RESEARCH NETWORK ON BIKER CRIME (RNBC) - POLICING OUTLAW MOTORCYCLE GANGS MOTORCYCLE GANGS

Chair: Edward Kleemans

0009 - VIOLENCE AS A GROUP PHENOMENON AMONG DANISH OUTLAW BIKERS?

Christian Klement (Denmark)¹

1 - University of Copenhagen, and Danish Ministry of Justice

This study examines whether or not levels of violence in outlaw motorcycle clubs and gangs might be causally linked and why that may be. The Danish National Police has provided unique data on 640 individuals affiliated with outlaw motorcycle clubs or gangs in or nearby Greater Copenhagen, Denmark, while Statistics Denmark has provided high quality register data on their violent crimes and background characteristics. Cox proportional hazards regression models with multiple events is used to predict 108 violent events committed in a population of 196 individuals affiliated with Hells Angels MC using independent variables such as violence among individuals affiliated with four selected Copenhagen gangs, violence among individuals affiliated with Bandidos MC and a police activity proxy among others. The studied period covers mid 2008 to spring 2012 in which violent episodes between individuals affiliated with Hells Angels MC and four gangs took place in Copenhagen. Under certain noteworthy assumptions, the result shows that violence among individuals affiliated with Copenhagen gangs is associated with violence among individuals affiliated with Hells Angels MC. The interpretation could be that the violence is partially a group phenomenon and not solely an individual activity. The study elaborates theoretically on the facilitation hypothesis regarding groups and crime, expands the litterateur on a very inaccessible group and their crime, demonstrates outside the US that levels of violence in different groups are associated, and connects with similar lines of research in other disciplines.

0010 - AUSTRALIAN RESPONSES TO OUTLAW MOTORCYCLE GANGS: THE STORY, THE LESSONS AND THE POTENTIAL OF ‘PEOPLE POWER’

Julie Ayling (Australia)¹

1 - Australian National University, Regulatory Institutions Network, Canberra, Australia

Over the past six years, governments around Australia – national, state and territory - have passed a huge amount of legislation designed to disrupt the criminal activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs). Still, more legislation is being planned. There has also been an unprecedented amount of police attention on OMCGs, including the establishment of many dedicated taskforces. The focus of all these legislative and law enforcement efforts has been on limiting the abilities of OMCG members to communicate with each other, to appear en masse in public, and to continue with (criminal) business-as-usual. The approach has been highly punitive and socially divisive.

This paper briefly describes the various tranches of legislative responses that have been put in place – control orders, consorting laws, mandatory sentencing, and various types of regulatory provision – their pros and cons and their implementation. The paper then turns to whether there could be alternative or complementary approaches that would be less exclusionary. It draws on examples from other jurisdictions of approaches that employ ‘people power’, both to cripple the power of criminal groups and to reintegrate their members into society.

0011 - CRIMINAL TRAJECTORIES OF MEMBERS OF DUTCH OUTLAW BIKER CLUBS

Arjan Blokland (Netherlands)¹; Laurien Wubbels (Netherlands)³; Melvin Soudijn (Netherlands)² 1 - NSCR / Leiden University; 2 - National Police; 3 - Groningen University

Outlaw biker clubs have been repeatedly associated with serious and violent crime, including drug trafficking, extortion and murder. Yet, given the impervious nature of outlaw biker clubs, little is known about the criminal histories of individual outlaw bikers. To fill this gap, this study examines the criminal trajectories of members of outlaw biker clubs using police data on a sample of 601 Dutch outlaw bikers. The sample consists of individuals that were registered by the Dutch police as wearing club colours at least once during the years 2008-2013. Court records were then used to reconstruct the criminal histories of those in the sample. Findings indicate that over 80% of the sample is registered as a crime suspect at least once. One in four of those registered as a crime suspect gained over ten registrations prior to 2013. Nearly half of the sample has at least one registration pertaining to violent crime. Using semi parametric group based modelling we distinguish several criminal trajectories differing in the level of crime, onset age, peak age of criminal involvement, as well as the duration of the criminal career. The association between these criminal trajectories and the formal position in the club

