Sociology
Outlaw motorcycle gangs have gained remarkable attention at the national and international level in the recent years. The problem of the motorcycle gang is, however, growing and pervasive (Bennett, and Hess, 2006). They are posing serious threats to the societies and more and more people are concerned about controlling this problem with the imposition of the rules and regulations. Further, an increase in involvement of individuals in the such criminal activities that are connected with the gangs have influenced the law enforcing bodies, and officials in order to take strict measures for controlling the involvement of the organized gangs in the crime (Mallory, 2011). In the countries such as United States, Australia, and Canada people, through their common sense are helping the law enforcing bodies to maintain law and order.
According to the Australian Crime Commission, the outlaw motorcycle gangs are among those components that are identical in the landscape of the criminal activities in Australia (Prenzler, 2012). Further, the commission has indicated the fact that the outlaw motorcycle gangs are active in all the territories and states, among them 44 are in the list of main interest, having 179 chapters and 4483 members. According to the ABC news (2013), the most notable motorcycle gangs in Australia are Rebels, Bandidos, Hells Angels, Lone Wolf, and Comancheros. The Rabel gang is enjoying greater membership of about 25% of the total gangs Bandidos comprise of 7%, the Hells Angels have 6%, Lone Wolf and Comancheros have 5%. However, according to the Australian Crime Commission, about 48% increase is observed in the chapters of outlaw motorcycle gangs since the year 2007. The names of other prominent gangs are Roch Machine, Gypsy Jokers, Black Uhlans, Satan’s Soldiers, Coffin Cheaters, and Devil's Henchmen etc.
Moreover, the outlaw motorcycle gangs are involved in many crimes such as prostitution, and, in fact prostitution is the second major source of income for them, the first being narcotics. Further, such gangs are also involved in the money laundering activities. They are laundering the money via the legitimate business sources (Grennan, 2000). In Australia, the outlaw motorcycle gang members are involved in the money laundering activities through the ventures of real estate throughout the country, which is upsetting the residents, so the law enforcing bodies are trying for law and order through the general public’s commonsense, as more and more people are becoming aware of these gangs. Furthermore, the outlaw motorcycle gangs are also involved in the motorcycle theft due to which citizens have to face difficulties (Hooper, and Moore, 1983). However, in the case the crime severity ranges from the sale of the stolen parts of the motorcycle to the re-documentation, and even selling the entire bike.
However, several chapters comprise of well developed outlets in order to dispose the stolen parts of the motorcycle, and even most have their own shops dealing with the repair of the motorcycles. Recent examples of this fact are Tennessee shipping the motorcycle parts and even entire motorcycles to the chapters located in Australia. In short, manufacturing, distribution, extortion, murder, pornography, loan sharking, frauds, money laundering, stealing vehicles, arson for hiring, obstruction of fairness and justice, and the violations related to the laws of weapons are all the activities in which outlaw motorcycle gangs are involved. This is quite an alarming situation. The members of gangs are thriving on the profits that are reaped illegally by indulging in the criminal activities and enterprises.
Additionally, the officers responsible for enforcement of law are conducting the investigations of these gangs, and have declared that these gangs are posing serious criminal problems and threats. Furthermore, the people are also concerned about the enforcement of the law and order due to the fact that the members of the motorcycle gang are accepting the murder of contacts. The people recognize the fact that if such activities continue, then their survival will become difficult, so with the help of the commonsense they are also collaborating with the law agencies and police agencies in order to combat such gangs from the society. If the recent scenario is considered, then the number of people murdered is increasing day by day. So, there is a need of the in depth knowledge and understanding of the group behavior because of the violations that are committed by the motorcycle gang members (Clinard, and Meier, 2008). For ensuring effective gang investigations, the law enforcement bodies or agencies must the resources to the analysis of intelligence, as well as they should also understand the characteristics and the structure of the motorcycle gang.
