The Semiotics of the Evolving Gang Masculinity and Glasgow
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Background
3. Gang Dynamics
4. Research Methodology
5. Results
6. Themes
6.1. Youth Street Gangs as Territorial
‘There wasn’t much to get up to when [growing up]. Nothing to do but get into trouble I suppose. Most of the daft gang fights I was involved in was more to do way breaking boredom than anything else.’—Grant
‘The scheme I grew up in didn’t have one gang [but two]. We used to all fight but then all started hanging out together till one of the guys from the Krew [YSG A] got jumped by the Young Team [YSG B]. After that we all started fighting again…. was good no having to worry about getting jumped in your own [scheme]…. while it lasted. But too many dodgy (dangerously unpredictable) cunts pure thinking their [hard men] and always starting [conflict].’
We see in this extract the gang organizing its form to accommodation various environments in reaction to perceived threat. The gang evolves within areas that are outside their core geographic place of domicile. YSGs ‘operate’ as occasion demands by annexing a scheme’s name, yet the members comprise individuals from elsewhere outside of the scheme and normally identify with the gang of that scheme where they live. Rehousing polices can influence this social flux whereby residents are relocated to other neighboring schemes, yet youths continue to congregate in their original scheme, or where the local scheme once stood physically. James explains:‘Our [YSG] would team up with the boys from Gangja (YSG from Seedhill) and fight the Cumbie (Gorbals based YSG) outside the dancing. Probably did that most weekends for while back…. Never had any problems way the [Ganja] boys. Only met them at the dancing. Didn’t know them from like hang about, they came from the other side of [Glasgow]. They were sound but. [They] could get a meaty squad (numbers) together, and always came to [the town center] with a lot of [gang members]. So, did we…. Helped a lot [be] cause the Gorbals could always pull a heavy team on the Saturday’s.’
As demonstrated by James, the scheme he grew up in had long been demolished and no physical territorial boundaries remained. The youths who congregated in that location where they lived continued to adopt the scheme name to signify to others the social space they felt mattered to them. Gang names do not invariably indicate either where lads live or where there is inhabitable housing. This practice suggests the associative meaning of the name itself has taken on a resonance of its own which rallies the affiliated lads.‘There was no Tuch (former name of a demolished scheme) anymore. Last of the flats on [street X] got pulled down a years back. Me and the boys that use to live there got moved all over Glasgow by the council…. [but] we still always met back up on the weekends at the shops (which remained) …. Still called ourselves Kimbo Kill Boys.’
6.2. Youth Street Gang Structure and Membership
As Dillan suggests, a YSG may be separated into two distinct bodies, of core and associate members. Studies by Davies (1998), Miller (2015), Patrick (1973), and Sillitoe (1956) as well as autobiographical accounts of criminal autobiographies (Boyle 1977; Ferris 2005; Ferris and McKay 2001, 2010; Jeffery 2003) describe Glasgow’s YSGs as typically consisting of both a criminal core and a wider grouping whereby smaller peer groups regularly attach themselves to the core body as an anchor of support and belonging. McLean (2017a) coins the former the ‘core body’ and the latter the ‘outer layer’. The key difference between core members and those of the outer layer predominantly lies in the way the groupings define their identity and crime. The core body itself is typically numerically modest, number around three to eight individuals at most, for them being criminally agentive is central to their sense of identity. As embryonic ‘career criminals’ they are more ‘ready’ to be receptive to membership of organized crime communities. Their criminality is imputed by them to forces over which their control is minimal (Boyle 1977). While reminiscing on his days as a core YSG member in Glasgow’s south side, Boab outlined how YSGs work:‘I didn’t want to, like, join a [YSG]… it just happens, know. You are just [as YSG member] because you [are raised] in [a] scheme. People from elsewhere say “that [Dillan] from [Scheme A]”. You don’t really have a choice … people just label you [as] where you’re [raised] … some boys, but, get right into it, aye. It is kind of who they are… [they] are like the [core of the] gang, basically aye. Most the troops mighty fight sometimes, but really just hang about wi’ them (the core) … [be]cause that, people, mostly the police and shit, think they are the gang as well.’—Dillan
We could muster a squad of about 40–45 bodies depending [on occasion] or who [we] were fighting. If it was local teams, then usually 20 or that but more people would come if say a [YSG] had been arranging to come through from the other end of the city for a fight…. most times I would just hang about way my [closest friends]. There was usually eight of us really (including Boab’s two siblings) …. it is unreasonable to play football way 40 boys, or get them all in your mum’s house to play the PlayStation at once (laughs).
