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Banning the Biker Gangs: Examining the Effects of Civil Bans on the Dutch Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Subculture and Their Members’ Criminal Careers
Thu, September 4, 2:30 to 3:45pm, Deree | Classrooms, DC 502Abstract
In 2012, the Dutch government launched a whole-of-government approach to address outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) and their individual members, consisting of a combination of criminal law and administrative law measures. More recently, a series of civil bans were successfully requested by the Public Prosecutor’s Office that affected some of the major and arguably most notorious OMCGs in the Netherlands, including Hells Angels MC, Satudarah MC, and Bandidos MC. While the civil bans are announced as a triumph in the fight against OMCG crime, the effectiveness of these bans on the members’ criminal behavior has yet to be ascertained.
To evaluate the impact of the civil bans on Dutch OMCGs and their members criminal behavior, a mixed method study was recently conducted, including interviews with professionals and OMCG members. Furthermore, the criminal careers of OMCG members subjected to a civil ban, OMCG members not subjected to a civil ban, and Dutch adult male motorcycle owners not affiliated to a Dutch OMCG were reconstructed. A quasi-experimental study design was used to examine the effects of the civil bans on the criminal careers of the three differentiated groups. In this presentation, the results of this mixed-method study will be discussed by showing the impact of the civil bans on (1) the OMCG subculture as a whole (e.g., visibility, club hopping, upsurge of new OMCGs), (2) in preventing different types of OMCG crime, and (3) the lessons that can be learned for addressing other criminal groups involved in serious and organized crime.