Description
Book SynopsisAlt-Right Gangs provides a timely and necessary discussion of youth-oriented groups within the white power movement. Focusing on how these groups fit into the current research on street gangs, Shannon E. Reid and Matthew Valasik catalog the myths and realities around alt-right gangs and their members; illustrate how they use music, social media, space, and violence; and document the risk factors for joining an alt-right gang, as well as the mechanisms for leaving. By presenting a way to understand the growth, influence, and everyday operations of these groups, Alt-Right Gangs informs students, researchers, law enforcement members, and policy makers on this complex subject. Most significantly, the authors offer an extensively evaluated set of prevention and intervention strategies that can be incorporated into existing anti-gang initiatives. With a clear, coherent point of view, this book offers a contemporary synthesis that will appeal to students and scholars alike.
Trade Review"The work serves as a primer on the movement to the uninitiated, giving explanations of the ubiquitous alt-right memes that proliferate online as well as covering the cultural symbols, music, and clothing embraced by the Proud Boys and other groups. Using their background in gang research, Reid and Valasik provide law enforcement and policymakers with practical solutions on monitoring and tracking alt-right groups. . . . An important addition to the limited scholarship on the alt-right." * Kirkus Reviews *
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Alt-Right Gangs has considerable value as a contemporary synthesis that demystifies these groups for scholars, policy makers, and students alike and can be used in both undergraduate and graduate education." * Social Forces *
"Extremely timely and astute. . . . A greatly needed primer on alt-right gangs and wider white power youth movements."
* Ethnic and Racial Studies *
"Valasik and Reid present knowledgeable research to the reader that is easily understood and digested.
Alt-Right Gangs can and should be used by policymakers, law enforcement officials, and everyday Americans to understand the growing problem posed by the white power movement in America." * The Topline Blog *
"This volume…is of value in rounding out the complicated picture of young white supremacists, in community, turning to rhetorical and physical violence." * Religious Studies Review *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Dilemma of Definitions and Categorizations
2. Myths and Realities Surrounding Alt-Right Gangs
3. Alt-Right Gangs' Broken Toys: Risk Factors for Membership and Gang Formation
4. Identity and Ideology: Music, Culture, and "Hitler Stuff"
5. Alt-Right Gangs' Use of Space
6. The Leaderless Resistance of Online Memes and Hate
7. Criminality and Violence
8. The Alt-Reich in the Twenty-First Century: Dealing with "The Upside Down"
Appendix: Operationalizing the Alt-Right Gang Definition
References
Index
