Preventing organised crime originating from outlaw motorcycle clubs

Abstract

How can a holistic model of crime prevention be applied to crime originating from outlaw motorcycle clubs? The police in different countries and even in different police districts have varied considerably in the ways they have dealt with these outlaw MC clubs and the criminal activities associated with them. Some police forces have mainly applied a repressive criminal justice approach whereas others have put more emphasis on dialogue, prevention and harm reduction. This article will argue for a comprehensive approach which combines “soft” and “hard” measures, based on a holistic model of crime prevention developed in my previous works (Bjørgo 2013, 2016), based on nine preventive mechanisms. Several preventive actors beyond the police possess a variety of measures which can be implemented to activate these preventive mechanisms. Such a holistic approach reduces the need to rely on repressive approaches alone. Most of the examples in this article are from Norway and Denmark.