‘I might have fought for my [YSG]. So, did a few of my [other] pals, but I also hung about with a few boys that didn’t [fight for the local YSG]. No all my mates are [YSG] members, know what I mean…. When you’re getting called a gang all the time [by law enforcement and the local community], you just end up acting like [a gang] anyways don’t you.’
6.3. Masculinity and Violence Capital
‘Fighting gave me a rep[utation] in my own scheme…. Like people my age would recognize me cause of gang fights they had heard I had been in.’
‘The police and all them, they don’t get it. Everyone is always pure saying “stop the violence” and “stop fighting, what you do that for”. They don’t get it but. It’s about being top boy, that’s all. Fuck all to do but scrap (fight)…. [Fighting] is the only fucking wi’ folk [around here] respect you…. If you can’t handle yourselves no one will respect you.’
‘Having a [penis] does not make you a man. Might make you look like one, but you earn manhood…. Guys are meant to be tough, know, you don’t act like a woman, irrational and shit. [In]stead you think things through, do what needs to be done. You protect your family…. when in school I would get into fights thinking it made me the big man. And it probably did in my mate’s eyes, but always somebody out there harder than you…. don’t learn that till it’s too late. Acting that way, being a man [through gang violence] seen me end up missing six months of my life [by being imprisoned]. I know now you can be a man…. without having to get into trouble, [but] you don’t think of that when you’re young.’
‘Suppose a just [perceive] fighting as what guys do …. if you’re a man, you’re going to get into fights ... I loved the excitement [YSG fighting] gave me, aye. You wi’ the boys (other YSG members) chasing [rival YSGs] …. Aye, you get some buzz mate…. Daft, but you feel like the big [man] after it.’—Jerry
‘[Of] course [young males in Glasgow] get into trouble. What boy doesn’t [when] growing up. Boys fight. That’s what they do. Do you get me…. Boys will be boys won’t they…. [even] if my [own son] wasn’t getting into trouble I’d probably be worried to tell you the truth.’—Shuggie
‘I’ve a few boys of my own. To be honest mate I wouldn’t want them going off the rails or nothing. [I] do expect them to act up a bit during their teen [age years] at least…. every boy has at least one fight for the scheme. Doesn’t make them bad though.’—John
7. Gang Fights and Criminality
‘One time…. [YSG A] from the other side of the Clyde tunnel came through and started going to town (fighting) with us (YSG-B). [YSG-A] had been saying over [pirate radio station] they where coming through and going do this and that, course we got heavy tooled up and waited for them, man. Even (X and Z17) were carrying blades (knives) man…. After a heavy brawl on Govan road, two of our boys ended up jumping a taxi to the other side of the tunnel, [so] when we ended up chasing them, we basically cornered them off in the tunnel and a couple of their boys got done (severely injured, possibly stabbed)…. No kidding mate, was bodies scattered everywhere after that. Their bodies mind you, not ours (laughs)’.
‘Most [of the] time we hung out was spent getting high. Use to meet up down the woods to take buckets (a method of consuming cannabis via the use of a plastic bottle) …. People would take turns in getting the [cannabis]. I use to get it [from my older brother], but they had to pay me back, know what I mean. I couldn’t be paying for it all the time. No pure rich or nothing man …. Or sometimes we would all chip in. I got it but so didn’t pay.’—(Fraz)
‘[Progressed] from there really, suppose. Was getting nine bars (a large weight of cannabis) quite a bit at the time from [my older brother]. He was giving me them. Well no giving me them. Had to pay, course, but was getting me them if I asked. On tick (credit) as well …... most my mates had left school and had jobs, so had money to get ounces, whatever, aye. I just sold them [cannabis] …. Wouldn’t say it was intentional, know, More, I could get it and they wanted it. I needed the money.’
8. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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1 | Knife culture has often been an assumed trait of gang activity in Glasgow, and thus consequently has been used as a way to measure gang proliferation. Yet, the perception that declines in knife violence automatically means a decline in gang formation is naive. |
2 | |
3 | McLean (2017a, 2017b) argues that Scotland’s academic community has explicitly focused on one form of gang typology in Scotland—Young Street Gangs—and in the process of doing so have effectively overlooked the possibility that other typologies may exist. McLean terms these other typologies as ‘Young Crime Gangs’ and ‘Serious Organized Crime Groups’. Note though, that although the latter is derived from Police Scotland’s organized crime terminology, the actual criteria required differs significantly according to McLean. |
4 | For example, territoriality is often assumed as inherently fixed, yet as we shall discuss in the findings this is not really the case, many youths congregate from various housing estates, and band together under one unified term (often in relation to the social space they occupy in for socialization, as opposed to residential, purposes). |
5 | Given Glasgow’s historical relationship with gangs, and prevalent gang culture, the city serves as an ideal reference point for studying gangs in the wider Scottish context. Likewise, given the geographical proximity (much of Scotland’s population is disproportionately located across the central belt), similarities in socioeconomic circumstances and history of heavy industry employment, it can be assumed that life in Glasgow is reflective of much of those other cities, towns, and burghs in Scotland. Yet, it is important to note, that differences between YSGs of Scotland’s West Coast and Central Belt may vary slightly with those located in the Highlands, for example, therefore it is for this reasons that the study is a comprehensive analysis of YSGs in Glasgow as opposed to being a comprehensive study of YSGs in Scotland. It would be unfair to assume life in Glasgow reflects life in all of Scotland, if not much of it. |
6 | Note that several additional interviewees took place after 2016, yet the data from the additional interviews were not included in McLean’s original unpublished thesis ‘Discovering Young Crime Gangs in Glasgow: Gang Organization as a Means for Gang Business’, due to time constraints to submit the thesis. |
7 | In Glasgow, Dundee, and Aberdeen as well as in Edinburgh housing estates are usually referred to as ‘schemes’. Schemes generally follow those boundary lines which the city council defines as separating one housing estate from another, yet such lines are not a given, and are by no means fixed, as will be detailed later. The welfare state that provides this housing for typically unemployed populations in the case of Glasgow is the largest in Europe in terms of level of benefit dependency. |
8 | Note, that references of the ‘other’ tend to emphasise aspects that visibly distinguish outsiders such as skin color, cultural dress style, etc., In Glasgow’s YSGs, the ‘other’ is the outsider from outside of the scheme. Often schemes are particularly small and as such the youths living within them know of, or recognize most, of those who are of a similar age group. Thus when youths from elsewhere enter the scheme, they can be identified immediately as not belonging to that area. |
9 | From top left clockwise: YLG is Young Linty Goucho; GYT is Govan Young Team; YCP is Young Crosse Posse: KK is Kimbo Kill; YDT is Young Drumoyne Team. Source of map is Google Street Maps. |
10 | Please note while scheme boundaries are generally YSG boundaries, this is not always the case, and neither do gangs from these areas necessarily always carry the same name. |
11 | How territoriality actually presents itself is largely hidden, or at times overlooked, in contemporary gang research in Scotland. While academics tend to demonstrate territoriality as existing as a theoretical concept with invisible boundaries, law enforcement may focus on particular areas of public space where youths from a local scheme congregate (See Fraser 2013; Violence Reduction Unit 2011). |
12 | Most YSGs core body tended to be closer to numbering between 3–5 individuals, and the outer layer between 20–30. |
13 | The Bundy no longer exists as it has since been demolished. It once stood where Silverbrun shopping center is situated. Although obtaining a notorious reputation, it was relatively small in size when compared to surrounding territories and consisted of a block of post-war three story tenements, a block of two story flats, and several four-in-a-block cottage homes. |
14 | Note, while the source given also identifies ‘Tuecharhill Young Team’, this is another name for the ‘Kimbo Kill’. |
15 | It was also found that gang photos placed on social media, typically consisted of core YSG members and nonmembers alike, who for the purpose of the photograph alone adopt gang-like behavior, status, and insignia. |
16 | Despite a considerable proportion of the sample having found themselves suffering from second- or even third-generational unemployment, manual types of work were nonetheless deemed crucial assets in being able to self-legitimize one’s manliness (Johnston and McIvor 2004). However, the desire to express masculinity through work-related activities has become somewhat hindered and constrained, due to globalized processes which have resulted in Glasgow’s deindustrialization. Thus, being young and lacking legitimate outlets for masculine expression, participants spoke of channelling masculinity through aggressive recreational outlets, of which YSG formation may be one. |
17 | X and Z are non-gang members who often associated with these particular YSG but rarely got involved in YSG fights. |
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McLean, R.; Holligan, C. The Semiotics of the Evolving Gang Masculinity and Glasgow. Soc. Sci. 2018, 7, 125. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7080125
McLean R, Holligan C. The Semiotics of the Evolving Gang Masculinity and Glasgow. Social Sciences. 2018; 7(8):125. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7080125
Chicago/Turabian StyleMcLean, Robert, and Chris Holligan. 2018. "The Semiotics of the Evolving Gang Masculinity and Glasgow" Social Sciences 7, no. 8: 125. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7080125