31 1.4 MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN EUROPEAN PRISONS

Chair: Kirstin Drenkhahn

0013 - PRISON MENTAL HEALTH CARE – EUROPEAN BACKGROUND Kirstin Drenkhahn (Germany)¹

1 - Freie Universitaet Berlin

The importance of sufficient mental health care for prisoners is emphasised in the European Prison Rules and other European prison law. The European Court of Human Right has even found insufficient health care for mentally disordered prisoners to constitute inhuman or degrading treatment in the meaning of art. 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Still, mental health care services in many European prisons have problems meeting the needs of their patients. These needs are – compared with the general population – highly elevated as research on psychiatric problems in prisoners’ shows. Mental disorders such as substance abuse, psychotic, affective, anxiety and personality disorders or post-traumatic stress disorder make life for these prisoners and their surroundings very difficult. They affect for example their eligibility for participation in offending behaviour programmes and thus have an impact on prisoners’ progression through the prison system. They also increase the risk of suicide.

The presentation outlines the problems that research on mental health in prisons faces, gives a brief overview of the relevant European law and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, and presents findings on mental health in prisoners in Europe.

0014 - CORRECTIONAL CLIMATE AND THE MENTAL HEALTH OF YOUNG PRISONERS: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Leonel Gonçalves (Switzerland)¹

1 - Canton Zurich, Directorate of Justice and the Interior, Office of Corrections, Department of Mental Health Services, Research and Development Division

Prior studies evidenced that prisoners’ perceptions of the correctional climate are related with their behaviour in prison, but its influence on young prisoners’ mental health during incarceration is unknown. Given the high prevalence of mental health problems among this population, such knowledge is important. Therefore, the aims of this study were twofold: (1) to examine changes in young prisoners’ perception of the correctional climate and their mental health problems over time in prison; and (2) to examine the longitudinal relationship between prisoners’ perceptions of the correctional climate and their mental health. Data were obtained from a sample of 75 males (17 to 22 years) in a Portuguese prison detaining exclusively young offenders. Data were collected 1, 3, and 6 months after their admission in the penitentiary. Mental health problems were measured through the Brief Symptom

Inventory (Derogatis, 1993) and perceptions of the correctional through the Prison Environment Inventory (Wright, 1985). Prisoners’ level of education, penal status, and history of mental health treatment were included as control variables. Multilevel regression models were employed to analyse the data. The results indicate that young prisoners’ perceptions of the correctional climate improved over time while their mental health problems declined. Yet, no significant mean differences were observed. Young prisoners’ perceptions of the correctional climate were the strongest predictor of their mental health and accounted for 8%

of the total variance, after controlling for co-variates. The findings suggest a causal relationship between better perceptions of the correctional climate and lower levels of mental health problems during incarceration. Improving the prison environment may help to enhance young prisoners’ well-being and the management of prison institutions.

0015 - HEALTH PROBLEMS AND HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION IN DUTCH PRISONS Anja Dirkzwager (Netherlands)¹; Paul Nieuwbeerta (Netherlands)²

1 - Netherlands Institute for the study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR); 2 - Leiden University, Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology

Compared with the general population, prison populations experience serious (mental and physical) health problems. Prior to imprisonment, inmates are often unknown to general health care. In this regard, correctional institutions offer an important opportunity to improve prisoners’ health. In the Netherlands, prisoners have free access to health care – e.g. medical, psychological, and dental - that should meet the same quality as health care in the open society. At present, relatively little is known about health care use in prisons and how inmates evaluate this health care. In the present study, we will explore the course of prisoners’ mental health problems during their time in prison, their use of health care in prison, and how they think about their contacts with health care services. To examine this, data are used from the Prison Project, a nationwide and longitudinal study examining about 1.900 male prisoners in the Netherlands. Participants were questioned 3 weeks after their arrival in pre-trial custody.

Those who were still in prison were questioned again 3, 9, and 18 months after their arrival in prison. At each measurement wave, participants were questioned about their current mental health problems, their contacts with caretakers (e.g. psychologist, psychiatrist, doctor, chaplain), and how satisfied they were with these contacts. Preliminary results showed that about a third of the prisoners with very high levels of mental health problems upon their arrival in custody did not see a psychologist in the following months of their custody. In addition, about half of the prisoners with very high levels of mental health problems in the first weeks of their custody did not see a psychiatrist in the following months. Findings about how the inmates think about their contacts with caretakers will be presented as well, and the implications of the results will be discussed.