A more persistent problem is that the police have no control over such activities before their occurrence, they are difficult to deal with until they actually occur. Further, such criminal actions in many countries have paved the way to the actions of the citizens against the presence of the gangs in the community. Even there are cases in Queensland, the citizens themselves have taken action by the country and the city boards, through their common sense, and they have dealt with the cases with which the police was afraid to deal with. Furthermore, the high degree of the mobility associated with the outlaw motorcycle gangs is hindering the process of the police agencies for keeping the track and sorting out the complex procedure and activities of criminal gangs and their members (Larson, and Garrett, 1996). The members of such gangs attend the funerals and rallies in several parts of the country, and making the identification process difficult for the police.
The gatherings, however, also provide the chances to the members of the gang to increase their criminal activities, and to increase their social network (Veno and Gannon, 2009). However, the connections among members of different gangs are used to extend and perpetuate the contraband flow and other acts leading to crimes. Moreover, the mobility of the individuals that are connected with the outlaw motorcycle gangs is also properly documented in the files of police. There are some gangs that have formed certain chapters known as nomads, in which the members or the individuals do not belong to the clubs that are based on a particular city, instead they are the members of the transient chapters.
Further, with the enhancement in the competence level of crimes, the gangs are becoming involved in the sophisticated crimes. This can be analyzed with the fact that the gangs that are solidifying their status and ranks in order to form a criminal network at the national level in Australia. Further, In Queensland such gangs give a name of the new mafia, because some of the members associated with this gang become involved in the business of drugs and the prostitutions by developing connections with the business that provide dating services and photo and art studios (Finckenauer, 2007). The authorities have acknowledged and identified many gangs oriented, and gang dominated networks dealing with the crimes such as stolen property, narcotics, firearms and harboring of the fugitives.
The law enforcement authorities are facing numerous problems in controlling these categories of gangs and the diversity and the nature of the criminal enterprises that are associated with members of gangs are now imposing tax on the resources that impose law. Further, the outlaw members of the gang are also challenging the dominant features of the societies, they are adopting overt actions and are breaking the value system of the community or society (Bangerten, 2010). So, the law enforcement officials should consider the behavior and the characteristics of the motorcycle gangs.
The government of Australia is playing an important role in this regard. Since, the crimes are heating up at an increasing rate, so the government is fully supporting the Australian agencies and they are at high alert as well as the politicians are also lobbying for the tougher laws in order to fight with such biker gangs. Furthermore, considering the severity of this problem law and order common sense has also been produced in public and media discourse. The Government of Australia is modifying laws for controlling these kind of activities and are also creating awareness among people, so that they remain protected from becoming victim of such gangs. For example The government agencies are also playing an effective role in spreading the information about such gangs via country’s top newspapers and magazines. So, this is helping to develop a common sense in the individuals to keep an eye on such gangs and support the law enforcing bodies in regulating law and order in the country.
Furthermore, the outlaws in America known as an American Outlaw Association are regarded as violet among all the outlaw motorcycle gangs prevailing in the country. Every outlaw chapter work independently, with just the sporadic input by the regional and the national officers, particularly in the area dealing with a drug distribution (Liddick, 2004). Furthermore, the outlaws members are more mobile and fast in the membership of their chapter, as they keeps on transferring their membership from one chapter to the other as compared to any other major gang involved in the outlaw motorcycle crimes.
Moreover, if South Australia is considered then the country is also very active in producing law and order through the public common sense. For example, the country has passed the Anti-fortification or Statutes Amendment Act in order to prevent the construction of the headquarters of outlaw motorcycle gang and for allowing the police to knock down the remaining fortifications, and this was developed by the suggestions put forward by the general public (Spoehr, 2005).
