsupported and anachronistic. The current study tests this distinction—that Alt-Right groups are not gangs—directly. We examine the differences/similarities in risk factors for prison gang membership across four categories of gang members: gang members in Alt-Right designated gangs, white gang members in other gangs that do not identify as Alt-Right, black gang members and Hispanic/Latino gang members. Our comparisons across these four categories are at the individual- and group-level. Our analyses utilize self-report data collected from inmates in the LoneStar Project from the state of Texas. While white power groups have traditionally been excluded by gang researchers from their studies, our findings suggest that Alt-Right gang members are in fact not as disparate as portrayed in conventional gang studies. This study fills a critical gap in the literature as concerns around membership in Alt-Right gangs increases.

Authors

• Matthew Valasik, Louisiana State University

• Shannon Reid, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• David Pyrooz, University of Colorado Boulder

• Scott Decker, Arizona State University

• Jennifer Tostlebe, University of Colorado Boulder