Biker gangs, also known as outlaw motorcycle gangs, are close-knit factions of motorcyclists connected by collective attributes such as deviant subcultural values and norms; a core, hierarchical leadership structure; regulations for joining and successfully maintaining full membership status; an established moniker and other shared trademarks that denote membership (e.g., vests, patches, colors, and mottos); a chosen locale and clubhouse; and a significant, persistent integration of criminal activity into the group through the actions of its members and/or leaders. These enigmatic organizations are interwoven with subcultural norms emphasizing hypermasculinity, unruliness, and a tendency toward violence and other crime that sets them apart from law-abiding motorcyclists and conventional society. As a result of their unique subculture and makeup, biker gangs occupy a distinctive niche within the universe of gang folklore and organized criminal syndicates. Although biker gangs conduct themselves in a clandestine manner, their criminal enterprise has attracted ongoing attention from law enforcement agencies and sparked a degree of allure within popular culture and the media. This article discusses general characteristics of outlaw biker gangs, including their prevalence, norms and values, composition, and offending patterns.
Biker Gang Prevalence
Millions of people in the United States own motorcycles and represent a demographic mosaic fused together by people from nearly every background and social class. Whether motorcycles are used as a method of transportation or function as a leisure activity, virtually all riders and their respective associations or clubs behave in a manner consistent with the law. As a result, outlaw biker gangs emphasize the social and ethical chasms that separate them from nondelinquent motorcycle groups and hobbyists. While deviant bikers and groups comprise a small share of motorcyclists in general, an even narrower sliver of riders may become entrenched within particularly illicit organizations that colloquially refer to themselves as one percenters; this term embodies the rider adage that 99% of motorcyclists follow the law, while an extremely narrow minority of riders become deeply embedded within antisocial clubs steeped in crime and delinquency.
Influential biker gangs include the Hells Angels, the Mongols, the Bandidos, the Outlaws, the Sons of Silence, the Vagos, the Pagan’s, and the Iron Horsemen. The reach of biker gangs is extended by a network of auxiliary motorcycle clubs (also known as puppet, satellite, or sponsor clubs), which visibly align themselves with biker gangs that can range from shared social events and displaying the gang’s colors to assisting with illegal activities. The National Gang Intelligence Center estimates that as of 2011, a combination of 3,000 outlaw biker gangs and auxiliary motorcycle clubs preside over roughly 44,000 members checkered throughout the United States, with at least 300 organizations solely comprised of one percenters. In addition to maintaining dominion over an array of illicit domestic operations, several one-percenter biker gangs have achieved international ascendency through black market transactions and violent campaigns in nations such as Canada, Australia, and Mexico and throughout Europe. Outlaw biker gangs have also been known to work with other criminal organizations to facilitate their criminal activities, including domestic street and prison gangs and international drug trafficking organizations.
Biker Gang Subculture
Aside from a common desire to build fraternal social networks, the subculture of individual motorcycle associations and clubs can vary across several dimensions, including the intensity of group membership, the group’s divergence from mainstream, middle-class social standards and goals, and their participation in and endorsement of illegal activities. Scholars James F. Quinn and Craig J. Forsyth note that one-percenter biker gangs tend to prize the archetypal image of a rugged, hardened outlaw living a nomadic existence on the road and on the fringes of society. For individuals in outlaw biker gangs, riding a motorcycle is not simply a pastime; due to the considerable demands implicit in biker gang membership, one percenters can become enmeshed with their chosen clubs, integrating the club and its ideals into fundamental aspects of their identity, social relationships, and worldview. This devotion is solidified through various social decrees from the gang, and, in some cases, an extensive constitution outlining member responsibilities and behaviors subject to sanctions. Club meetings are colloquially referred to as church to highlight their importance, and members may be penalized for poor attendance; members are generally expected to pay club dues, attend club events, and frequently ride their motorcycle.
Coupled with the devotion of biker gang membership, the more antagonistic aspects of biker gang subculture can give way to deviant behaviors. For instance, in the social nexus associated with outlaw biker gangs, the concept of respect is a fundamental social currency that is regulated through the threat or use of violence. Countless social affronts are encapsulated within the outlaw biker gang value of respect, and if the behavior of any entity (e.g., a rival gang, a civilian, or a fellow gang member) is interpreted as offensive to the gang, it must be redressed through retribution that can escalate to the point of bloodshed. In the context of biker gang rivalries, the pursuit of respect can be a deadly powder keg and amplify intergroup conflicts, creating an ongoing cycle of violence.
Biker Gang Composition
Membership
The overarching theme within the membership base of outlaw biker gangs is one of sameness across race, gender, and motorcycle model. During the late 1940s, outlaw motorcycle gangs were geared toward White male Harley Davidson riders over the age of 21, a trend that has endured. Concentrated racial exclusion prompted the emergence of gangs that permit racial and ethnic minorities, such as the Mongols, who accommodate Hispanic and Latino one percenters, and the Wheels of Soul who accept Black riders. In addition, biker gangs have always been male focused and block women from club business and formal membership, treating them as subservient objects subject to sexual harassment and violence such as running a train (i.e., engaging in a succession of sexual acts with various group members). Women formally recognized by the gang as romantically partnered with a male member are referred to as an Ol’ Lady and are deemed his property, which may sometimes be explicitly stated through a worn patch.
Beyond basic demographic requirements and appropriate motorcycle ownership, it is an extremely difficult undertaking to gain biker gang membership. The process can range from months to years, as membership status is progressively earned by incrementally engaging the gang as a hang-around or prospect, whereby the applicant demonstrates devotion through grunt work. Once approved by the group’s leaders and members, the applicant is formally acknowledged or patched in through an initiation ritual and is given full member patches and a vest. Similar to other gang typologies, some of the induction rituals of biker gangs can be viewed as unpleasant to outsiders, such as having their vest sullied by the bodily fluids of other members prior to wearing it for the first time.
Leadership and Organization
Biker gangs are usually governed by a paramilitary-style, hierarchical chain of command, including national and local chapter positions such as a President, Vice President, Road Captain, Sergeant at Arms, and Secretary/Treasurer controlled through a membership vote. Individual, local chapters tend to be relatively autonomous but are still beholden to a centralized, nationally based leadership body that sets the club’s overarching regulations. At the chapter level, leaders generally preside over the more regimented aspects of biker gang membership and maintain the businesslike aspects of the group, such as enforcing the club’s constitution, collecting dues and stewarding the club’s finances, and tracking club meeting participation. Chapter leaders also guide more systemic forms of illegal enterprise such as weapon and/or drug transactions, direct retaliation against rivals, and mete out punishment to members who violate the gang’s protocols. The adoption of paramilitary organizational practices among biker gangs is not entirely surprising, as the founding members of several major outlaw biker gangs were formerly enlisted in the military, and an undetermined amount of contemporary biker gang members have military backgrounds.
Biker Gang Criminality
Collectively, outlaw biker gangs have amassed public and legal notoriety for their enduring participation in contraband distribution, burglary, theft and other property crime, financial fraud, money laundering, prostitution and human trafficking, gambling rings, and both reactive and instrumental forms of violence, ranging from intimidation and assault to homicide. Although one-percenter biker gangs cumulatively engage in a wide assortment of offending, their criminality can be quite complex and multifaceted, as individual chapters and their associated auxiliary clubs can vary in terms of the depth and sophistication of their organizational involvement in crime. Furthermore, due to the inherent social hierarchy of biker gangs, particularly incendiary, antisocial leaders can rapidly steer the gang toward egregious forms of delinquency.
Analogous to other types of gangs and criminal syndicates, precise estimates of biker gang criminality have been limited by difficulties gaining access to biker gangs and data tabulation and sharing procedures for gang-related crime data. Offenses attributed to outlaw biker gangs can range from hostile, expressive crimes, such as spontaneous aggression in response to an affront, to instrumental and goal-oriented crimes relating to underground markets. Expressive motives occur more commonly in social settings and gatherings (e.g., bars), as these contexts can produce situational conflicts based on machismo, disrespect, and/or the presence of rivals that produce anger and can rapidly escalate into serious, potentially lethal altercations; these conflicts may be spontaneous and isolated but can also be premeditated, such as a planned attack against rivals based on prior clashes. Instrumental offending focuses on generating capital and includes activities such as the production and/or circulation of drugs and weapons, stealing, and prostitution and can also drive conflicts between rival gangs, such as violent disputes over territory linked to illegal operations.
Outlaw biker gangs continue to pose difficulties for law enforcement agencies, as these groups continue to evolve to evade detection. Biker gangs have also been notoriously difficult to litigate, as the deep-seated loyalty and allegiance of biker gangs serves as a barrier against legal intervention. Prolific members, such as the Hells Angels’ founder Sonny Barger and former Mongol president Ruben “Doc” Cavazos, have only been prosecuted through the Racketeer Influence Corrupt Organizations Act, which allows ringleaders to be held criminally liable for instructing their subordinates to conduct illegal activities, even if they do not participate themselves. However, Racketeer Influence Corrupt Organizations and other criminal litigation have seen mixed success when applied to biker gangs. Furthermore, the modus operandi of modern biker gangs has shifted toward increased subtlety and no longer publicly identify themselves through worn clothing to evade law enforcement and preserve their criminal enterprises. To this end, some biker gangs, such as the Hells Angels, are outwardly insistent that their organizations are prosocial fraternal groups and have attempted to reshape their scandalous public image through charitable activities and a positive social media presence.
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