Australia has also passed the world’s toughest anti-bike laws and also introduced Serious and Organized Crime Act for controlling the motorcycle gang crimes (Shanty, and Mishra, 2008). The major highlights of these acts are that the members of the gang who are involved in the acts that cause violence, intimidate and threaten the public and found guilty of the crime, will find it difficult to get the bail. It is also mentioned in the act that the police have authority to prohibit the bike gang members from attending a place, event or the area where they can pose serious threat to the public. Further, according to the act new criminal law is introduced that will help in the prohibition of the telephone calls and the meetings in a flesh, stalking of an individual with the intention of victim intimidation, court official, witness, public servant or the police officer is a serious crime, imprisonment for the time period of 2 years, in case of a violent act, for 7 years in case of riot, 10 years in case of aggravated riot, 3 years in case of affray, 5 years in case of aggravated affray, 7 years in case of stalking the public officials is also suggested by the law (Bronitt, McSherry, Weeks, and Tomlin, 2010).
Furthermore, the Police in South Australia has devised a Serious Organized Crime Strategy whose major principles are to prevent the community from the harm by disabling and reducing the serious operations of the organized crimes (Mackenzie, and Hamilton-Smith, 2011). The serious crimes can, however, be disabled by increasing the risk and the cost to the individuals and the criminal enterprises. According to this strategy, the operations of the police are based on the intelligence and knowledge, and the operations are justified by the model of target selection and the operations will be assessed continuously. Further, the strategy has emphasized that the operation tactics will amalgamate the innovative and the traditional approaches.
Additionally, if the Utilitarianism approach is considered, then, according to John Stuart Mill, the quantity of happiness is the main focus, and not the quality of pleasure. So, the people involved in the outlaw motorcycle gangs want to derive maximum happiness, and so they indulge themselves in such kind of activities, so that they become rich by getting illegal wealth and maximize their utility that will help them to maximize the happiness.
Further, the outcomes of operations will be increased by engaging the staff and making partnerships at the national as well as at local levels, and active measures will be adopted in order to improve the operational capability. However, there are perspective that the outlaw motorcycle gangs will continue to move in the legitimate business world because they persuade the public about their new image, and they seek novel avenues for laundering the money. The violence and the war will also continue because the gangs try to expand their operations in the new countries, new places and new territories, and the enforcement bodies and agencies will continue to interrupt and stop their operations.
References
Bennett, Wayne., and Hess, Karen. 2006. Criminal Investigation, Cengage Learning: Stamford
Mackenzie, Simon., and Niall Hamilton-Smith, (2011) "Measuring Police Impact of Organized Crime: Performance Management and Harm Reduction", Policing, An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 34 (1), pp. 7 – 30
Bronitt, Simon., McSherry, Bernadette., Weeks, Lara., and Tomlin, Nicola. 2010. Principles of Criminal Law, Thomson Reuters Australia, Limited: Australia
Spoeher, John. 2005. State of South Australia, Wakefield Press: South Australia
Grennan, Sean. 2000. Gangs: An International Approach, Prentice Hall: New Jersey
Mallory, Stephen L. 2011. Understanding Organized Crime, Jones & Bartlett Publishers: Sudbury
Shanty, Frank., and Mishra, Patit Paban. 2008. Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, Inc: California
Finckenauer, James O. 2008. Mafia and Organized Crime: A Beginner's Guide, OneWorld Publications: England
Hooper, Columbus B., and Moore, Johnny. 1983. Hell on Wheels: The Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, Journal of American Culture, 6 (2), pp. 58-64
Clinard, Marshall B. and Meier, Robert F. 2008. Sociology of Deviant Behavior. Thomson Learning, Inc: California
Veno, Arthur., and Gannon Ed. 2009. The Brotherhoods: Inside the Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs. Allen & Unwin: New South Wales
Larson, Calvin J., and Garrett, Gerald R. 1996. Crime, Justice and Society. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc: Lanham
Liddick, Don. 2004. The Global Underworld: Transnational Crime and the United State, Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, Connecticut
Bangerten, Olivier. 2010. Territorial gangs and their consequence for humanitarian Players. International Review Of Red Cross, 92(878), pp. 387-406
Prenzler, Tim. (2012). Policing and Security in Practice: Challenges and Achievements, Palgrave Macmillan Publishers Limited, New York
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-04/bikie-gangs-by-colours/4999510 (Accessed: 24 May 2014)
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