33 0016 - PSYCHOLOGICAL POWER VERSUS MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN BELGIAN PRISONS

Caroline Devynck (Belgium)¹ 1 - Vrije Universiteit Brussel

The PhD-research regarding ‘Mental suffering and euthanasia requests by prisoners’ has raised questions regarding mental health care in Belgian prisons. Belgium is one of the three countries in the world where euthanasia can be granted and performed by physicians, if all the conditions of the Euthanasia Act of 28 May 2002 are met. In this research, all euthanasia requests received from prisoners and incarcerated mentally ill offenders in Belgian prisons are taken into account. Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, a qualitative research method is being used. This method entails face-to-face semi-structured interviews and an analysis of prison records. The overrepresentation of incarcerated mentally ill offenders made us focus on the problem of internment. In Belgium, interned mentally ill offenders are considered as not criminally liable due to the presence of a severe mental illness that resulted in the lack of control over their actions. Therefore, they cannot be punished but are placed under the protection measure as stipulated in the Act regarding the Protection of Society of 1964.

Although the judge imposes the protection measure, the ground for this decision is based on forensic psychiatric reports regarding the offender. These reports are not only crucial for the judge’s decision-making but also further on in detention. This raises questions regarding the power of the psychological reports of forensic experts and members of the psychosocial services that have preliminary an advising function. Many mentally ill offenders although not sentenced, still end up in prison and this is where the problem of adequate mental health care becomes crucial.

0017 - WELLBEING AND STRATEGIES FOR COPING IN PRISON FOR YOUNG OFFENDERS IN ENGLAND

Anita Mehay (United Kingdom)¹; Rosie Meek (United Kingdom)¹; Jane Ogden (United Kingdom)²

1 - Royal Holloway University of London; 2 - University of Surrey

This paper will present a series of case studies into the strategies and tactics employed by young adult offenders to cope and stay healthy within a young offender institution in England.

Prisons are undoubtedly settings of power inequalities (Bosworth and Carrabine, 2001) where offenders sent to prison, enter a complex world of values, rules and rituals where the health and wellbeing of prisoners are shaped or influenced by their prison experience (De Viggiani, 2007). As described by Goffman, (1961), ‘Total institutions’ like prisons are characterised by closure, the reconstruction of everyday life according to a tight, uniform schedule, and bureaucratic, authoritarian organisation, and strong disciplinary control (Burns, 2002). The regime is engineered to disempower and instil obedience and compliance to achieve a high degree of security and control. In addition, prison physical and mental healthcare has historically been aligned with a biomedical perspective (Sim, 1990) with a focus on the disease

and illness rather than on health and wellbeing. Critical reviews of prison mental health services in England have been described as reactive and inefficient which remains focused on physical and psychiatric morbidity and mortality (De Viggiani, 2006a). However, a settings approach to health promotion as advocated by the World Health Organisation and endorsed by the UK Government (Leger, 1997; Whitehead, 2006) aims takes on an ecological viewpoint which shifts the focus from what makes individuals ill towards a ‘salutogenic’ perspective, focusing on factors that support human health and well-being (Antonovsky, 1996). Most prison health literature however, focuses on the notion of illness, rather than on the agency and resilience demonstrated by prisoners through their efforts to survive adversity and cope in the disempowering environment. Prisoners often develop innovative ways to cope with the environment and master and take control of their own health and wellbeing. De Certeau (1984) considers how people develop ‘strategies’ to assert some control over particular settings. This involves the use of certain ‘tactics’ or smaller everyday acts through which people adapt. Tactics are what people do despite not being able to fully control their environments. In other words, tactics involve ‘making do’ despite the constraints evident in a place. By drawing on the work of De Certeau (1984), we emphasise the agency of prisoners, a point which is largely missing from the literatures on health in prisoners. The insights gained will also inform the development of health and wellbeing promotion programmes which attempt move away from 'technocratic solutions' which are developed by individuals and staff with difference life experiences but utilises the resilience and learning’s from prisoners themselves.

1.5 EXPLORING CYBERCRIME USING CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORIES