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University of California Press

About the Book

Alt-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.

About the Author

Shannon E. Reid is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Matthew Valasik is Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama.

From Our Blog

White & Proud: Alt-Right Gangs in Today’s White Power Movement

This guest post is part of our ASC blog series published in conjunction with the meeting of the American Society of Criminology in San Francisco, CA, November 13-16.By Shannon E. Reid and Matthew Valasik, authors of Alt-Right Gangs: A Hazy Shade of White (forthcoming, Fall 2020)The p
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Table of Contents

List 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

Reviews

"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
"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
"An accessible discussion of contemporary alt-right groups that situates them in today’s political and cultural context. By drawing parallels between these groups and traditional street gangs, the authors are able to discuss risk and protective factors that are outside ideology, tapping into important prevention and intervention strategies."—Ráchael A. Powers, Associate Professor of Criminology, University of South Florida

"Alt-Right Gangs is a timely book that examines the myths and realities of a resurgent white power movement. Shannon E. Reid and Matthew Valasik have produced a primer on the alt-right that promises to spark lively debate among social scientists."—James Densley, Professor of Criminal Justice, Metropolitan State University

"A smart and meticulous exploration of how street gang scholarship can inform our understanding of the white power movement in general and youth-oriented alt-right gangs in particular. Not only does it provide readers with a nuanced and carefully crafted account of the similarities between alt-right gangs and conventional street gangs, it also provides practitioners and policy makers with realistic and useful strategies to combat such groups. This is an essential reference work for understanding alt-right gangs and will be the go-to book in this regard."—Ryan Scrivens, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University

"Contributes a nuanced understanding of the prevention and intervention methods used to address the growing threat that alt-right gangs pose in the United States. Reid and Valasik provide practitioners working to counter violent extremism with direction for creating modeling for new programs and strategic development."—Bradley Galloway, Research and Intervention Specialist, Organization for the Prevention of Violence