Morehead State University

Boogaloo Bois

Grade Level at Time of Presentation

Senior

Major

Criminology/Criminal Justice

2nd Grade Level at Time of Presentation

Senior

2nd Student Major

Philosophy

2nd Student Minor

Criminology/Criminal Justice

Institution

Morehead State University

KY House District #

82; 96

KY Senate District #

25; 18

Department

Criminology

Abstract

Boogaloo Bois

Authors:

Michael Boguki

Daniel Wohlfarth

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Perkins, Clay LaBreche MPA

Criminology Department, Morehead State University

"The Boogaloo Bois,” who are classified as a domestic extremist group, earned the attention of extremist researchers in 2019, when they began to notice the term “boogaloo” was being used to refer to a coming civil war or adjacent apocalyptic event. The group continued to grow in the following year. As the group grew in prominence, so did its media presence. This presence; however, was often conflicting. One media source would describe the Boogaloo Bois as aligning with white power groups, while another media source would describe the Boogaloo Bois as standing with Black Lives Matter. Given that the Boogaloo Bois have participated in political violence, mainly attacking police officers, it is necessary to resolve these media discrepancies into a convergent model of the group which can be used to forecast future violent actions.

We gathered information about the Boogaloo Bois from several sources: the news media, social media posts, and a confidential source who had access to several encrypted chats used by the group. Information was used to describe the group’s political ideology and outlook, racial beliefs, police support, and general group characteristics. These descriptions were used to define a bounded rationality common to all members. This bounded rationality was then used to augment rational choice theory to predict which events could spur the group to violent terrorist acts. Other criminogenic theories; such as general strain theory, were used to augment analysis.

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Boogaloo Bois

Boogaloo Bois

Authors:

Michael Boguki

Daniel Wohlfarth

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Perkins, Clay LaBreche MPA

Criminology Department, Morehead State University

"The Boogaloo Bois,” who are classified as a domestic extremist group, earned the attention of extremist researchers in 2019, when they began to notice the term “boogaloo” was being used to refer to a coming civil war or adjacent apocalyptic event. The group continued to grow in the following year. As the group grew in prominence, so did its media presence. This presence; however, was often conflicting. One media source would describe the Boogaloo Bois as aligning with white power groups, while another media source would describe the Boogaloo Bois as standing with Black Lives Matter. Given that the Boogaloo Bois have participated in political violence, mainly attacking police officers, it is necessary to resolve these media discrepancies into a convergent model of the group which can be used to forecast future violent actions.

We gathered information about the Boogaloo Bois from several sources: the news media, social media posts, and a confidential source who had access to several encrypted chats used by the group. Information was used to describe the group’s political ideology and outlook, racial beliefs, police support, and general group characteristics. These descriptions were used to define a bounded rationality common to all members. This bounded rationality was then used to augment rational choice theory to predict which events could spur the group to violent terrorist acts. Other criminogenic theories; such as general strain theory, were used to augment analysis.